Verdi: Aida
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Music CD Cover Composer: Giuseppe Verdi Edition: Music CD Format: Import CD Release Date: 1998-12-15 Music Label: Decca Import Soundtracks:
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Free Music Notes for Verdi: Aida Album
Free Music Review: Price Is The Definitive Aida
Hit: 5 Stars
While many sopranos recorded "Aida", (to varying degrees of success), Leontyne Price is considered by many to be the definitive Aida of the second half of the 20th century. Indeed, she identified so closely with that opera that she chose it for her farewell performance at the Met in 1985, (with James McCracken as Radames.) And she recorded it twice, once in 1970, with Placido Domingo, Grace Bumbry and Sherill Milnes, and this earlier recording from the early '60s, with Jon Vickers, Rita Gorr and Robert Merrill. Her rich voice is perfectly suited to the music and the role of Aida--lush and heroic, yet capable of the most exquisite tenderness and sweetness.
Both Price's versions are excellent, but I prefer this version. Price's voice was at its peak, without the later heaviness that categorized the middle-range and the ferociousness of the top notes. Her later recording is of an older, more mature Aida--not the young princess that the opera calls for and that she so clearly depicts here.
Vickers was a great heroic tenor, with an almost baritone timbre to his voice, yet with ringing top notes, (or the ability to float an ethereal pianissimo when needed.) He could sing the Wagner heldentenor roles as well as the heroic Verdi roles as well as anyone, and his Radames is an heroic, yet ardent military commander. Robert Merrill was a dark, commanding Amonasro, with a voice that sounds like the father of the young Aida should sound. And not to take anything away from the wonderful Grace Bumbry on the later version, Rita Gorr's Amneris is simply superb. Her duet with Vickers is some of the finest music in the opera.
While Sir Georg Solti is often remembered as a symphonic conductor, he was also one of the premier opera conductors of his day. His pacing of the opera is masterful. This recording is also available in a higher-priced version--but why spend the extra money? It should be in every opera fan's collection.