This was Mario Del Monaco's first Otello. He is in excellent voice with few of the vocal mannerisms that would plague him a dozen years down the road. His characterization is fiery, loud, and not particularly subtle. Many of his choices are a bit over-the-top (his shouting of "Sangue! Sangue! Sangue!" in Act Two only one of them), but there is an energy and vitality that make this performance unique. He nails every high note, providing true squillo on a number of them.Rigal is more consistent vocally here than she could be, especially at the Met where she traveled to that autumn (to open the Bing regime in Don Carlo). She and Del Monaco's scenes go very well together. Guichandut would be an Otello himself very soon. He is one of the few singers who sang both roles (there is a great RAI performance with Taddei as Iago). If his Iago isn't very individual it is certainly well-sung and he knows the routine of the role well. The supporting cast is very good as is Votto's alert conducting.Basically the sound is excellent though there is some surface noise and a few pitching issues in Act Four. For the most part the sound is very listenable; it doesn't really get in the way of enjoyment.

This was Del Monaco's first Otello and a very exciting performance it is. The voice is marvellously full, with it's bronze baritonal qualities, and glorious steely upper register. Considering his often wayward way with this role he is on relatively good behaviour here.He and his conductor (Votto) ignore Verdi's marking on "Ora per sempre" and turn it, as so often occurs, into a call to arms rather than the FARWELL to arms that it is. He is reasonably well behaved on the other test case DIO MI POTEVI which he is not on later recordings, particularly when his vocal powers deteriorated. His Iago, Carlos Guichandut, soon to be a notable Otello himself, has a high attractive baritone and gives an energetic performance, an ideal foil to Del Monaco. Their duet goes particularly well.Delia Regal does not have the high floating pianissimos this music asks for but she brings a welcome edge to Desdemona avoiding the pitfall of becoming a beautifully sung dramatic blank.The sound is good enough, voices mostly clear. There is some intermittent intrusive surface noise from the original source, but this is not really a problem if you don't listen through headphones!