Search - Riccardo Muti, Salvatore Licitra, Barbara Frittoli :: Verdi: Il Trovatore

Here's a Trovatore that's really out of the ordinary. You won't hear a more accurate or more dramatically coherent performance of this Verdi warhorse. Drawn from live La Scala performances, this may be the most thrilling Trovatore on disc. Riccardo Muti conducts the new critical edition of the score with a wide dynamic palette, refined orchestral detail, atmospheric slow scenes, and animated ones that sometimes border on the hectic. He's obsessive about textual fidelity, so don't wait for the high C in "Di quella pira"; it's not there. The loss is ours, as well as the tenor's. If the singing were on the level of the conducting, this would be the Trovatore of choice. As it is, it ranks among the best. Barbara Fritolli is a fine Leonora, presenting a rounded character lacking only the amplitude of great Leonoras like Maria Callas and Leontyne Price. Salvatore Licitra shows why he's attracting so much attention as one of the best young tenors on the scene, but he sometimes stresses words to the point of creating little bumps in the musical line, as in his "Ah! si ben mio." Otherwise, he's a fine Manrico. Violeta Urmana is a distinct asset, but Leo Nucci's Count and Giorgio Giuseppini's Ferrando are a bit undersized for their roles. But the pluses far outweigh the minuses, and it's a joy to hear the almost lost art of true Verdian phrasing again. --Dan Davis