|
What's on the CD:
Review of: Cecilia & Bryn ~ Cecilia Bartoli duets Bryn Terfel A rather short record, just a tad over 54 minutes. Not to worry. Just grousing and this is about the only bad thing that can be said about this utter delight. As can be seen essentially the first scene of Act I of Le Nozze is presented intact. Very intact! Bartoli of course could charm the pants off of a brass monkey with personality alone and when you add in a stellar voice … my gosh! Not that Terfel is any slouch by any means. His Se vuol ballare has sting to it along with voice. As to that: He has the problem of that top B flat that others do but he covers it well. To the best of my memory the only singers who handled that note with aplomb was Willi Domfraf - Fassbaender. Bartoli breaks away - as it were - to sing Un moto di gioia an aria inserted by Mozart after the first performances for a new Susana. And Bartoli does it much more than simple justice. Then Terfel takes on the Conte's persona in an all too short duet. Bartoli especially shine here with her mix up of saying yes when she means no. A winner indeed. The Cosi duet comes off splendidly and here Terfel is the star with a marvelous presentation of Guglielmo's part in the farrago. The Don Giovanni duet is a good deal better than Terfel's complete recording because here he has a considerate conductor. Naturally Bartoli is an ideal Zerlina but I expect you knew that. And the short duet from Zauberflöte is so charming you want to frame it. Moving on to Rossini land there is that great piece of Rossinian wit, Dunque io son and here again Bartoli walks off with all the gems. To hear her saunter up and down the scales with crystal clear attack and enunciation will bring tears to a strong man's eyes. Terfel is good, no he's very good but it is not given to him to handle those same scale passages with the almost insulting virtuosity of his vis-à-vis. Same is true with the big L'italiana duet. Only one Donizetti? I am cheated! But it is ever so good equally from both our Adina and Dulcamara. Orchestra work is quite suave, has good sparkle and suits the occasion well. Dandy sound. Notes but no text. Tch! In this day of dying record companies and curtailment of recordings it is probably useless to ask for a complete set of Figaros from these two? I thought not! Excerpt used: Zauberflöte
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
©
Copyright 2002 Classical Music Guide, All rights reserved
Site maintained by Elysium Webs |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cecilia
& Bryn ~ Cecilia Bartoli duets Bryn Terfel
