Search - Pietro Mascagni, Ruggiero Leoncavallo, Gabriele Santini :: Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana; Leoncavallo: Pagliacci

This famous double bill is brought to juicy life by Franco Corelli, who was born to sing verismo. Corelli was in his crackling prime when these recordings were made in the early 1960s; that alone makes these recordings musts for any opera collection. Some allowance must be made for the schizophrenic nature of this set: the operas were produced by two separate teams. The recording quality of Cavalleria Rusticana is on the spotty side, perhaps in an effort to balance the power of Corelli and the more soave approach of De Los Angeles. Santini's conducting in Cavalleria may be a shade more idiomatic than Matacic's in Pagliacci. The real reason to have this set is the soaring, searing performances of Corelli, preserved here for the ages.