WGBH Radio WGBH Radio theclassicalstation.org

Gluck: Iphigénie En Tauride / Muti, Vaness, Allen, La Scala


Release Date: 08/24/1993 
Label:  Sony   Catalog #: 52492   Spars Code: DDD 
Composer:  Christoph W. Gluck
Performer:  Angelo Veccia,  Thomas Allen,  Carol Vaness,  Gösta Winbergh,   ... 
Conductor:  Riccardo Muti
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Milan Teatro alla Scala Orchestra,  Milan Teatro alla Scala Chorus
Number of Discs: 2 
Recorded in: Stereo 
Length: 1 Hours 57 Mins. 

Low Stock: Currently 3 or fewer in stock. Usually ships in 24 hours, unless stock becomes depleted.  
On sale!
ArkivCD $29.99
Low Stock
BUY 
On sale!   $33.98   ArkivCD:  $29.99 Add to Cart

WISH LIST




Be the first to review this title

This CD is reissued by ArkivMusic.

Notes and Editorial Reviews



GLUCK Iphigénie en Tauride • Riccardo Muti, cond; Carol Vaness ( Iphigénie ); Giorgio Surian ( Thoas ); Thomas Allen ( Oreste ); Gösta Winbergh ( Pylade ); Anna Zoroberto ( First Priestess ); Michaela Remor ( Second Priestess ); La Scala O Read more & Ch • SONY 52492 (2 CDs: 116:34 Text and Translation) Live: Milan 3/1992


I have a personal criterion for judging sopranos in modern recordings of any role that Maria Callas excelled in: If you can beat Callas, you are gold. And despite her achievements in bel canto roles (most of which I find uninteresting, either dramatically or as music), I still think that Callas’s greatest gift to the world of opera, particularly opera in Italy, was to point out to the entire country and the world how much more there was in roles like Elvira in I Vespri Siciliani, Cheribini’s Medea, Iphigénie in this opera, and yes, even Lady Macbeth than had been previously thought. If you had given me a lie detector test in February 1992, a month before this recording was culled from its six live performances at La Scala, I would have told you that no soprano in the world would ever eclipse Callas’s reading of the title role in this opera.


Yet within the first five minutes of this recording, both Muti’s driving, insistent intensity and Vaness’s driving, soaring voice made me eat those words. And that is no disservice to Callas. Her live performance of this opera is still one of her finest moments, but as you continue to listen to the Vaness recording you realize how much more chameleon-like her performance was. Vaness had more colors in the voice, more changes of focus, volume and even changes of “face” than Callas did in her performance. Don’t ask me how she did it. I’m not sure if it was mostly her idea, Muti’s, or a combination of both. All I know is that it works.


Moreover, the rest of the cast here is superior to Callas’s, particularly the Pylade of Gösta Winbergh that is well-nigh flawless. Millions of opera lovers publicly mourned the death of tenor Franco Corelli, but not me. I mourned the untimely death of Winbergh, one of the finest yet most understated tenors of his time. What other tenor, in this era, so painstakingly built his career, rung by rung, from Mozart to Wagner with every stop in between? His technique was flawless, his tone warm and ingratiating, his interpretations among the finest I’ve ever heard in the varied roles that he sang, and this recording is one of his finest moments.


This recording is also one of Muti’s finest moments. How I wish he’d had this cast when he performed Spontini’s La Vestale.


FANFARE: Lynn René Bayley [5/2012]
Read less

Works on This Recording

1. Iphigénie en Tauride by Christoph W. Gluck
Performer:  Angelo Veccia (Baritone), Thomas Allen (Baritone), Carol Vaness (Soprano),
Gösta Winbergh (Tenor), Giorgio Surjan (Bass), Anna Zoroberto (Soprano),
Michela Remor (Soprano), Sylvie Brunet (Soprano), Enrico Turco (Bass),
Svetla Krasteva (Soprano)
Conductor:  Riccardo Muti
Orchestra/Ensemble:  Milan Teatro alla Scala Orchestra,  Milan Teatro alla Scala Chorus
Period: Classical 
Written: 1778-1779; Vienna, Austria 
 Date of Recording: 03/1992 
Venue:  Live  La Scala Theater, Milan, Italy 
Length: 116 Minutes 34 Secs. 
Language: Italian 

Customer Reviews

Be the first to review this title
Review This Title
Review This Title Share on Facebook