Elena Obraztsova – Schumann, Mahler: Romances (Remastered) (2017/2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:03:58 minutes | 1,02 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © JSC Firma Melodiya
The Russian mezzo-soprano, Elena [Yelena] Obraztsova Elena [Yelena] Vassilievna Obraztsova). Memories of Elena’s childhood are connected to war and blockade. Her father left for the front and the family remained in besieged Leningrad up to the end of winter of 1942. Later, Elena, her mother and grandmother were evacuated across Ladoga lake to a small town Ustjuzhnu of the Vologda area where they lived until summer of 1945. After war living was hard and difficult. Her father returned after a year, her mother had to work and Elena was given to a kindergarten. At the age of 5 Elena started singing. She sang what she heard, mainly Strauss’s waltzes. As a schoolgirl she had her first lessons in music – she sang for herself or listened to recordings. She spent hours sitting at a loudspeaker during opera transmissions. Since childhood music was the central point of her life. She liked domestic musical evenings where also her father, an engineer by profession, performed: he was an excellent baritone and besides he played violin. From a business trip to Italy he brought a big collection of recordings from which the little girl got acquainted with voices of the well-known singers of that time – Beniamino Gigli, Caruso, Galli-Curzi.
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Piero Cappuccilli, Ileana Cotrubas, Plácido Domingo, Elena Obraztsova, Nicolai Ghiaurov, Kurt Moll, Hanna Schwarz, Wiener Staatsopernchor, Wiener Philharmoniker, Carlo Maria Giulini – Verdi: Rigoletto (1980/2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:59:46 minutes | 1,96 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)
“This is not one of the most famous recordings of Verdi’s warhorse, but in my opinion it is the best. The great Italian conductor Carlo Maria Giulini stays away from the melodramatic caricature of opera that this can easily turn into, and brings out the dark, brooding colors of the drama and of the music. He combines lyricism with the greatest dramatic power, at speeds which feel exactly right, even though they are slower than most. And not only does he have a superb individual view of the piece, he is a sensitive accompanist, too, giving the excellent Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra its full dominance without drowning out the singers. And what singers! The velvety, golden voice of Piero Cappuccilli, used with unfailing intelligence and musicality; the warm, gorgeous voice of Plácido Domingo; and perhaps most stunning of all, the bewitching lyric soprano of Ileana Cotrubas, the best Gilda I have ever heard. These singers may not hit the stratospheric unwritten high notes on the Bonynge recording with Pavarotti, Milnes and Sutherland, but they do offer consistently refined, thoughtful and beautiful singing. Cotrubas’ radiant singing alone is worth the modest price of this set. The great Bulgarian bass Nicolai Ghiaurov makes a riveting, dark-toned Sparafucile; Elena Obraztsova sings Maddalena perfectly well, though not on the level of her colleagues. Kurt Moll is cast luxuriously as Monterone. At mid-price, with full libretto and translation and with excellent work from the VPO and chorus, this is a Rigoletto that must be in all Verdi collections.”
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