Search - Verdi, Gigli, Caniglia :: La Traviata

A stellar performance

Limeyman | 02/17/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I heartily disagree with the review above. The sound quality is exactly what one would expect from an analogue transfer of an 1939 recording. Gui, Gigli, and Caniglia are a powerful force....and this recording should be on the list of anyone who wants to hear an amazing and powerful performance of La Traviata.



To compare Caniglia to Tebaldi in the role of Violetta borders on the absurd. What's really too bad is that the reviewer above reviewed this at all."

LIVE GIGLI AT HIS BEST

Milan Simich | 04/09/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Sure the sound is what it is.. But unlike some other masterings where they try to increase Gigli's sound like he's a heldentenor, here it's left alone.



The beauty of his singing, captured live, when he was still in his prime, is thrilling.



So, forget the sound and enjoy! Imagine you got that crummy seat at the top of the house on the side."

Gigli and Caniglia are great but the sound is awful.

L. E. Cantrell | Vancouver, British Columbia Canada | 01/22/2004

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Source: 1939 British radio broadcast before a quiet audience.



Sound quality: Awful, abysmal or appalling -- take your pick!



This is one of those great might have beens. Gui, Gigli and Caniglia are a combination with enormous potential. In front of the microphone, they seem to have delivered the goods. However, on the other side of the microphone, they were captured in recorded sound that is shuddersome, appropriate for a Caruso recital from 1915, maybe, but a disgrace for 1939.



It is difficult to be sure, but I think that Gigli was in fine voice. The 49 year-old singer sounds like an ardent and not-too-bright 18 year-old, a perfect Alfredo. Caniglia, too, sounds impressive as Violetta. She delivers more fire than, say, Tebaldi in the dramatic sections and offers far more agility in the coloratura passages than I ever imagined she might possess.



Too bad. Really, too bad.



---



Update, February 2006



1. The subsequent reviewer might perhaps find it worthwhile to listen to actual opera recordings from 1939 and earlier--the Gigli-Caniglia "Tosca," say, or Gigli's "Pagliacci" or even "La Boheme." Having done so, he would quickly discover that the sound quality of this particular recording of "La Traviata" is exactly as bad as I stated in relation to its contemporaries.



2. As to the comparison of Caniglia with Tebaldi, I suggest that I did neither more nor less than Tebaldi, herself, did.



3. As a general rule, it is of more use to review a product than a reviewer."