Review:

on 2011-03-22 CharlesMartel Said:

If any three men could be credited with bringing opera to a wider audience and taking it out of the somewhat stuffy and elitist impression it has long had, then those three men are Antonio Carreras, Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo. Tenors all, they began performing together in 1990 by singing some of the best known arias of classical opera as if they were discrete songs. By re-packaging opera in such a fashion, they made it more instant and immediate to an audience which had, to that point, largely over-looked opera as being something not really for them.

Indeed, it would even be true to say that the real popularisation of opera in the modern era began when the organisers of Italia 90 made the theme to the tournament the soaring performance of "Nessun Dorma" by Pavarotti. Few will forget as he took the stage at the opening ceremony and thrilled the world with a performance which matched the epic stage on which the greatest footballers in the world were about to perform.

As a result, albums were rushed out, performances were arranged and opera went mainstream. This was one of those albums. It is a fantastic collection of arias ruined by some really poor sound quality. It was clearly not recorded in a studio and may have been a misguided attempt to capture the arias live in a concert setting. If that was the intention, it has failed miserably. I do not believe that any half competent producer could make such a mess of some of the superb performances which can be but dimly discerned through the haze.

More likely, I would say this was recorded on someone's tape recorder while attending a series of concerts. What should be the background noise of the audience is too much in the foreground, the occasional cough, and the overly loud applause and cheering when an aria is over confirms that feeling. I firmly believe that this is a bootleg recording of great performances by the late, great Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Antonio Carreras made into a collection of great operatic arias, packaged nicely, but still a bootleg.

Still, in the popular music world, this would be called a live album, and there is something immediate about listening to these arias as they were performed on a stage on the day, as opposed to more carefully crafted studio works. What is surprising is just how close the vocals are to those studio recordings. It seems as if great vocalists make their style and then have the ability to repeat it whenever the need arises.

Any collection of such arias would be nothing without "Nessun Dorma". And true enough, without "Nessun Dorma" this may well be nothing. Of all the operatic performances I have ever heard, none has ever moved me to the extent that Pavarotti singing "Nessun Dorma" has. I doubt that I could hear any other version without it sounding inferior. And without "Nessun Dorma" this certainly would not be worth buying, but as I picked it up in a bargain bin in Islington for under two quid, I am not going to complain. I guess opera has to be heard live to truly appreciate it - it is just such a pity that the awful sound quality dominates an otherwise excellent collection.
Rating: 5/10