Search - Great Tenor Performances / Pavarotti, Domingo, Alagna, Carreras on DVD

A True Pleaser

Daryl Foster | Joplin, MO | 01/10/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"As a university voice teacher I am often asked by students what cd/dvd I recommend. I can strongly recommend this dvd to everyone. It was pleasing to see the "Three Tenors" selections come from the early 80's when their voices were still impressive. Pavarotti is, in my opinion, in a class of his own here. Domingo delightfully lacks that pushed sound that became so prevalent later on. The others are very enjoyable as well."

From heavenly to hideous...

PhantomOfTheOpera | Norway | 09/22/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This dvd is a living proof to why the "three tenors" are in a league of their own. Light-years ahead of the rest, if you ask me. This dvd contains 18 arias and most of the tenors are represented by 2 arias each; the real show-stoppers here are "Colpito qui m'avete" from Andrea Chenier (José Carreras) and "Ch'ella mi creda" from La fanciulla del West (Placido Domingo) and also "Celeste Aida" from Aida (sung by a young Pavarotti without the hanky). Their arias are sung with great passion and voices that are unrivalled. Unfortunately the other tenors fail to impress.

Neil Schioff's arias from La boheme and La traviata are in my opinion adequate. It's just a matter of taste. Roberto Alagna isn't too bad here. His "Fontainebleau" is adequate and so is his "mon fils, reprenez votre épée" from Don Carlo.

The performances that bothered me the most is particularly the ones of Giacomo Aragall. I have to say that I find his voice to be slightly unpleasant. He's singing the arias "Recondita armonia" and "e lucevan le stelle" and in my opinion he couldn't finish them quickly enough. His rendition of "e lucevan le stelle" makes me cringe. There's no emotion here and he's also throwing his arms around in an affected manner that seems quite weak and uncontrolled. Many opera singers use their hands to emphasize strength and emotion which adds to their performance. Here it only disturbed me. I have to admit that I was very surprised to hear someone shouting bravo after his performance.

I have only one thing to say about Franco Bonisolli's singing in "Di quella pira". The aria is literally one long shout and nothing to write home about..... Nicola Martinucci, who obviously has a speaking disorder gives us "Nessun Dorma". Once you get used to his way of singing it actually sounds fine. Max-Rene Cosotti's aria from "Il barbiere di Siviglia" was also good, but still it didn't do it for me. The same applies for Vladimir Atlantov with his aria from "Otello". John Mark Ainsley and Jon Vickers didn't make any impact whatsoever. I was kind of waiting for that famous "click" in my head when listening to the singers in this dvd; you know, when you feel that the tenor is singing only for you and noone else, but it never came...... I have to admit that the only tenor in this dvd that's truly capable of doing so for me is Carreras, even though Pavarotti and Domingo also gives fantastic performances.

So this dvd contains arias and performances that range from the most hideous and cringeable to the ones that are sending shivers down your spine of pure delight. Instead of buying this (as I did) I would recommend people to get a dvd of a whole opera with their favourite tenor. If it weren't for the "three famous ones" I would probably have given this compilation only one star."

"Great" is a relative term.

Timothy R. Carpenter | Philadelphia, PA | 01/22/2006

(2 out of 5 stars)

"I had the misfortune to view this DVD immediately after "The Voices of Firestone: The Great Tenors". I will be keeping that DVD (Bjoerling is a wonder!), but not this one. Why? Although instructive, there is little to come back to. Although I've enjoyed other performances by all these tenors, (except Max-Rene Cosotti, previously unknown to me) I would not characterize these performances as among their best work: Bonisolli, Aragall and Atlantov sound "dry" and effortful and those tenors look uncomfortable as well. Cosotti either slows down the fioritura, aspirates every note or slides through the difficult places in the Rossini aria. I would be very happy to encounter Shicoff's Rodolfo and Alfredo in the theater, but they are not memorable enough to warrant permanent commitment to DVD. (This is true, though, of many, many performances on CD and DVD.) A couple of the selections are not really "arias" in the usual sense: Vickers' singing the lament from Samson et Dalila and Alagna's Don Carlos confronting his father immediately after the death of Posa. Both snippets were fascinating and piqued my interest in seeing the entire performances on DVD, but they seem out of place in this collection. In my opinon the best performances on this DVD come from Domingo, Ainsley, Carreras and Pavarotti - in that order. Pavarotti and Carreras sing well, but end their Verdi arias loudly in spite of Verdi's "piano" (soft) marking. Both were capable of singing softly when these preformances were taped and Pavarotti adds unnecessary vowels at the ends of words which do not end in vowels. Carreras' performance of the first act aria from Andrea Chenier is well sung and well characterized. (The costumes are gorgeous.) Ainsley sings "Dalla sua pace" beautifully (in an oddly stark and static staging). Domingo, who - lucky for us - is alloted three arias, demonstrates why he is a world-class singer. His technique, musicianship and characterization all work in sync to provide the kind of performance worth hearing and seeing many times over. If that were true of all - or even most - of the performances on this disc we would be fortunate indeed."