On 21 January 2011 Placido Domingo turned seventy and he was
hailed and celebrated around the world. Having recorded extensively
for most of the big companies there was a rich treasure trove
to choose from for various retrospective discs and boxes. Deutsche
Grammophon, with whom he was closely associated very early on,
probably has the most comprehensive catalogue and the Decca
and Philips inventories were also available. There was a jumbo
box with his ‘best’ complete operas and people can safely invest
in it and acquire at relatively modest cost standard operas
in recordings that in most cases can stand comparison with the
finest offerings from competing companies. Those who prefer
bits and pieces can without qualms buy the 3 CD set here under
review.
Having collected Domingo recordings for more than forty years
I was familiar with the majority of these arias and songs and
re-acquaintance with them was uplifting. The first two discs
follow his operatic recording career chronologically, from his
debut LP, issued in 1968 by Telefunken, as it was then. I remember
finding a sampler LP from that company with many of my old favourite
singers like Herrmann Prey and Anneliese Rothenberger. Among
them was a young good-looking guy, holding a sword in front
of him and dressed as Radames, the male hero in Aida.
When I put down the needle and started listening, leisurely
slumped back in my worn armchair, a marvellous voice flowed
out of my loudspeakers, singing with such beauty and intensity
that I had to sit upright and just inhale the sounds. The LP-cover
told me his name was Placido Domingo. I’ll remember that name,
I recall thinking. He might be something! And he certainly was
– and is. With more than 3,500 opera performances of more than
130 roles he must be one of the busiest singers ever. Add to
this his conducting activities, and, just incidentally he is
director of two American opera houses and runs his Operalia
competition. In the midst of this he has also found time to
record probably more than any other singer, Fischer-Dieskau
and Gedda possibly excepted. This compilation can, for obvious
reasons, only cover a fraction of what he has done in the recording
studio, but it is a good and representative fraction and most
of his signature roles are here.
CD 1 finds him at his freshest with sappy voice and easy high
notes. He is truly impressive in the aria from Oberon,
which was his first recording with Deutsche Grammophon in 1970.
This was also the only time he recorded – under studio conditions
– with Birgit Nilsson. Almost forty years later he was the first
to receive the Birgit Nilsson Prize. His German has been criticized
but as compensation he invests the singing with a Mediterranean
glow and roundness of tone that few German tenors have been
able to muster. The Don Carlo excerpt is neither from
the classic Giulini set (EMI) nor the DG traversal under Abbado
(which is in French) but a previously unreleased recording from
Vienna’s Sofiensaal under Karajan, made in 1975. One can wonder
why it has been tucked away in the DG archives for so long.
The Flower Song from Carmen is sung in his usual
heart-on-sleeve manner – Don José was one of his favourite roles.
This is from the Decca recording under Solti. I prefer the DG
version with Abbado, made a few years later, but the Solti is
excellent and as a bonus we also get the heated duet that follows,
with Tatiana Troyanos a dark-hued Carmen.
His Walther von Stolzing in Wagner’s Meistersinger is
another gem. Only Sandor Konya has surpassed him among modern
singers, and that only with by hair’s breadth. The Aida
aria is from a 1981 recital with Giulini conducting the Los
Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, and while it can’t erase my
early memory of the Telefunken recording it is still among the
best. The Pagliacci and Cavalleria arias are from
Philips soundtracks for Zeffirelli’s TV-productions of the operas
with Georges Prêtre conducting.
On CD 2 the Graal narration from Lohengrin is again only
surpassed by Sandor Konya and the Rome epsiode from Tannhäuser
is impressive – with a Latin tinge. This Tannhäuser
wasn’t unaffected by his visit to Rome! Rodolfo’s aria from
Luisa Miller is a live recording from Paris in 1988 with
Maazel conducting. Here Domingo shows his detractors, who state
that he sings everything mezzo-forte, that he can spin
a magic pianissimo filament of tone. Listen to the end of the
aria! Cavaradossi’s Recondita armonia, well sung as always
– this is the role that Domingo has sung most frequently – is
not faded out after the tenor’s last phrase but lets us hear
the Sacristan’s final mutterings as well, which brings the scene
to a more satisfying end.
The aria from L’Africaine is another live recording,
this time from Florence 1990 with Zubin Mehta in the pit. The
longest excerpt in this box is the scene from Die Frau ohne
Schatten, which begins with an orchestral interlude that
is one of Strauss’s most beautiful melodies. The singing is
heroic and utterly satisfying and there are few or no signs
of an ageing singer. He was already fifty when this recording
was made.
There has been quite a stir about his taking on baritone roles
lately, first Simon Boccanegra and then Rigoletto,
but as early as 1991 he sang Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia
and this barber is a real charmer!
A retrospective without at least something from Otello
was inconceivable and here we get two chunks. In company with
Mario Del Monaco – whose recording of the opera with Karajan
is still in the front rank – and Giuseppe Giacomini – whose
complete recording I haven’t heard but I have heard him in the
flesh – Domingo has also been the supreme exponent of this role.
There is a special thrill to hear Sergei Leiferkus’ sinister
and oily Iago as well.
Mozart’s Idomeneo was a fairly late addition to Domingo’s list
of complete roles, but he recorded a full CD with Mozart arias
for EMI several years earlier and though not the most idiomatic
of Mozart singers he has his own way with the music that is
brilliant and vital.
On the three final tracks from the last few years he can’t quite
conceal that he is approaching seventy but the voice is still
miraculously well preserved, and the little song by Leoncavallo,
sensitively accompanied by Lang Lang, is scaled down to a lovely
pianissimo.
On CD 3 we get a hotch-potch of various popular songs: Spanish
and Italian, a couple by Carlos Gardel, but also Dein ist
mein ganzes Herz, live from Florence, Hosanna from
Lloyd Webber’s Requiem, composed for and premiered by
Domingo, and Franck’s Panis angelicus, which he sang
at the funeral mass of Ted Kennedy in Boston in 2009. There
are also two compositions by his son Placido Domingo Jr and,
going back to his roots, several arias from zarzuelas, that
Spanish brand of operetta. Both his parents were zarzuela singers
and Placido was steeped in their tradition.
This box presents a wide-ranging portrait of an exceptional
and multi-talented musician. It should be an ideal gift to someone
who has just started to get an interest in opera, but in fact
to anyone who admires strong, beautiful and well-focused singing
of – mostly – standard repertoire. Browsing through the discography
one soon realizes that one needs to rob a bank to afford buying
his complete recorded oeuvre – and then there is just as much
in the EMI and Sony catalogues.
Göran Forsling
Full Track-List
CD 1 [68:40]
Umberto GIORDANO (1867 – 1948)
Fedora
1. Amor ti vieta [2:12]
Carl Maria von WEBER (1786 – 1826)
Oberon
2. Vater! Hör mivh fleh’n zu dir! [3:43]
Giuseppe VERDI (1813 – 1901)
I lombardi
3. La mia letizia infondere ... Come poteva un angelo [6:45]
Jacques OFFENBACH (1819 – 1880)
Les Contes d’Hoffmann
4. Il etait une fois à la cour d’Eisenach [5:30]
Giuseppe VERDI
Don Carlo
5. Io l’ho perduta! ... Io la vidi e al suo sorriso [3:35]
Georges BIZET (1838 – 1875)
Carmen
6. La fleur que tu m’avais jetée ... Non! Tu ne m’aimes pas! [8:13]
Richard WAGNER (1813 – 1883)
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
7. Morgenlich leuchtend [7:39]
Camille SAINT-SAËNS (1835 – 1921)
Samson et Dalila
8. Arrêtez, ô mes frères [6:15]
Jules MASSENET (1842 – 1912)
Werther
9. Toute mon âme est la! ... N’achevez pas! [4:56]
Giuseppe VERDI
Rigoletto
10. La donna è mobile [3:10]
Aida
11. Se quel guerrier io fossi ... Celeste Aïda [5:02]
Giacomo PUCCINI (1858 – 1924)
Turandot
12. Nessun dorma [3:25]
Ruggero LEONCAVALLO (1857 – 1919)
Pagliacci
13. Recitar! ... Vesti la giubba [3:28]
Pietro MASCAGNI (1863 – 1945)
Cavalleria rusticana
14. O Lola ch’ai di latti la cammisa [4:45]
CD 2 [67:23]
Giuseppe VERDI
Il trovatore
1. Di quella pira [3:43]
Richard WAGNER
Lohengrin
2. In fernem Land [6:33]
Giuseppe VERDI
Luisa Miller
3. Quando le sere placido [3:44]
Richard WAGNER
Tannhäuser
4. Inbrunst im Herzen [8:46]
Giacomo PUCCINI
Tosca
5. Dammi i colori ... Recondita armonia [4:00]
Giacomo MEYERBEER (1791 – 1864)
L’Africaine
6. Pays merveilleux ... ô paradis [3:13]
Richard STRAUSS (1864 – 1949)
Die Frau ohne Schatten
7. Orchestral interlude ... Falke, Falke, du wiedergefundener [13:09]
Gioachino ROSSINI (1792 – 1868)
Il barbiere di Siviglia
8. Largo al faktotum [4:47]
Giuseppe VERDI
Otello
9. Esultate! L’orgoglio musulmano [2:14]
10. Dio! mi potevi scagliar tutti i mali ... Cassio è la! [4:00]
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756 – 1791)
Idomeneo
11. Fuor del mar ho un mar in seno [5:04]
Giacomo PUCCINI
Edgar
12. Orgia, chimera dall’occhio vitreo [3:09]
Ruggero LEONCAVALLO
I Medici
13. No, de l’antica Grecia [2:02]
Ruggero LEONCAVALLO
14. C’è nei tuo sguardo [2:09]
CD 3 [66:40]
Agustin LARA (1897 – 1970)
1. Granada [3:54]
Ernesto de CURTIS (1875 – 1937)
2. Non ti scordar di me [3:12]
Carlos GARDEL (1890 – 1935)
3. Mi Buenos Aires querido [3:26]
4. El dia que me quieras [3:44]
Andrew LLOYD WEBBER (b. 1948)
Requiem
5. Hosanna [4:54]
Franz LEHÁR (1870 – 1948)
Das Land des Lächelns
6. Dein ist mein ganzes Herz [3:36]
Manuel PENELLA (1880 – 1939)
El gato montés
7. Hasta quándo? [4:56]
8. Señó, q’e no me farte er való [1:23]
Reveriano SOUTULLO (1884 – 1932) Juan VERT (1890 – 1931)
La del solo del parral
9. Ya mis horas felices [5:06]
César FRANCK (1822 – 1890)
Messe à trois voix
10. Panis angelicus [3:40]
Isaac ALBÉNIZ (1860 – 1909)
Pepita Jiménez
11. Love moves by night! [3:32]
Placido DOMINGO Jr (b. 1965)
12. Quarant’anni [3:51]
Salvatore CARDILLO (1874 – 1947)
13. Catari’, Catari’ (Core ‘ngrato) [5:05]
Federico Moreno TORROBA (1891 – 1982)
Luisa Fernanda
14. Romanza de Vidal [4:33]
Juan Mostazo MORALES (1903 – 1938)
15. Falsa moneda [3:55]
Placido DOMINGO Jr
16. La coscienza [3:25]
Francisco ALONSO (1887 – 1947)
La Calesera
17. Agua que rio abajo marchó [3:21]
Placido Domingo (tenor/baritone) 
