Search - Montserrat Caballé, Piero Cappuccilli, Flaviano Labò :: Bellini: Il Pirata / Caballe, Cappuccilli, Labo

Caballe's Magic

Jan Cambria | Cambria, CA USA | 07/03/2000

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Caballe at the height of her powers, in 1967. She always comes through in front of a live audience. The character's love and anguish all expressed through perfect musicianship. Cappuccilli also fine. Unfortunately, the tenor role makes demands the tenor cannot fulfill. Worth having for Caballe."

A fabulous night at the opera - snap it up

Ralph Moore | Bishop's Stortford, UK | 07/11/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"There is no point in going for the 1973 studio recording while this is available at bargain price and in excellent sound, with little extraneous audience noise apart from some well-deserved applause, and the odd, very occasional fluctuation in pitch due to some tape wobble. Some faint print-through from the original tape is discernible if you are listening at high volume on headphones, otherwise this is one of Opera d'Oro's best - and the worst can be dire!



All three principals - and the supporting cast, too, for that matter - are in superb voice. Caballe does not always sound like her later self, which is a good thing: few of those injected glottal attacks which became a mannerism, absolute security in both fioreture and the heavier Verdian dramatic passages, the trademark pianissimi and wonderful evenness of tone throughout her range. Labo rarely sings beneath mezzo-forte but he has all the notes; the fast vibrato and ringing production are a delight - and he's clearly enjoying himself. Where is his ilk today? Cappuccilli is in one of his subtler moods instead of just blaring through the part (as he was increasingly wont to do unless restrained by a conductor of powerful or inspirational character), enlivening a fairly monochromatic role with some attention to detail. Even the music - proleptic of later opera such as Verdi's "Otello" in the opening storm scene and the wondrous concluding mad scene, made famous by Callas - is better than one has any right to expect in early Bellini (though I suppose all Bellini is "early", given his premature demise), despite some rum-ti-tum and routine choruses.

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