SOPRANO RAINA KABAIVANSKA AS CIO-CIO-SAN AND TENOR BRUNO PREVEDI AS PINKERTON ARE DEFINITELY THE HIGHLIGHTS OF THIS GREAT LIVE... A GREAT MADAMA BUTTERFLY! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! A MUST!

Wonderful singer!

Though it has probably been a few years, it feels like Raina Kabaivanska only retired a short while ago. She was one of the last prima donnas who really excited her admirers. Her voice had its own unique color and she was Intelligence personified. Her Puccini heroines were especially well-loved. She got to record Tosca and Butterfly commercially and they're very good recordings, but if one wants to truly understand why she was a cult diva one has to hear the live recordings, warts and all.This Butterfly finds her in excellent voice. By underplaying the more emotional moments of the role, she is even more effective. One hears only a few tears in this performance; her choices are more restrained and therefore more interesting. For those who care about such things, she chooses not to sing the optional D-flat at the end of her entrance music (though she does sing it in her studio recording).Prevedi sings Pinkerton's music very passionately; the audience loves him. The rest of the cast is very good, but it's Butterfly's show. The audience is so taken with Kabaivanska that they literally stop the show after "Ritorna e m'ama!" Guadagno (who otherwise seems in a hurry) stops the orchestra and permits the audience to cheer.The sound (from a broadcast) is very listenable if hardly state-of-the-art. It doesn't get in the way of anyone's enjoyment. For whatever reason, there aren't many live Kabaivanska Butterflies out there - get this and be grateful we have such documentation!