Search - Giuseppe Verdi, Gino Marinuzzi, Orchestra Sinfonica di Torino della RAI Radiotelevisione :: Verdi: Un Ballo in Maschera

Buyer Beware!

J. Martin | Pensacola, FL | 05/18/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This performance is a fraud. It is not a 1941 broadcast with Caniglia. Masini, and Tagliabue. It is, in fact, the 1947 Metropolitan Opera broadcast with Daniza Ilitsch, Jan Peerce, and Leonard Warren. As such, it should be withdrawn from the market and relabeled properly. Having said this, on its own merits it is an excellent performance. Ilitsch, who was a very erratic performer, is in very good form here.She was always exciting if nothing else. Peerce turns in his usual routinely good performance wthout being exceptional. It is Warren, however, who is the shining star of this performance. In this early part of his career his voice had not yet developed that hollow back of the throat quality that marred so much of his later work. His "Eri tu" is a model of great singing. Taking it for what it is this is an excellent performance. Gala, however, should be ashamed and somehow penalized for attempting to perpetrate this fraud on the buying public."

What a disappointment!

Jeff Roberts | Hollywood, California United States | 07/17/2008

(2 out of 5 stars)

"What a disappointment! I bought this recording without hearing it, excited at the possibility that someone had unearthed a previously unknown recording of Un ballo in maschera by some outstanding and underrepresented Italian artists of the 40s, under the great Gino Marinuzzi, whose recorded legacy is extremely limited. It seemed too good to be true and, in fact, it was. Thanks to the previous reviewer for identifying the performance. Leonard Warren is unmistakable as Renato. A sterling performance to be sure. The other principals are adequate. But my disappointment that this is not the performance promised by Gala offsets any recommendation of this recording. Odd, too, that Gala would include excerpts of the commercial La Forza del Destino, with Masini and Tagliabue, which only serves to confirm that the Ballo recording is by other artists."