Placido Domingo: Scenes from Wagner's Ring

Performer:	Placido Domingo	Click Image To See Full Size Pic
CD Title:	Scenes from Wagner's Ring
Composer:	Richard Wagner
CD INFO:	EMI 7243 5 57242 2
Reviewer:	Ward Botsford
Notes: Also starring: David Cangelosi – Mime Natallie Dessay – Wood Bird Violeta Urmana – Brünnhilde Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Gardens conducted by Antonio Pappano

Listen to A Soundtrack From This CD Excerpt used: Forging Song

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At sixty-one too!

How does he do it?

If you compare the voices of Domingo and Gigli you will understand. The longevity of both voices is very much akin, they both practiced voice conservation and there the comparison ends.

Gigli stuck to being the worlds greatest lyric tenor and when he infrequently went astray - as he did with Aida he came a' cropper.

Domingo practices omnipotence and to the amazement of all usually succeeds. Starting off singing Tosca and La Bohème he moved deliberately - as his voice changed - to Aida and finally Otello. Meanwhile he was tinkering with Wagner - again as his voice took him - and Meistersinger and at the Met gave an outstanding Siegmund in Die Walküre not to mention possibly the greatest Parsifal ever. Meanwhile he conducted with some degree of skill and directed opera productions on the East and West coast at the same time.

If he is slowing up, he conceals it well.

So what have we here?

First from Siegfried the Forging Song complete - all fifteen glorious minutes of it complete with Mime and then the twenty odd minutes with the Wood Bird. From Götterdammerüng there is the farewell to Brünnhilde from the Prologue and finally his ruminations, as he lies dying. Say then thirty-five minutes from Siegfried and about fifteen from Götterdammerüng.

He is wise not to push his voice further than this. The whole of Siegfried is close to five hours and Götterdammerüng verges on six. What he does do is pretty good going for a Rodolfo - and let it rest there.

His Nothung! Nothung! Neidliches Schwert! is about the best you're going to hear today. A friend of mine - very large on Domingo - listened and began to spout superlatives. I said, "Yes … but …" and played him the Melchior and he said that was an unfair comparison. And really, it is you know. Domingo brings not only a pealing voice but also an understanding of the part. He does his best to portray Siegfried the youth and succeeds … almost. Cangelosi is a youthful sounding Mime who could use a taste of the nastys to override his pleasant voice. A credit is given for the anvil player but he is far too subdued. Hit it man! It's an Anvil, not a tambourine for God's sake!

The Forest Bird scene lies well for Domingo's voice and so this pulls off very well with the help of Natalie Dessay.

But really the outstanding part of this record is the two sections of Die Götterdammerüng with an amazing Brünnhilde by Violeta Urmana. In the Tristan und Isolde duet with Voigt she did first class service as Brangäne - a low soprano. But here she soars, she matches Siegfried phrase for phrase. So this asks the question: Do we have a new Ring singer to watch?

But getting back to the subject: Domingo does his best singing of the set here in music that is tough to sing.

As to the conducting: forget it. Surely EMI has better. There is no zip, no snap, no brute force … no nothing.

Would someone please tell EMI that only the gauche call it the Funeral March. It is the Funeral Music, period.

As mentioned in the Wagner/Domingo/Voigt review the recording itself lacks balls.