Behind the pyramids and the elephants, the long lines of prisoners of war and of slaves carrying booty, the choral shouts of "Glory to Egypt," and the splendid brass sounding the Triumphal March, Aida is the story of a love triangle: Aida, an Ethiopian princess who has become a slave in Egypt; Amneris, an Egyptian princess; and Radamès, the Egyptian general they both love (Aida secretly). There are ironies and conflicts: How can she love a man who is the enemy of her country, but who says he has fought and conquered for the sake of her love? It is suitable only for the biggest opera houses and therefore demands voices capable of great power as well as emotional expressiveness. Montserrat Caballé, Plácido Domingo, and Fiorenza Cossotto provide such voices, and Ricardo Muti conducts with a sense of drama and dynastic glory. --Joe McLellan
Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating: Summary: A special recording Comment: There are so many good recordings of "Aida" available and I own - and play - eight of them, but I keep coming back to this one as my favourite. This might partly be for purely personal reasons: it was one of the first sets I bought when as a nineteen year old I was just discovering opera and I still recall the sense of transported wonder I first experienced listening to that magical, moonlit Nile music; then just after that I was able to hear most of the artists on this recording live at Covent Garden and that cemented my preference for this version. Even though Caballe did not much look the part of a lissom Ethiopian princess, her voice did all the work as she spun those delicate pianissimi to every corner of the auditorium. And those almost unearthly high notes, sung "con un fil di voce" are still the chief glory of this set, despite all its other merits. Domingo is here more animated and richer voiced than in almost any other of his recordings and the supporting cast is very fine, even if Cappuccilli, for all his long-breathed eloquence, cannot match Gobbi for nuance. Cappuccilli could at times be a lazy singer who simply went through the motions, but Muti's taut, detailed direction clearly inspired him here. Cossotto produces precisely the kind of searing tour de force I recall so vividly from the live performance; she is anguished and terrifying in her rage and grief. Ghiaurov is sonorous, grave and implacable as the High Priest; Roni sturdy and regal as the King.
It is true that Caballe is not really entirely vocally suited to the eponymous leading role - it is a little big for her and she is occasionally clearly stretched at the grandest moments - but her artistry and commitment are such that she makes you believe she is right for it. The orchestra play with both power and delicacy for Muti who skilfully balances the intimate sections of the score against the massive exaltation of the crowd scenes. I like other sets very much, too, such as Price's later one with Leinsdorf and the earlier Tebaldi (see my review), but this is the best in a crowded field - and it's in superior sound, too. Customer Rating: Summary: Near the top of the pack Comment: This is one of my favorite recordings of Aida. Vocally, it is terrific, with Caballe and Cossotto particularly magnificent. Cossotto again proves herself to be perhaps THE Verdi mezzo (although Shirley Verrett is strong competition for that "title), and she and Caballe blend together magnificently (as they did in their recording of Verdi's Requiem). Caballe gives one of her best performances on disc; her pianissimi are as exquisite here as in any of her best recordings, and dramatically she is stronger than one might have expected. Domingo is an expectedly solid Radames. My only complaint is with Muti's conducting, which I feel is too self-conscious and self-indulgent in his extremes of tempi. He certainly gives Caballe the space to float her beautiful top notes, expecially in "O patria mia," but his hard charging attack in other places leave an overall impression of something less-than-organic.
While I will return often to this recording, it still does not come close to what I consider the definitive recording by Solti with Leontyne Price and Rita Gorr as the best Aida and Amneris, respectively, and Vickers in one of his strongest performances. Customer Rating: Summary: Probably the best quality recording and performance Comment: I'm very happy with this recording. Placido Domingo is on this recording as Radames - but it is a much younger Domingo than on the Deutche Grammophon recording. His singing is a little bit more Richard Tucker-esque in his younger Radames; but still acceptable. Montserrat Caballe's Aida is good. I think Caballe's Aida is the best so far. Better that Callas or Price. Fiorenza Cossotto's Amneris is very good. The best so far. Even though Amneris is the antagonist in the story she has some of the best music in the opera.
I have a stack of Aida recordings and I listen fairly exclusively to this one. Customer Rating: Summary: Marvelous Aida! Comment: I love Aida. I own so many recordings that I've lost count as to how many I have in my library. In many ways, I think this is one of Verdi's most beautiful and sophisticated scores. Several conductors have handled (and butchered) the score, yet this recording shows how Verdi should really be sung and conducted. Riccardo Muti is perhaps the best Verdi conductor, even better than Toscanini (but not Serafin). His Verdi collection from EMI shows his talent from making the myriad of colors from Verdi's score emerge in such a way that would captivate the listener. His chosen tempi and dynamics are also very theatrical. The magic he performs with the orchestra brings out the several transparencies in Aida, and for this reason I would choose his conducting over that of Karajan's or Solti's. Granted, Montserrat Caballe is not a very visually appealing Aida, but her voice is magnificent--seamless from top to bottom, producing creamy tone wherever necessary. She isn't a true Aida. For that, you must go to Renata Tebaldi. However, Caballe manipulates her voice so that you would think that she was made for Aida. Placido Domingo sings with golden tone and committment throughout this performance. I think that this is a reference performance for Radames after Bergonzi's magnificent performance with Karajan. I'm sorry, but I never enjoyed Corelli's performance under Mehta. I thought he was past his prime there, and his lack of legato makes the private introspective moments sound overtly loud. His high notes are thrilling though. Piero Cappuccilli, one of the greatest Verdi baritones of the last century, sang an authoritative and brooding Amonasro. As wonderful as Gobbi's performance with Callas is, I think Cappuccilli's voice suited Amonasro better. Ghiaurov is a very looming Ramfis.
However, the main reason for me to purchase this set is for the high-octane performance of Amneris given by Fiorenza Cossotto. This brilliant mezzo soprano, whose career is suprisingly still ongoing, has a voice that was tailored to the temperaments of the Verdi mezzo roles. I think that while Giulietta Simionato may have had a warmer timbre, Cossotto inhabited the psychologies of her characters better. I have never heard a more demented Azucena from any other singer, and my recordings of her Eboli show a singer whose grace and elan are unequalled, even by the great Simionato. Her Adalgisa shows a secure instrument that is fluent in coloratura and brilliant in the top registers. Her Santuzza literally puts several sopranos into shame. Her Leonore from Donizetti's La Favorita is a reference performance, equipped with all the coloratura and very large, brilliant high notes. Her Dalila is simply seductive and powerful. Her Principessa di Boullion is menacing, and her Carmen is rightfully seductive. Her recorded Preziosilla on Levine's Forza is perhaps the most accurate and fun interpretation of the gypsy part I've ever heard. Her Lady Macbeth is fierce, and her Rosina is no pushover. Her Amneris, a role which she essayed frequently in many of the world's great theaters, is perhaps the definitive interpretation of the role. Neither Simionato or Barbieri could touch Fiorenza in the thrilling chest notes and the regal interpretation she gave the role. For her, and of course for the cast and Muti, should you buy this set. While some may find Tebaldi's Aida definitive, no one, in my opinion, can skirt around Cossotto's magnificent Amneris. Buy this Aida. It is an essential for any collection. Customer Rating: Summary: Is there any Aida without pluses and minuses? Comment: It's peculiar that no single performance of Aida on records has ever attained consensus as 'the one', the closest candidate being the RCA-Decca performance with Leontyne Price and Jon Vickers. After decades of listening to most of the major contenders, here's how I would size them up.
Best conducting: Karajan on both his readings, the first for Decca in the early Sixties, the second for EMI in 1980. He has the glorious Vienna Phil. on both--for richness, depth, drama, and splendor nothing equals them. Karrajan himself provides a continuous outpouring of insights into Verdi's deceptively simple score.
Best Aida: For many, Leontyne Price will always be defined by this role, her signature for two decades and perfectly suited to her voice, with its dusky low range and incredible floated high notes. She sounds much fresher in her first RCA recording with Solti than in the remake with Leinsdorf. For other listeners there is no replacement for Callas and her intense involvement with the role, while Tebadi stands out for sheer lusciousness of voice.
Best Rhadames: Bjorling really didn't have the heft to sing this role onstage, but pairing Milanov in a classic RCA mono recording (now very much showing its age) he sounds, as always, ravishing in style and tone. Vickers attacks the role with incredible intensity but is singularly un-Italian despite his glorious, heroic volume of sound. Among stylish tenors with smaller voices, Bergonzi under Karajan, paired with Tebaldi, wins high critical praise. Domingo, for all his virtues, always seems to come in second best -- he can be a bit generic, perhaps catching fire more under Abbado than elsewhere.
Let's say we stop there; it's easy to see why the Price-Vickers-Solti set has such a strong following, and also the Tebaldi-Bergonzi-Karajan set. But complaints have always arisen about both, that Vickers has no Italian style and Solti conducts with brazen vulgarity. In the other set, the grouse is that Tebaldi wasn't in best voice and sounds too imperious, while Bergonzi, for all his polish, isn't a viscerally exciting Rhadames.
This carping opened the way for the 70's EMI set with Caballe and Domingo in their vocal prime. Muti conducts skilfully, moving the drama along quickly and with a refreshing lack of overdone sentimentality. Caballe isn't a spinto-dramatic soprano as called for, but she sings for the microphone with wonderful nuance and pathos (I find her less droopy than she often was). Domingo exhibits perfect tone and style, but his reading is a bit callow compared ot what he would achieve later in his career. In other words, there's no true greatness in any part, but the whole hangs together nicely. It must be noted, though, that the bland Capuccilli as Amonasro ruins the drama of the Nile scene.
My review, such as it is, stops here, since other reviewers listed below have detailed the specifics of this recording. But I'd like to offer some notes about all the Aidas I've encountered over the years.
--Aida was Birgit Nilsson's best Italian role, and in her EMI recording she softens her steely tone and makes quite a nice success for herself. She is partnered with Corelli, whose vulgar bawling makes him unlistenable to my ears, but if you admire him, this performance led by a young Zubin Mehta ranks with the Caballe-Domingo one.
--Callas must be listened to on her own, or with Gobbi when he enters as her father in Act 3. Their Nile scene is incomparable, not to be missed. Too bad it's ruined by the entrance of the horribly stentorian, unstylish Richard Tucker, a huge blemish on this recording.
--Abbado should have come through with Aida from La Scala when he was musical director there, but his reading for DG is cautious and bland (the same goes for a live performance on Opera d'Oro with Arroyo and Domingo--they aren't great, either, though very good).
--Aidas who can't really manage the part include Katia Ricciarelli for Abbado and Freni for Karajan in his EMI remake (she's wildly overparted but moving and artistic nonetheless). Aprile Millo for Levine from the Met (Sony) can sing the notes but has nothing interesting to tell us. Heresy to say, but I feel the same way about the revered Zinka Milanov with Bjorling on RCA.
--A Rhadames who can't really sing the part is Carreras under Karajan, but he gives his all trying. Pavarotti sang the role both on stage and on disc (with an unknown and forgettable Aida), but his lyric tenor isn't right. Having said that, I was surprised at how enjoyable his Decca performance is. Domingo has sung the role for Muti, Leinsdorf, Abbado, and Levine. All are very good; probably the best is with Leinsdorf, a shame since the conducting is prosaic and the bloom was off Price's voice by then.
--Uninspired condcuting honors go to Leinsdorf, but I get little out of Levine's hectic, impesonal work on Sony, and the sainted Tulio Serafin on the Callas set is authentic but rather workaday. When it comes down to it, Solti for all his vulgarisms threw himself into his preformance, while Karajan is the greatest maestro to take on the opera, pace the fans of Toscanini, whose fiery reading isn't to my taste, even if it didn't have a second-rate cast and boxy, wooden sonics.
