GIGLI/CANIGLIA/STIGNANI/SERA
AIDA
BCS-Bel Canto Society
Allegro Price: $17.57

VERDI: Aida (complete opera).

“My first reaction on hearing this recording again was that to sing Radamès, Gigli denies the sweetness of his voice and belts, making him sound more ordinary. Then I realized that he successfully redesigns his singing for this role: his objective is not to put forward beauty of sound but to feel the emotions in the music and words. No other recorded tenor sings the part with so much temperament or such variety of inflection. But the inflections aren’t a series of chiaroscuro effects, as in Butterfly; instead, they are dictated by his viscera. His fire quickly swept me away.” — Stefan Zucker

MASCAGNI: Cavalleria Rusticana (complete opera).

Booklet includes interviews with Olivero and Simionato on Mascagni's conducting. Mascagni conducted this studio recording of the opera from 1940, and the world always has assumed that recording was definitive. When Bernstein conducted the opera, he copied its tempos and rubatos. But in this little-known version from 1938, also conducted by Mascagni, the tempos and rubatos are different. Lina Bruna Rasa stars in both versions, but is more impassioned in this one.

BERLIOZ: La damnation de Faust (complete).

Including a 56-page booklet with historic photos; a complete French libretto with new, original English translation; and an essay on the performance by Robert Levine, this 1969 Rome recording is illuminated by the ravishing Swedish-Russian tenor Nicolai Gedda, superstar American mezzo Marilyn Horne, and French bass baritone Roger Soyer.

VERDI: Stiffelio (complete opera).

Currently this is not only the only mid-price version of Stiffelio with a libretto—it’s the only available recording, period! And a fine one it is, with the soaring soprano Angeles Gulin, so under-represented on records, and the clarion, heroic tones of tenor Mario Del Monaco, whose many fans will treasure this addition to his discography.