Search - Luigi Mancinelli, Orchestra "PRO ARTE" - Marche, Coro Lirico "MEZIO AGOSTINI" Marco Berdondini, Franco Vassallo, Donato Tota, Stefano Montanari Barbara De Maio :: Mancinelli - Paolo e Francesca / De Maio · Vassallo · Tota · Montanari · Berdondini

Not even a stopgap. Avoid

G.D. | Norway | 12/11/2008

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Spurred by the rather dismissive reviews of the Russell Young performance of Luigi Mancinelli's "Paolo e Francesca", I chose to go for the Berdondini set (and regardless of what Amazon says, it's one disc, not two) of this one-act opera.



Mancinelli was in comparison to his contemporary adherents of the verismo style rather international in outlook, and this opera seems to be more in the tradition of Wagner than, say, Verdi or Mascagni. As far as I can tell, the result is far too chopped-up and incoherent, with little sense of drama; much of the vocal writing is declamatory based, and there are few genuine melodies. I think.



The reason I am unsure is that the performances, as well as th sound quality, are abysmal. The singers are strained, out of tune and messy (the exception is possible Montanari as The Fool). The choir is underrehearsed and has serious intonation problems. And the orchestra? Hard to say. It sounds like it's half (or less) the size needed needed to make anything of this opera. In fact, the sound and total lack of balance makes the orchestral parts sound as if they are played on synthesizers - that is, using the "brass" sound from a cheap 80s toy synthesizer (but as opposed to synthesizers, the orchestra is often out of tune - by quite some margins). I don't think it was until track 5 I realized that there actually were strings there at all (apparently no more than, approximately, two of them). This is, then, a completely useless disc, and I am no more certain after having heard it of whether this opera is worth reviving than I was before. And with the generally sub-mediocre reviews of the alternative Russell Young set, we are in the unfortunate situation of having two recordings of which neither can serve even as a stopgap. Depressing."