Verdi - Great Operas from La Scala

Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Catalog No: DGG B001303802
New Release: No
Previous Release: No
Domestic/Import: Domestic
Format: CD

List Price: $64.48    Your Price: $55.48

Release Date: 2009-06-30
Number of Discs: 21
Running time: 19 hr. 59 min.
UPC Code: 028947781219

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Works Summary

Verdi, Giuseppe : Aida
Verdi, Giuseppe : Der Troubadour
Verdi, Giuseppe : La traviata
Verdi, Giuseppe : Un ballo in maschera
Verdi, Giuseppe : Macbeth
Verdi, Giuseppe : Simon Boccanegra
Verdi, Giuseppe : Messa da Requiem

Performers

Conductors

Ensemble

Composer

Remarks:

The Verdi box set of the year! Eight great operas - including popular favorites Rigoletto, Trovatore, Traviata and Aida - recorded between 1961 and 1981 by Deutsche Grammophon at La Scala, Milan, the spiritual home of Italian opera. Claudio Abbado, who conducts Macbeth, Simon Boccanegra and Aida, completes the set with the Requiem. This limited edition set is attractively priced and packaged in a classic capbox. Also includes a 70 page booklet with short synopses in English, German and French.
 



Reviews

Good value for the price
Deutsche Grammophon's catalogue contains Abbado/La Scala recordings of Don Carlos (in French) and Un ballo in maschera, but this set contains older DG versions of these two operas. The CDs, each in a cardboard sleeve, are packaged in a sturdy box. As one might expect at this low price, documentation is minimal. A booklet contains cast lists, CD track listings, and very concise plot summaries (no more than two or three paragraphs for each opera). No texts or translations, of course. There is no information about the composer, the music, the literary and/or historical sources for the librettos, or the performers. The performances have in common uniformly good execution by the La Scala orchestra and chorus, and the presence of some famous singers, most of whom live up to their reputations. The conducting styles differ markedly. Abbado's beautiful, scrupulous performances are on the cool, emotionally detached side, although sometimes an individual singer will take charge and generate some heat. If you are looking for excitement in a Verdi Requiem, then Abbado's subdued reading will not be for you. By contrast, Kubelik's intensely dramatic Rigoletto is in a class by itself. Serafin's Trovatore and Gavazzeni's Ballo are colorful and energetic. Votto's Traviata and Santini's Don Carlo are less individual, but never less than idiomatic. Standard cuts are made in Traviata and Trovatore (although soprano Stella sings one stanza of Leonora's Act 4 cabaletta, "Tu vedrai"). Don Carlo (sung in Italian here)is the five-act (so-called "Modena") version, but with numerous small cuts, and--oddly--the original quiet Paris ending of Act 5 somewhat awkwardly pasted onto the revised score. Macbeth is the complete Paris version, but with Macbeth's death scene "Mal per me" from the original Florence score inserted before the Act 4 finale. The earlier recordings are typical examples of DG's engineering of the time: very clean and detailed, with solo voices often closely miked. The Abbado recordings almost go to the opposite extreme, with the soloists more distant, and a greater emphasis on the orchestra. Veteran record collectors will be familiar with the work of most of these singers, and will embrace (or reject) these performances accordingly. It should be pointed out, however, that this Ballo has a very uneven cast--which probably explains why this particular recording has not been reissued on CD (at least in the USA) until now. Stella and Bastianini are impressive. Poggi, sounding a bit thin-voiced and stressed at times, is adequate. The Ulrica and the Oscar are both vocally undistinguished (to put it charitably). One final oddity: although Abbado's Macbeth and Aida have been reissued previously as two-CD sets, this release reverts to a three-CD format for each of these two operas. This eliminates an awkward disc break in Aida (here, Act 2 has a CD all to itself); but there is a disc break in Act 3 of Macbeth which easily could have been avoided by fitting all of Act 3 onto the second CD.

Submitted on 07/08/09 by Roland Graeme 
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Verdi, Giuseppe : Aida

  • Performers: Virgilio Carbonari (Baritone); Piero Palma (Voice); Giuseppe Morresi (Bass Baritone); Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (Baritone); Mirella Fiorentini (Mezzo Soprano); Catarina Alda (Voice); Lorenzo Testi (Bass); Ivo Vinco (Bass); Alfredo Giacomotti (Bass); Carlo Bergonzi (Tenor); Fiorenza Cossotto (Mezzo Soprano); Renata Scotto (Soprano)
  • Conductor: Rafael Kubelik
  • Ensemble:
  • Running Time: 89 min. 9 sec.
  • Period Time: Romantic
  • Form: Opera/Operetta
  • Written: 1851


Verdi, Giuseppe : Der Troubadour

  • Performers: Franco Ricciardi (Tenor); Ettore Bastianini (Baritone); Antoinetta Stella (Voice); Angelo Mercuriali (Tenor); Ivo Vinco (Bass); Armanda Bonato (Mezzo Soprano); Carlo Bergonzi (Tenor); Fiorenza Cossotto (Mezzo Soprano)
  • Conductor: Tullio Serafin
  • Ensemble:
  • Running Time: 114 min. 25 sec.
  • Period Time: Romantic
  • Form: Opera/Operetta
  • Written: 1853


Verdi, Giuseppe : La traviata

  • Performers: Virgilio Carbonari (Baritone); Gianni Raimondi (Tenor); Giuseppe Morresi (Bass Baritone); Franco Ricciardi (Tenor); Ettore Bastianini (Baritone); Angelo Mercuriali (Tenor); Giuliana Tavolaccini (Soprano); Armanda Bonato (Mezzo Soprano); Silvio Maionica (Bass); Renata Scotto (Soprano)
  • Conductor: Antonino Votto
  • Ensemble:
  • Notes: Composition written: 1853.
  • Running Time: 70 min. 22 sec.
  • Period Time: Romantic
  • Form: Opera/Operetta
  • Written: 1853


Verdi, Giuseppe : Un ballo in maschera

  • Performers: Antonio Cassinelli (Bass); Gianni Poggi (Tenor); Giuseppe Morresi (Bass Baritone); Ettore Bastianini (Baritone); Angelo Mercuriali (Tenor); Giuliana Tavolaccini (Soprano); Adriana Lazzarini (Mezzo Soprano); Silvio Maionica (Bass); Antonietta Stella (Soprano)
  • Conductor: Gianandrea Gavazzeni
  • Ensemble:
  • Running Time: 102 min. 5 sec.
  • Period Time: Romantic
  • Form: Opera/Operetta
  • Written: 1859


Verdi, Giuseppe : Aida

  • Performers: Virgilio Carbonari (Baritone); Carlo Forti (Bass); Franco Piva (Tenor); Flaviano Labò (Tenor); Piero Palma (Voice); Dino Mantovani (Baritone); Alessandro Maddalena (Bass); Giuseppe Morresi (Bass Baritone); Dario Caselli (Bass); Giuliana Matteini (Soprano); Aurora Cattelani (Soprano); Ettore Bastianini (Baritone); Ivo Vinco (Bass); Attilio Barbesi (Bass); Antonietta Stella (Soprano); Boris Christoff (Bass); Fiorenza Cossotto (Mezzo Soprano)
  • Conductor: Gabriele Santini
  • Ensemble:
  • Notes: Composition written: 1884.
  • Running Time: 132 min. 54 sec.
  • Period Time: Romantic
  • Written: 1884


Verdi, Giuseppe : Macbeth

  • Performers: Giovanni Foiani (Bass); Sergio Fontana (Baritone); Maria Gallamini (Treble); Piero Cappuccilli (Baritone); Stefania Malagu (Voice); Carlo Zardo (Bass); Massimo Bortolotti (Treble); Alfredo Mariotti (Bass); Antonio Savastano (Tenor); Alfredo Giacomotti (Bass); Placido Domingo (Tenor); Nicolai Ghiaurov (Bass); Shirley Verrett (Mezzo Soprano)
  • Conductor: Claudio Abbado
  • Ensemble:
  • Notes: Composition written: 1847.
  • Running Time: 141 min. 31 sec.
  • Period Time: Romantic
  • Form: Opera/Operetta
  • Written: 1847


Verdi, Giuseppe : Simon Boccanegra

  • Performers: Giovanni Foiani (Bass); Maria Gallamini (Treble); Piero Cappuccilli (Baritone); Antonio Savastano (Tenor); José Dam (Voice); José Carreras (Tenor); Mirella Freni (Soprano); Nicolai Ghiaurov (Bass)
  • Conductor: Claudio Abbado
  • Ensemble:
  • Running Time: 65 min. 23 sec.
  • Period Time: Romantic
  • Form: Opera/Operetta
  • Written: 1857


Verdi, Giuseppe : Aida

  • Performers: Leo Nucci (Baritone); Piero Palma (Voice); Ruggero Raimondi (Bass); Lucia Terrani (Voice); Katia Ricciarelli (Soprano); Yelena Obraztsova (Voice); Placido Domingo (Tenor); Nicolai Ghiaurov (Bass)
  • Conductor: Claudio Abbado
  • Ensemble:
  • Notes: Composition written: 1871.
  • Running Time: 96 min. 19 sec.
  • Period Time: Romantic
  • Form: Opera/Operetta
  • Written: 1871


Verdi, Giuseppe : Messa da Requiem

  • Performers: Katia Ricciarelli (Soprano); Placido Domingo (Tenor); Nicolai Ghiaurov (Bass); Shirley Verrett (Mezzo Soprano)
  • Conductor: Claudio Abbado
  • Ensemble:
  • Running Time: 86 min. 29 sec.
  • Period Time: Romantic
  • Written: 1874


 

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