Search - Gaetano Donizetti, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Agostino Ferrin :: Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor

Muffled sound doesn't do June Anderson justice

Opera Obsessed | Baltimore, MD USA | 09/07/2007

(2 out of 5 stars)

"June Anderson is my personal favorite soprano after Callas. Many critics saw her--along with Edita Gruberova-- as the successor to Joan Sutherland in Bel Canto starting in the 1980's when Sutherland retired. In my opinion, June Anderson is very much underappreciated. Try her recording of the Königin der Nacht in Die Zauberflöte, Marie in La Fille du Regiment, and more recently venturing into new repertoire in the title role in Richard Strauss's Daphne. Many opera fans who finds pleasure listening to Callas, Sills, Sutherland, etc... will also love June Anderson.



Lucia is also one of my favorite operas. I have several other recordings of it, including the 1955 Live Recording with Callas and von Karajan conducting, the one with Anna Moffo and Carlo Bergonzi, Sills with Bergonzi, Sutherland opposite Pavarotti, and also Gruberova's most recent recording opposite Jose Bros. I had thought that I couldn't lose getting Lucia with June, so I went for it, despite the fact that there were no reviews on Amazon.



Scratchy recordings do not bother me usually. I'm really into most of the live Callas recording that have inferior sound, and I just love Rosa Ponselle's and Lily Pons's aria recordings from the 20's and 30's. This one, however, sounds as if the performers are either underwater or in the other room. It's a real shame because despite the very inferior sound quality, one can still sense June Anderson and Alfredo Kraus are making beautiful music. It's just that the sound is just too muffled to appreciate it very much at all. I never would have expected it for a recording for 1983, which should have been half-way decent.



If anyone knows of a recording of June Anderson doing Lucia that has good enough sound to do her justice, definitely post a review letting us know! Normally I would give this recording only 1 star, but since June Anderson and Alfredo Kraus on the cover, it has to have some value!

"