MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW
RECORDING OF THE MONTH



Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

alternatively
MDT AmazonUK AmazonUS

Giuseppe VERDI (1813-1901)
I Lombardi alla Prima Crociata - dramma lirico in four acts (1843)
Arvino - Roberto di Biasio
Pagano - Michele Pertusi
Giselda - Dimitra Theodossiou
Oronte - Francesco Meli
Pirro - Roberto Tagliavini
Acciano - Jansons Valdis
Viclinda - Cristina Giannelli
Sofia - Daniela Pini
Ochestra e Coro del Teatro Regio di Parma/Daniele Callegari
Lamberto Puggelli (Stage Director)
rec. live, Teatro Regio di Parma, January 2009
C MAJOR 720608 [144:00]

Experience Classicsonline


The first release I encountered in Parma’s complete Verdi series was I Due Foscari, a release which was momentarily impressive but which left me fundamentally fairly indifferent. This Lombardi is a lot better, an improvement in almost every respect.
 
As with Foscari, the set is very bare, but here it is managed better. The props are fairly non-existent, save the odd rug or sand dune. The stage is dominated by an enormous wall at the back which is used as the backdrop for some projections which suggest locations, be they the square of Milan, the Hermit’s cave or the desert outside Jerusalem. It’s done fairly effectively, and it’s a good way of generating locations without much fuss, though they get ideas above their station when they project Picasso’s Guernica as a comment on the horrors of war, not a reading the opera can really sustain. The costumes are all of the 11th Century, and the lighting is well managed too. The great wall finally parts only in the final scene when the city of Jerusalem is seen gleaming in the distance, a simple idea but effective because so long delayed.
 
The thing that really marks out this release, however, is the singing. The punishing role of Giselda requires drama, poignancy, coloratura and religious fervour. Dimitra Theodossiou does a very good job of providing all of these. She is perhaps a little strident in her big Act 4 showpiece, but her expressions of grief and fear are always convincing and very attractively sung. Her lover, Oronte, is sung by the clarion-bright tenor of Francesco Meli. He sings at his very best here: light, exciting, lyrical and beautiful. La mia letizia infondere, his Act 2 declaration of love, pulses with excitement and lyricism, and the message from beyond the grave which he delivers at the start of Act 4 is gorgeously ethereal. Equally fine, but with the advantage of authority and splendour, is Michele Pertusi as Pagano, the parricide turned hermit. He is clearly having a fantastic time, particularly in his villainous Act 1 aria, which is sung with a thrilling edge of vigour. He then manages to moderate his tone most impressively to carry a convincing quality of repentance and holiness. The joint contribution of these three makes the baptism scene of Act 3 (illustrated on the cover of the box) the highlight of the opera. Their voices blend beautifully and they all seem completely convinced by the quality of what they are doing. Roberto di Biasio sounds much more comfortable than he did in Foscari, and Roberto Tagliavini, as in Foscari, makes the most of his small role.
 
In many ways, though, the most important character in this opera is the chorus, who have a major role to play in almost every scene. They sing with brilliant conviction throughout, something acknowledged by the audience in their applause, and they are used with intelligence by the director. Their choruses to Jerusalem, at the start of Act 3 and the end of Act 4, are merely their finest moments; they cover themselves in glory at every turn, illustrating the very best traditions of Italian opera choruses as they do so. Daniele Callegari reinvigorates the Parma Orchestra so that they sound much, much better than they did in Foscari. They play with a level of passion that they did not display in that release, and the violin solo that introduces the baptism scene is wonderfully realised.
 
It helps, perhaps, that they are playing such excellent music. I hadn’t encountered this opera since the last time I listened to Levine’s Decca CD of the work from the Metropolitan Opera, featuring Pavarotti and Ramey, but this DVD served as a reminder of just what a brilliant work it is. It has everything from family tragedy to religious intensity by way of great passion and fantastic scene painting, and it showcases the young Verdi at his very finest, better even than Nabucco, in my view. It deserves to be far better known than it is, and I hope this DVD helps to achieve that.
 
Simon Thompson 

alternatively
MDT AmazonUK AmazonUS


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Error processing SSI file