Search - Renato Bruson, Ruggero Raimondi, Giuseppe Verdi :: Verdi: Gerusalemme

I Lombardi By Another Name--Really!

Steven Muni | Sutter Creek, CA USA | 07/30/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I initially bought this opera because it appeared to be a Verdi opera with which I wasn't at all familiar. But when I played it, it sure sounded familiar! A little on-line research revealed it to be an Italian translation of a French reworking of I Lombardi. At one point, in his French phase, Verdi reworked I Lombardi with a French libretto, and called it Gerusalem. A few years after its French premier, it was translated into Italian as Gerusalemme for its La Scala premier. (Why they didn't just do I Lombardi I can't begin to guess.)

This version is rarely performed and even more rarely recorded. The cast is terrific. The legendary Turkish soprano Leyla Gencer had an incredible voice, immense dramatic skills, a wide repertoire with everything from Wagner to Verdi to bel canto to 20th century opera, and was shamefully underrecorded. Here she is partnered with a young Jamie (Giacomo) Aragall, a Spanish tenor with a glorious voice whose career was hampered by crippling stage fright. Then add to that mix a young Renato Bruson and a young Ruggero Raimondi and you have an incredible cast.

Ettore Gracis leads the La Fenice orchestra and chorus in a live recording in Munich (go figure.) The stolid Germans originally sit on their hands, but eventually they warm up and start delivering the applause the performance merits. And the sound quality is quite good for a live recording.

The only problem is that the liner notes are dreadfully inadequate. Aside from providing brief bios of the lead singers, they give no clue about the opera. I had to do on-line research to figure out what it was all about. That prevents me from giving this recording 5 stars."