Verdi - Aida / Freni · Carreras · Baltsa · Cappuccilli · Raimondi · van Dam · Ricciarelli · Moser · Wiener Phil. · Karajan

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential recording
For many fans, this opera is mostly about grandeur--it is, of course, the grandest grand opera still in the standard repertoire--and you will want to hear what Herbert von Karajan and the glorious Vienna Philharmonic do with the triumphal music. Curiously, the recording that has the strongest claims to grandeur also achieves significant results in the intimate moments. Mirella Freni and José Carreras have pleasant voices and a wide-ranging array of skills based on long and varied experience, but theirs are not big voices, as Montserrat Caballé and Plácido Domingo's are. One expects Freni and Carreras to perform with a certain polish in their love music, but one wonders how well they could handle the big moments outside of a recording studio. Not that it matters in terms of this fine recording. Their partnership, with von Karajan's very able assistance, works like magic. What you hear is what you get. When the opera and chorus take the spotlight, this Aida is an epic about international conflicts that dwarf and doom two lovers from different worlds. But Freni and Carreras react to the story of personal tragedy with a heartbreaking musical and theatrical sensitivity. --Joe McLellan

Verdi - Aida / Freni · Carreras · Baltsa · Cappuccilli · Raimondi · van Dam · Ricciarelli · Moser · Wiener Phil. · Karajan, Music, Giuseppe Verdi, Herbert von Karajan, Mirella Freni, José Carreras, Wiener Philharmoniker, Chor der Wiener Staatoper, Agnes Baltsa, Piero Cappuccilli, Ruggero Raimondi, José van Dam, Katia Ricciarelli, Thomas Moser, Classical, Classical Music, Italian Romantic Opera, Opera, Opera / Operetta / Oratorio, Opera/Operetta

Verdi - Aida / Freni · Carreras · Baltsa · Cappuccilli · Raimondi · van Dam · Ricciarelli · Moser · Wiener Phil. · Karajan
Average customer rating:

Wonderful recording

A Question of Setting

A very fine recording

a stirring rendition

Average "Aïda"

Verdi - Aida / Freni · Carreras · Baltsa · Cappuccilli · Raimondi · van Dam · Ricciarelli · Moser · Wiener Phil. · Karajan
Giuseppe Verdi , Herbert von Karajan , Mirella Freni , José Carreras , Wiener Philharmoniker , Chor der Wiener Staatoper , Agnes Baltsa , Piero Cappuccilli , Ruggero Raimondi , José van Dam , Katia Ricciarelli , and Thomas Moser
Manufacturer: EMI Classics
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B000002SDW
Release Date: 1990-10-25

Tracks:

Aida: Preludio
Aida: Act One - Scene One : Si, Corre Voce Che l'Etiope Ardisca (Ramfis, Radames)
Aida: Act One - Scene One : Se Quel Guerriero Io Fossi (Radames)
Aida: Act One - Scene One : Celeste Aida (Radames)
Aida: Act One - Scene One : Quale Insolita Gioia Nel Tuo Sguardo (Amneris, Radames)
Aida: Act One - Scene One : Vieni, O Diletta Appressati (Amneris, Aida, Radames)
Aida: Act One - Scene One : Alta Cagion V'aduna (Il Re, Messaggero, Aida, Radmames, Amneris, Ministri, Capitani)
Aida: Act One - Scene One : Su Del Nilo Al Sacro Lido (Il Re, Ramfis,, Ministri, Capitani,, Aida, Radames, Amneris, Sascerdoti, Messaggero)
Aida: Act One - Scene One : Ritorna Vincitor! (Aida)
Aida: Act One - Scene Two : Possente Ftha...Tu Che Dal Nulla Hai Tratto (Sacerdotessa, Ramfis, Sacerdoti, Sacerdotesse)
Aida: Act One - Scene Two : Immenso Ftha...Mortal Diletto Ai Numi (Sacerdotese, Ramfis, Sacerdoti)
Aida: Act One - Scene Two : Nume Custode E Vindice (Ramfis, Radames, Sacerdoti, Sacerdotesse, Sacerdotessa)

Tracks:

Aida: Act Two - Scene One : Chi mai fra gl'inni e i plausi (Sciave, Amneris)
Aida: Act Two - Scene One : Dance Of The Moorish Slaves
Aida: Act Two - Scene One : Vieni, sul crin ti piovano (Schiave, Amneris)
Aida: Act Two - Scene One : Fu la sorte dell'armi a' tuoi funesta (Amneris, Aida)
Aida: Act Two - Scene One : Pieta ti prenda del mio dolor (Aida, Amneris)
Aida: Act Two - Scene One : Su! del Nilo al sacro lido . . . Numi, pieta (Aida, Amneris, Coro)
Aida: Act Two - Scene One : Glorai all' Egirro, ad Iside (Sacerodoti)
Aida: Act Two - Scene One : Triumphal March
Aida: Act Two - Scene One : Ballet
Aida: Act Two - Scene One : Vieni, o guerriero vindice (Sacerdoti)
Aida: Act Two - Scene One : Salvator della patria (Il Re, Radames, Ramfis, Sacerdoti)
Aida: Act Two - Scene One : Che veggo! Egil> Mio padre! .... Ma tu, Re tu signore possente (Aida, Amneris, Amonasro, Il Re, Ramfis)
Aida: Act Two - Scene One : Il dolor che in quel volto favella...Na tu, o Re, tu dignore possente (Radames, Amneris, Amonasro, Il Re, Aida, Ramfis)
Aida: Act Two - Scene One : O Re, pei sacri Numi Gloria all Egitto... (Radames, Ramfis, Il Re, Amneris, Aida, Amonasro)

Tracks:

Aida: Act Three : O tu she sei d'Osiride
Aida: Act Three : Vieni d'Iside al Tempio (Ramfis, Amneris)
Aida: Act Three : Qui Ramames verra! (Aida)
Aida: Act Three : O partia mia (Aida)
Aida: Act Three : Ciel! mio padre (Aida, Amonasro)
Aida: Act Three : Rivedrai le foreste imbalsamante (Aida, Amonasro)
Aida: Act Three : Pur ti riveggo, miz dolve Aida (Radames, Aida)
Aida: Act Three : Nel fiero anelito di nuova guerra (Radames, Aida)
Aida: Act Three : Fuggiam gli ardor inospiti . . . La, tra foreste vergini (Aida, Radames)
Aida: Act Three : Ma, dimmi: per qia via (Aida, Radames, Amonasro, Amneris, Ramfis)
Aida: Act Four - Scene One : L'abborrita rivale a me sfuggia (Amneris)
Aida: Act Four - Scene One : Gia i sacerdoti adunansi (Amneris, Radames)
Aida: Act Four - Scene One : Ohime! morir me sento (Amneris)
Aida: Act Four - Scene One : Spirto del Nume (Ramfis, Sacerdoti, Amneris)
Aida: Act Four - Scene One : A lui vivo, lu tomba! . . . Sacerdoti: compister un delitto!(Amneris, Ramfis, Sacerdoti)
Aida: Act Four - Scene Two : La fatal pietra sovra me si chiuse (Radames, Aida) - Immenso ftha (Sacerdotesse, Sacerdoti, Aida, Radames)
Aida: Act Four - Scene Two : O terra addio (Aida, Radames, Coro, Amneris)

Amazon.com essential recording

For many fans, this opera is mostly about grandeur--it is, of course, the grandest grand opera still in the standard repertoire--and you will want to hear what Herbert von Karajan and the glorious Vienna Philharmonic do with the triumphal music. Curiously, the recording that has the strongest claims to grandeur also achieves significant results in the intimate moments. Mirella Freni and José Carreras have pleasant voices and a wide-ranging array of skills based on long and varied experience, but theirs are not big voices, as Montserrat Caballé and Plácido Domingo's are. One expects Freni and Carreras to perform with a certain polish in their love music, but one wonders how well they could handle the big moments outside of a recording studio. Not that it matters in terms of this fine recording. Their partnership, with von Karajan's very able assistance, works like magic. What you hear is what you get. When the opera and chorus take the spotlight, this Aida is an epic about international conflicts that dwarf and doom two lovers from different worlds. But Freni and Carreras react to the story of personal tragedy with a heartbreaking musical and theatrical sensitivity. --Joe McLellan

Customer Reviews:

Wonderful recording.......2007-04-02

I think this a a really interesting recording. Aida so often gets recorded by big sopranos (early Callas, Price, Milanov, Tebaldi) and big heavyweight tenors (del Monaco, Baum, Vickers) and these wonderful artists bring something special to their respective parts no doubt. Yet, I don't think Aida will every really be defined as an opera that requires massive voices. It does require some balance, insight and, I think lyricism otherwise it just sounds a bit loud and one-dimensional. Now, all the singers I listed above are guilty of this of course, and even then they often brought some moments of high drama and excitement to compensate, but we do need a bit of balance and light relief. So here Freni, Carreras and Baltsa offer us something different. Carreras will be critised I guess for being a light-voiced tenor struggling to fill the shoes of a role built for bigger singers. Maybe. But he adds a wonderful emotional, lyric and thoughtful dimension to the role with what was still a beautiful (and powerful) voice. He is thoughful throughtout and let's face it, for such a dim-witted character as Radames, a bit of character development is a welcome relief. As for Mirella Freni, well I am a big fan. She brings along her beautiful voice coupled with that desire she always has to be completely emotionally involved. I guess she never quite had the top notes or the vocal heft to really impress the masses, but her instrument was wonderful in its own right and it's not a small voice. I think she handles the role admirably and anyway, did we need another massive Aida? Perhaps the ideal Aida is a beautifully voiced, powerful singer in the vein of Price, Tebaldi or Caballe but I think the lighter voiced Freni provides a little more contrast to the darker, heavier voice of Amneris. Ok, so Amneris, well I am also a fan of Baltsa. I think she gives a fine performance here full of rage and fury and so on but also involved in the duets and ensembles. After that you have the fabulous Cappuccilli and Raimondi and Karajan knitting it all together.
We are lucky to have so many great recordings of Aida, ultimately it all comes down to personal preference with respect to soprano, tenor, mezzo and/or conductor.
For me, this is the performance that leave me most moved but there are so many others - Milanov-Bjoerling, Callas in Mexico (just for the top E flat!), Domingo-Arroyo (great involved live performance) not to mention Price, Caballe and so on. Take your pick, but don't dismiss this one and after all it is a little different with two of the greatest singers of the last 30 years.

A Question of Setting.......2006-10-12

The exotic setting of this famous opera recalls a variety of earlier operas. Like Handel's Giulio Cesare in Egitto and Salieri's Les Danaides, it is set in ancient Egypt. The three operas are complementary in this respect. Les Danaides returns to mythological times and to a Greek narrative which I believe actually pertains to events of the Egyptian "Predynastic" period. Handel's opera is set in Julius Caesar's first century BC and deals with events made familiar by Plutarch. Aida is set in the interval at a time when Egypt was well established but knew nothing of the Greeks or Romans and faced the Ethiopians as a major foe. The relationship between Egyptians and Ethiopians is analogous to ethnic confrontations in other operas: the Spaniards with the Incas in Rameau's Les Indes Galantes, the Romans to the Parthians in Jommelli's Il Vologeso and the Romans to the Celtic Druids in Bellini's Norma.

The strongest analogy, however, is between Aida and Rossini's Semiramide. I sense that in both operas these Italian Catholic composers have established an implicit parallel between pagan theocratic antiquity, in Mesopotamia and Egypt, and the large-scale public devotionalism of the Roman Catholic Church. Without submitting to the thesis of Hislop's The Two Babylons that Roman Catholicism is merely updated paganism, I find in these two operas a respect for ancient religion based on a common ground ideal of theocracy. Religious ceremony of a public, well-established sort "came naturally" to Rossini and Verdi. The result in both cases is a highly convincing note of cultural authority. No matter what sorts of anachronism enter into these operas-- and I assume that there are many-- I get the imaginative impression that I am actually witnessing something of ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. One reason for this response is that I adopt a synthetic view of world cultures based on a belief in biblical monogenesis: the immediate source of all nations of high antiquity from the family of Noah. Rossini and Verdi, in their time, were just free enough from Darwinistic influence to assume universal monogenesis as a given reality. They were untroubled by notions of Eurocentricity but regarded Italy as a world capital zone just as Akkad was the capital zone of the earth in the time of Noah's expanding family.

A very fine recording.......2006-08-02

It cannot be denied that Freni lacks the raw power evident in Price's or possibly Callas' or even Tebaldi's portrayal of the heroine, but to say that Freni is in any way miscast is a gross overstatement (to say that she is "overparted" is to use a word that doesn't exist). Her sweet but full and exceptionally well-balanced lyric is by no means too 'weak' for the role, and she brings a level of controlled exquisiteness that is not present in either Price's or Callas' interpretations of Aida.

I would direct those who say that Caballe's soprano is a spinto to her recordings of Norma or Elvira or Violetta, and remind them that 'spinto' means 'pushed' (it is very rare to hear real spintos of any voice type today, because the effects of pushing the voice are well-understood and one of the aims of good vocal training is [or should be] to avoid the inclination to push the voice. Singers who push the voice regularly rarely sing long enough [or well-enough] to be recorded). To those who persist in labelling her soprano a 'spinto', I would say that they might like to ask Mme. Caballe if, in her authoritative opinion, she pushed her voice.

To those who would say that Karajan made bad casting choices, I would say that Karajan made very wise casting choices in choosing 3 principal singers who, whilst being of less naturally large voices, create a stellar ensemble that is of even-sized voices, each exhibiting greater control than usually found from singers of these roles.

To those who compare the ability of a singer to portray a role in the recording studio to their supposed ability to portray the role on stage, I would say that this is a studio recording, not a live operatic performance, and should be judged as one.

And to those who say that the two main roles in this opera are sung by lyrics voices who have no business singing this opera, I would say that those people who don't understand voices and the various systems used to classify them have no business commenting on voices or voice classifications, let alone opera.

A very fine recording, with some of the most ravishing (e.g. Freni's Aida) and fire-eating (e.g. Baltsa's Amneris) portrayals of the characters of this opera to date. Perhaps not the most universally satisfying to all people, but most certainly worth having.

a stirring rendition.......2005-05-30

Karajan's orchestration is dynamic and stirring. This recording is worth having for Agnes Baltsa's hair raising, intense portrait of Amneris. She is fantastic! Mirella Freni just a bit weak and works well with Carreras, but Baltsa steals the show.

Average "Aïda".......2004-03-21