Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Nikolaus Harnoncourt's Aida is the most elegant and polished version of the opera ever recorded, perhaps ever performed. In no other do you hear so much orchestral detail or playing that's buffed to such a gleaming glow. But here, elegance and polish replace a sense of drama and emotional sweep, subverted by Harnoncourt's slow-motion first half. Also needed: great voices with thrust and power. While the recording is lavishly cast, with important singers in minor roles, only one of the four big parts is done with the necessary vocal and dramatic zest: Olga Borodina's stunning Amneris. Hampson's Amonasro is neatly sung, full of an experienced lieder singer's textual nuances, and therefore completely lacking the style or vocal depth of a true Verdi baritone. That leaves the ill-fated lovers, Gallardo-Domâs's Aida and Lo Scola's Radames, both without the vocal size or splendor to satisfy. With so many excellent Aidas on disc, including Muti-Caballe and Solti-Price, this one will appeal to Harnoncourt's fans, the curious, and Verdians who should hear Borodina's Amneris. --Dan Davis
Verdi - Aida / Gallardo-Domas, Borodina, La Scola, Hampson, Polgar, Streit, Röschmann, Salminen, Wiener Phil., Harnoncourt, Music, Giuseppe Verdi, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Cristina Gallardo-Domas, Vincenzo La Scola, Wiener Philharmoniker, Arnold Schoenberg Chor, Thomas Hampson, Matti Salminen, Lászlo Polgár Olga Borodina, Dorothea Röschmann Kurt Streit, Classical, Classical Music, Italian Romantic Opera, Opera, Opera / Operetta / Oratorio, Opera/Operetta
Track Listings:
Track Listings
Daisy-Fresh from Hawthorne, California (The Best of the Dunhill Years) [Import]
Knappertsbusch Live in the Berlin Titania Palast
Giacinto Scelsi: Chamber Works for Flute & Piano
Jazz Moments [Import] [Limited Edition] [Original recording remastered]