Search - Verdi, Caballe, Bergonzi :: LA Traviata Complete

The vocally most enchanting La Traviata!

Armindo | Greece | 05/18/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Probably no other Traviata has the detailed Verdi singing of this recording. The attention to Verdi's dynamics and markings especially by Caballe and Bergonzi proves that opera singing does not need dramatic tricks to be affective. Of course, not everyone has the technique, musicianship and vocal quality to achieve such a result. You won't find a vocally more ideal Violetta-Alfredo match on any other set! I'm willing to buy anything Caballe recorded in the 60s and early 70s when the radiance and clarity of her voice was the best thing one could experience. Caballe has more than enough coloratura to cope with the first act. She doesn't hit the high E in Sempre Libera but it is a sacrifice I am willing to accept since other sopranos who do hit it, have nothing of Caballe's vocal luxury and clarity. In the next, more dramatic acts her ability to sing perfectly from pp to ff make her a very moving Violetta. The dramatic outbreaks in the sense of shouts, chest notes etc are few and sincere. Believe me, it's easier to shout and sob than to sing the way this woman sings. Similarly, Bergonzi's Alfredo is simply the most musical on records. The drama is injected in the singing just as Verdi intended it. In his first, equally magnificent Alfredo recording with the spectacular but otherwise mushy Sutherland he hits the high note in his cabaletta something he now avoids. The young Milnes, makes a convincing and imposing Germont and is vocally surprisingly firm. What most people dislike about this recording is its conductor. I'm not an expert in this field but I know when I dislike like a conductor and believe that Pretre did an OK job. Some tempi are at times either slower or faster than usual but it's a minor distraction to me.Even if you favour the more dramatic Traviatas starring Callas, Scotto, Cotrubas etc you should listen to this recording to hear exactly what Verdi wrote. If you listen carefully, you will be surprised to realise how much emotion clean-cut singing offers."

VOCALLY LUSH, CERTAINLY RECOMMENDED, BUT SHOULD ALL THE CUTS

L. Mitnick | Chicago, Illinois United States | 05/02/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a very, very fine performance of "La Traviata". Caballe's is probably the best vocalized Violetta since Tebaldi's, and she sings with great involvement and artistry. No question about it ------- it's a beautiful assumption. Carlo Bergonzi's Alfredo is also a model of its kind. His singing is refined, elegant, and always lyrical and fluent. Sherrill Milnes, in what I believe was his first complete operatic recording, is also quite special. Basically, the only problem I have with this performance is a personal one: I do not think "Traviata" is improved by having Violetta sing two verses of her cavatina before the "Sempre Libera", as well as both verses of the her final act aria. This is a practice that began, I believe with Joan Sutherland's first London recording in 1963, and is continued here. There have been several "Traviata" recordings since that have perpetuated this practice. I frankly feel that these additions drag the opera down. I DO like the addition of the cabaletta for Alfredo in the beginning of Act II, however. This is just my own personal opinion. "Traviata" is a very dramatic opera, and the drama is considerably intensified when it is pulled together in the fashion of, say, Arturo Toscanini. With all this said and done, however, this Caballe' Traviata recording is something very, very beautiful to listen to, and no one who loves great singing will find it easy to dismiss this set. I'm glad that RCA reissued it."