Donizetti: Lucia Di Lammermoor [New York -- January 15, 1977: Beverly Sills, Nicolai Gedda, Ryan Edwards, Ezio Flagello, John Carpenter, Charles Anthony; Richard Woitach]

This performance recording of a 1953 Berlin production is well worth the attention of anyone who is fond of Donizetti's Lucia da Lammermoor. Or in this case, von Lammermoor, since the opera is sung in German. Hearing it in German allows the listener to make a new approach to the work. Ferenc Fricsay draws the best from the orchestra and is senstive to the singers' needs. Maria Stader sings a lovely Lucia. All in all, the cast is well chosen and performs excellently: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Ernst Haefliger, Sieglinde Wagner, Karl Hoppe). And surprisingly the mono sound is very, very good.The album also includes extended excerpts of Fischer-Dieskau's first opera recording, Verdi's Don Carlos under the direction of Ferenc Fricsay and taken from a performance in Berlin in 1948. F-D sings the role of the Marquis Posa. The sound is good enough for 1948. Better said, the digital remastering of both operas in 2003 was very well done.

"Anything with Dame Joan Sutherland singing will get at 5***** Review!

What a treat

Why are we talking about Cheryl Struder?? This recording is of Cristina Deutekom singing the role of Lucia? Deutekom was an outstanding Bel Canto soprano. I love the quality of her voice. Great high notes. She was a truly humble artist whose death was yet another great artist leaving this world.

I've given the recording 4 stars, which is a bit too many, because 3 stars seemed too niggardly. Call it 3.8 and I'll be happier. -- I love "Lucia" and looked forward to this recording. My first listening found me a bit disappointed in it. For me there are several faults. First, there is little sense of atmosphere - atmosphere of any kind, but especially none of the brooding sense of tragedy that the work asks for. The lack is found both with the orchestra and with the singers, though I suppose the engineers have some hand in that, at least on recordings. Everything is a bit up front and four-square: no Scottish mist here. [A noticeable lack if you've ever lived in Scotland.] Second, Placido Domingo. I love the man's voice, but there is not a great deal of nuance in his portrayal - certainly no hint of a character revealed from the inside. He too is a bit four-square, stand and deliver. But it's wonderful four-square and strongly, grandly delivered. The conductor strangely pulls back at several pivotal moments and loses dramatic heat. Very odd. Finally, Studer. As with all else in the production, there is no great sense of inner depth; yet I enjoy almost all her singing here. A few places in "Quando rapito" aside when she croons a bit [though admittedly the character is going a bit mooney over her sweetie at the moment], she sings very well. It's an external performance, like everyone else very up-front, but well sung and not untrue to the character, just lacking in the crushed and hounded note one usually expects.The Mad Scene. Some reviewers take Studer to task for not doing it properly and for hacking it about. Unfair. The Mad Scene as usually heard isn't Donizetti's at all, so don't be unkind to someone who gives us something a bit closer to the composer's creation. The dazzle we usually hear comes from a noted 19th century soprano who interpolated some show-stopping moments to highlight her personal skills - and we've been stuck with it ever since. A pity because - despite the fact that it's wonderfully acrobatic and a wonder that anyone can actually negotiate it at all, not to mention embuing it with any dramatic relevancy whatsoever - the whole thing shoots Donizetti's drama in both feet. So - thank you, Ms Studer, for giving us an alternative that has some wonderful plangency. [As an aside, Callas wanted to record a "Lucia" without the usual Mad Scene interpolation, but she decided against it because she didn't think people would understand and would further accuse her of not being up to the technical demands of the traditional dazzle. A pity - she would have done something memorable.]So, why do I like the production more than I did on first hearing? Honestly, it's difficult to say. Though the more dramatically cogent Mad Scene is certainly one reason: I love the minor, plangent, wistfulness of it. And, despite the fact that I miss a sense of morose mist, I do actually enjoy the singing. They all sing their hearts out and do a grand job of it. They may not serve the work or bring out its tragic depths, but neither do they actually betray it. It isn't a first choice; I listen to it only occasionally; but I'm glad to have it. It has a "pull" that is real, even with any reservations noted above.

Version qui vaut très cher , même en Europe mais toute la beauté de cet enregistrement vient surtout de l'immense prestation de Peter Dvorsky inégalé dans ce rôle - Sinon pour le rôle de Lucia je ne connais personne d'autre qui fasse mieux que Joan Sutherland - Christian (France )

I'm sure this will infuriate the Italian opera oriented readers, but this recording possesses qualities that raise this recording above all but one or two Italian sung versions.1. Excellent singers that work as a unified group not just individual stars. (The performance of the famous sextet is a revelation.)2. Singers free of the whooping and scooping, huffing and puffing common to most Italian oriented singers. They actually follow dynamic markings, phrase indications, and though in German, project the meaning of the words. This is probably due to them spending the greater part of their respective careers with music of greater quality and overall substance.3. A first class conductor who, for once, approaches the work with a high degree of musical respect.

I have to confirm the strongly positive impressions of the other reviewers. This is an absolutely superb wrong language performance. I do however have to note the very odd approach to the "Fountain" music in Act I, Scene II by the unidentified harp soloist. After beginning the music as notated, he or she starts improvising. This goes on for a couple of minutes before the soloist returns to the score as written for the last several seconds. Donizetti's music for this scene is wonderfully evocative. Why the soloist (clearly with the approval and support of conductor Ferenc Fricsay) feels compelled to do this, is beyond my understanding. This is the only flaw in an otherwise first rate go at this much beloved work.

Site à recommander

Lucía de Lammermoor es un drama trágico en tres actos con música de Gaetano Donizetti y libreto en italiano de Salvatore Cammarano, basado en la novela The Bride of Lammermoor, de Sir Walter Scott.Donizetti escribió Lucía de Lammermoor en 1835, una época en la que varios factores lo habían llevado a la cumbre de su reputación como compositor de ópera. Gioachino Rossini se acababa de retirar y Vincenzo Bellini había muerto poco después del estreno de Lucía, dejando a Donizetti como "el único genio reinante de la ópera italiana".Estrenada por Fanny Persiani, la escena capital de la ópera es la "escena de la locura", "Il dolce suono...Spargi d'amaro pianto" del Acto III. Resume todas las escenas de la locura típicas de las óperas belcantistas y contiene las notas para soprano más altas del repertorio: dos mi bemoles sobreagudos.Aunque parte de la frescura juvenil de la voz que marcó la grabación de 1961 había desaparecido en el set de 1971, la comprensión detallada de Sutherland se intensificó. El poder está ahí además de la delicadeza, y el resto del elenco es de primer nivel.

The crisp clarity of the recording reminds us how accomplished these singers truly were. Studio recorings don't have the excitement or bite of a live performance but here we get to experience the nuances brought to the roles by each singer with such an open and easy to hear sound that this version of the recording is well worth having.The Sutherland - Pavarotti recording released on Blu-ray Disk

Zeugnis eines vokalen Stimmwunders Gruberova in einer rundum stimmigen Aufführung insbesondere mit schmelzigem tenoralem, Glanz von Peter Dvorsky.Sehr gute Tonqualität der Live - Stereoaufnahme aus der zu recht enthuasmierten Wiener Staatsoper.

It is as if the parts of lucia and Edgardo were written for these two unique voices. Although this version, like most these days, leaves out the duel scene which contains some extraordinarily great bel canto music, the recording ranks among the best ever of this great old "warhorse" of the operatic repertoire.