Verdi: Don Carlo (Orfeo) - MusicWeb International

Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
Don Carlo (in four acts, in Italian)
Don Carlo: Franco Corelli (tenor); Elisabetta: Gundula Janowitz (soprano); Eboli: Shirley Verrett (mezzo-soprano); Rodrigo: Eberhard Wächter (baritone); Filippo II: Nicolai Ghiaurov (bass); Il grande Inquisitore: Martti Talvela (bass); Un frate: Tugomir Franc (bass).
Chorus of the Wiener Staatsoper
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra/ Horst Stein
rec. live 25 October 1970, Vienna
Synopsis; no libretto
Orfeo C230163 [3 CDs: 169 ]

This was very favourably reviewed by my colleague Göran Forsling back in 2005 and reposted as a Déjà Review just last September; it was also among my top recommendations for Don Carlo in my survey of the opera, as the best live performance in Italian. My review was based on the listening to the issue on the Opera d’Oro label, and I draw your attention to my comments at the beginning and end of the review regarding the sound. I quote my remarks here in full, as I have no reason to alter them – except, that is, for the issue of sound quality as it compares with this digitally remastered issue on Orfeo:

“Horst Stein is a conductor for whom I have great respect and I love his pacing of this performance here.; he knows he has the best team of singers in the world and gives them space without dragging. The stereo sound is absolutely fine, some passing, intermittent radio interference apart.

Corelli’s nerves and vocal insecurity were just beginning to curtail his career at the time of this live performance but it was still a glorious, if self-indulgently employed, instrument. You can hear him working hard but the voice is still in superb condition; he reminds me of Giuseppe Di Stefano, “committing suicide every night” for the public and it’s thrilling. Tugomir Franc is a fine, noble Monk, setting the right tone with his first contribution. Eberhard Wächter is working hard, too, in an opera which is perhaps not his natural Fach but everyone here is committed to giving a Grand Opera performance, not a small-scale run-through. His voice is certainly not too small to match Corelli’s and I just wallow in the vocal exuberance on display here. Having Janowitz, Verrett, Ghiaurov, Talvela and Blegen on the roster means that voice mavens like me have died and gone to heaven – and the audience thinks so, too. Verrett is wonderful as Eboli: smoky, sexy and a risk-taker with her vocalisation, never holding back. Janowitz is a slim, fluty dream, with plenty of power and penetration despite the delicacy of her sound. We even have future stars like Edita Gruberova as Tebaldo. The confrontation between Ghiaurov’s Philip and Talvela’s Grand Inquisitor is a Clash of the Titans; finally, we hear an Inquisitor with the right black, chilling voice to contrast with Ghiaurov’s smoother, more regal sound. The final duet for Elisabetta and Carlo is ethereal and heart-rending. Here we are in 2018 with nothing – and I mean absolutely nothing – to compete with a line-up like this, so buy it and listen to the best cast ever to have sung this opera.

NB: as good as the sound here is, you will have to tolerate a drop-out of a second or so in the penultimate track (no. 8 on Opera d’Oro) of CD3, just as Corelli is singing “Eterno addio”: this is present in all issues and downloads and no-one has seen fit to remedy it with what would be an easy edit.”

To address that final flaw of a drop-out here first, that passage occurs in track 6 of CD 3 of this Orfeo issue – and it seems that I was wrong; the drop out does not occur in this edition.

The other concern is the quality of sound; the Opera d’Oro issue is decidedly inferior to this Orfeo remastering, with considerably more background hiss and fuzz, a few pops and some harshness arising from mild distortion – while still being perfectly listenable, I should add – and of course the drop-out is there.

The notes tell us that the finale used here is that created for Vienna in 1932 – and here I quote GF – “which simply cuts the final pages so that the ghost of Charles V never appears, robbing the opera of something of its mystery.” Removing that appearance of course leaves the opera as completely naturalistic and some will welcome that; others might miss the music and the supernatural element.

Regardless of that, I completely agree with GF that this is a performance indispensable to lovers of this grandest of Verdi’s operas. It might be well over fifty years old but the singing is unsurpassable and the conducting highly skilled – this is a recording for the ages.

Ralph Moore

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