excellent Italian voices

This performance, preserved in very clear broadcast mono from RAI Turin, delivers an exciting cast with four singers who know Verdi and how to sing his music. Cerquetti is, understandably, the main draw and she delivers. Her voice is rich and firm from top to bottom with an especially glowing top register. She has no trouble with the coloratura though her trill is sketchy. Callas, Gencer, and Scotto are more vehement in their responses to the text, but Cerquetti holds her own. One never has to worry about whether or not she can sing the music. She adds a rather modest cadenza to the end of her Act Four aria instead of the two octave-plus cadenza Verdi wrote, but that is her only concession to the part's challenges. Christoff is a frightening Procida, no one to mess with. Tagliabue is a very good Monforte if not the most detailed one and Ortica performs Arrigo successfully with ringing high Bs in his fourth act aria. He duets with Cerquetti very convincingly. His was not perhaps a first class voice, but he uses it very well (he ducks the top D in the short duet with Elena in Act Five.)Rossi makes a few cuts that were traditional in 1955, but also opens up a few and conducts with fire and dash. His orchestra and chorus do him and Verdi proud.Vespri only works if the four principals are convincing and know their Verdi and this recording has that in abundance.

Good. A little tepid getting started but the sturm und drang soon sets in. Ortica's unique sound takes a little getting used to, as does Tagliabue's very seasoned baritone. Christoff as ever the implacable gray eminence in top form and Cerquetti sails through it as a true spinto must. The bolero delivers, even without the Eb. Rossi seemed subdued. I expected more fire.

Verdi's I vespri Siciliani had it's premier at the Paris opera, and as was di rigeur for Paris it has big scenes, a busy chorus and a ballet. This version is the Italian reworking. It is a high quality radio broadcast of the kind that contributed to the admirable Italian Cetra catalogue. Vespri is a longish work and not one of verdi's most successful: it's libretto reworked by Scribe from an unperformed Donizetti opera is routine and the ending, the beginning of a revolution, bathetic.Verdi's music, as always, even when hampered by an inferior libretto, is vigorous melodic and demanding of attention.The recording is reduced to two discs. There is a number of routine cuts and the obvious choice of the removal of the ballet music is taken. A great loss is the scena at the end of Procida's aria at the beginning of Act 11 which includes his wonderful cabaletta. Anita Cerquetti glorious spinto voice with the fluidity to execute florid passages is the main attraction as Elena. Boris Christoff is an imposing Procida, and the great Italianbaritone Carlo Tagliabue is Monforte. Tagliabue had a large warm voice and was very famous in Italy. He is here dare I say; a little dull.The Tenor Mario Ortica, the Arrigo, is for me a revaluation. New to me, he possesses a lean athletic tenor voice the opens out admirably in the top reaches. He has the added bonus of being an expressive vocal actor.This is an admirable addition to the relatively small discography of this opera in excellent sound.

Wonderful clear close-miked recording with all of the cast in fine form. Italian radio recording. Thrilling performance, highly recommended