Search - Donizetti: L'Elisir D'Amore on DVD

God's Greatest Gift

N. Orkin | ambler, pa USA | 06/08/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"After a day's rest, on the Eighth day, God created the voice of Ferruccio Tagliavini. It is still intact in this 1959 production. Although not up to more modern staging and cinematography, the DVD is a rare treat for Tagliavini fans, and the other voices are quite good. However, the video, but not the audio, of Dulcamera's great aria is missing."

For Tagliavini fans only

figaro | Eugene, OR United States | 06/18/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The sound is not so good, and the black-and-white picture is grainy with the picture during Dulcamara's entrance aria completely missing, however the audio continues and a pretty bad slide show goes by during the aria. Also, the picture during the overture is pretty much pointless - you can't see anything.

Once the singing begins, you do get to see Tagliavini in action pretty well, along with all the other singers. The production is nice and all the singers are very good.

Tagliavini himself might occasionally be a little restricted at the top, but it is not very noticeable. 'Una Furtiva Lagrima' comes off beautifully. He sings much of it in the upper register as he often did, mezza-voce, Tito-Schipa-style, and then often glides effortlessly down into the chest-voice. The rest of the opera he sings mostly in chest-tone.

It really was a lovely and interesting voice he had - sweet and gentle by turns, and then often masculine, with a silvery-toned squillo.

Wonderful, but if you are not already a Tagliavini fan, I don't think this DVD would be worth the money, since the technical aspects are quite primitive, and there are many lovely versions of this opera to buy on DVD.

The sound of this DVD is not quite as good as the Met's current audio recording of L'Elisir with Tagliavini and Sayao from 1949. I had a recording of that performance that wasn't so good but they must have done some remastering on it because listening to it from their website, it is more enjoyable now, plus Tagliavini is in ever so slightly better voice than he is here in this later recording. (Probably not that much noticeable difference, though.) You may want to consider trying to purchase that audio recording instead of this DVD unless you just want to see the great tenor in action. I did enjoy that part and have already watched it twice. It's definitely fun if you love Tagliavini."