La Traviata (complete opera recorded live in 1949)

La Traviata (complete opera recorded live in 1949) cover $36.00 Out of Stock
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VERDI
La Traviata (complete opera recorded live in 1949)
Eleanor Steber / Giuseppe d Stefano / Robert Merrill / Chorus and Orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera / Giuseppe Antonicelli

[ Naxos Historical Great Opera Performances / 2 CD ]

Release Date: Monday 1 January 2007

This item is currently out of stock. It may take 6 or more weeks to obtain from when you place your order as this is a specialist product.

"For the most part, a vocal feast awaits you, broadcast live from the Met on January 22, 1949... The principals in this marvelous La Traviata are captured in their exultant primes."

"For the most part, a vocal feast awaits you, broadcast live from the Met on January 22, 1949... The principals in this marvelous La Traviata are captured in their exultant primes. As Violetta, Eleanor Steber can do anything. Verdi's florid writing fazes her not one bit: she brings fluid defiance to Sempre Libera's quick, downward phrases, and instills Verdi's long lyrical lines with ravishing, floating colors. Robert Merrill is a freer, more supple Germont than his driven portrayal in the famed Toscanini broadcast two years earlier, with just as huge a sonority. Heard in his first Met Alfredo, Giuseppi di Stefano fares best in the first act, and becomes increasingly erratic as he pushes his tone for effect, and causes a few small but noticeable derailments in Act 3 when he loses his place in the score. Still, you can't deny that his voice is a force of nature. On the podium, Giuseppe Antonicelli takes the mishaps in stride, and elicits alert orchestral results that never smack of routine. A grab bag of Steber excerpts from opera, operetta, and Broadway, culled from live and commercial sources, fills out Disc 2."

Tracks:

La Traviata