This is an exciting performance of an opera I particularly love. Rossi-Lemeni is a compelling Archibaldo and sounds better than you'd expect at this late stage of his career. The tenor has a free, ringing voice, and Zeani is deep inside her character and sings with the sacro fuoco. Still, I find Clara Petrella (on Cetra) unequalled in this role for her combination of sheer abandon and refulgent tone. The star of this recording is unquestionably Giulio Fioravanti, whose high baritone is amazingly beautiful and free and always used in service to the drama. Why was he not recorded more?

Ever since I heard this opera as a young boy in a performance with Virgillio Lazzari, Dorothy Kirsten and Charles Kullman, I have had an especial fondness for it. A couple of generations ago it attracted great basses such as Pinza and Lazzari as well as sopranos such as Lucrezia Bori, Grace Moore and Dorothy Kirsten. A generation ago I was lucky enough to see it in Sarasota. Its absence from the repertory is to be regretted, since it is an effective stage work with some beautiful music and an over-the-top poetic libretto.. The performers in this recording do justice to the work, with Virginia Zeani a fine Fiora. Her husband, Nicola Rossi--Lemeni in the role of the blind King Archimbaldo may not efface memories of Pinza or Lazzari but has the dramatic savvy to give a vivid performance. Tenor Ennio Buoso and baritone Giulio Fioravanti both give moving performances as Fiora's lover and her husband. The sound is more than satisfactory. You might want to seek out historic performances with Pinza and Moore or Lazzari and Kirsten, but the commercial studio recording with Anna Moffo is to be avoided.

Great performance of a great opera. Very special and great to get to hear. Bonus material is outstanding.

This is definitely an unjustly neglected opera. I was already familiar with the work because I have the 1941 Met broadcast conducted by the composer with Ezio Pinza, Grace Moore, Charles Kullman, and Richard Bonelli. The Met performance has the advantage of Pinza at the height of his powers. The 1974 set has Rossi-Lemeni giving a strongly worked out performance, but his voice no longer had the strength (and the solid bass sound) that it had in the 1950's. Zeani is magnificent, and both Buoso and Fioravanti give respectable performances. I am glad I have this performance, but I wouldn't be without the the 1941 set.

Virginia Zeani was one of a number of great lyric sopranos ( Marcella Pobbe, Leyla Gencer et alia) who perhaps weren't treated as well by recording companies as they deserved, and for me any recording with her is welcome. Montemezzi's opera a relatively short highly dramatic piece. The music is sensuous, with a intensity which drives the opera to it's heartbreaking conclusion. There are no standard arias as such but the second act duet for tenor and soprano is very beautiful. The opera is well served here. As Fiora, the object of the love of two of the Kings, Zeani is in top form, the voice beautiful and passionate. Ennio Buoso as Avito the man she loves, has a good lyric voice and Giuli Fioravanti sings Manfedo as well as you would wish. The other king who loves his son Manfredo is sung by Zeani's husband Nicola Rossi- Lemeni, a good vocal actor whose voice, never a particularly well focused instrument, has diminished in quality. He sounds appropriately aged, solid and imposing.We have a welcome bonus of Montemuzzi's short opera with a famous cast. It too has a sensuous score with a particularly beautiful final scene.There is a strange anomaly with the transfer of Tre Re: the final two tracks of the second act presented first up on the second CD has already been included in the final track of the first CD!The sound of both operas is very good.

Zeani is marvelous; the performance doesn't make a very compelling case for this great work, but it's a reasonable introduction. The Santi commercial set is marred by late-career Moffo. The '41Met broadcast conducted by the composer is the recording to have, with Grace Moore, Ezio Pinza, Charles Kullman and Richard Bonelli, but this set is worth hearing..