Apart from a couple of small bites at the Verdi cherry
in 1959-1961 (aged 18-20) Domingo wisely held back from singing Verdi
until his voice had filled out and matured. This was in 1967 when he
took the European opera capitals Hamburg, Vienna and Berlin by storm
with Aida, Don Carlo and Un Ballo in maschera,
all debut appearances in the leading tenor roles within a three-week
period in May that year, the last named opera being learned in three
days when he was asked to replace another tenor. For much of the remaining
years of the twentieth century he was adding new roles to his Verdi
repertoire, the last of them in London in La battaglia di Legnano
in June 2000. Domingo’s admirers will have already calculated that
to date he has given some 650 performances of 14 different Verdi operas
(and there are four he has never sung on stage but has recorded - Nabucco,
I Lombardi, Giovanna d’Arco and Macbeth).
In contrast to his most serious rival, Pavarotti, Domingo
is a wonderful actor as well as singer, bringing an intense musicality
and intelligence to his performances, and this is clear throughout this
compilation disc (there’s a 4CD box Verdi: Domingo - The Tenor Arias
471 335-2 if you want even more). The selection here has variety in
its hour-long format, with only one opera, Rigoletto, having
more than one aria. With Giulini at the helm tempi are steadily taken
but very effectively so, bringing a majestic grandeur to Domingo’s vocal
lustre. The arias from the early or middle Verdi periods may not be
quite so ear-catching or muscular as the ‘Esultate’ from Otello
(a pity it’s not Carlos Kleiber conducting here as he did with Domingo
at Covent Garden, for Myung Wha Chung has problems holding ensemble
especially with the following chorus), ‘Di quella pira’ from Il Trovatore,
or ‘La donna e mobile’ from Rigoletto, but nevertheless they
are delivered with the same degree of intensity and vocal style. For
that is above all Domingo’s greatest strength, his stylish artistry
Christopher Fifield
Conductors: Giulini, Abbado,
Gergiev, Maazel, Chung, Kleiber