Rossini - Il Turco in Italia (Caballé; Ramey; Chailly)

Gioacchino ROSSINI (1792-1868)

Il Turco in Italia

Drama buffo in due atti

Montserrat Caballe; Samuel Ramey; Enzo Dara; Ernesto Palacio; Leo Nucci;

Jane Berbié; Paolo Barbacini

Ambrosian Opera Chorus

National Philharmonic Orchestra

Riccardo Chailly

Montserrat Caballé (1933-2018)

This recording, from 1982, has the famous and spectacular soprano Montserrat Caballe(as Donna Fiorilla), the main star of this recording. Caballe, as always, doesn't have a, say, perfect Italian accent but her performance is extraordinary, she was in her better days, doing an excellent job and accomplishing a perfect interpretation with her unmistakable voice. It is also worth to highlight the basses Enzo Dara(Don Geronio) and Samuel Ramey(Selim), both possessing an incredible comicality in their arias. The tenor Ernesto Palacio(Don Narciso), besides his brilliant voice, has a very beautiful Italian accent, very gallant. The recitative, accompanied by piano is in general a little monotonous as almost all opera recitatives, but very limpid and very well spoken. The part of the choirs is very well served by Ambrosian Opera Chorus, that is a great show by itself, with agile and vibrant voices in a perfect interaction with the main cast. Riccardo Chailly's excellent conduction of National Philarmonic Orchestra is added all this, that is perfect, seeming that he got to understand the way that Rossini wanted this opera should be presented. The sound quality is very good, very well recorded and very clean: digital recording, despite the year(1982).

Well, this is an excellent recording of this opera, that is good either to check Caballe's voice in one of her top carreer moments or just to know the elegant comicality of Rossini's in an excellent recording with amazing performances. Five stars easy.