Dear list,
I forgot to mention a few recent discography updates:
1. Placido Domingo's latest album, "Sacred Songs", prominently
features on its first track Mascagni's Ave Maria based on the
Intermezzo of Cavalleria Rusticana. Domingo already recorded this
piece live at least once in 1992, but this is a completely new
version recorded in studio in February of last year. The
originality is the presence of Norwegian singer Sissel, who sings a
few lines and performs a recitation in English:
Hail Mary, full of grace.
The Lord is with you.
Blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Pray for us.
I was not familiar with Sissel at all, but I think she has a
beautiful (albeit non-operatic) voice and the result is quite
appealing.
More information about the album is available from Deutsche
Grammophon:
http://www.deutschegrammophon.com/special/?ID=domingo-sacredsongs
The most interesting item is a video, "The making of Sacred Song",
that you can play from your Web browser:
http://www.deutschegrammophon.com/special/video.htms?ID=domingo-sacredsongs
The video features Domingo arriving at the recording studio, the
entire recording of the Ave Maria, and some comments by Domingo and
Sissel after the recording. A nice promotional item!
The discography entry:
http://www.mascagni.org/recordings/503627
Details about the other recording of the Ave Maria by Domingo:
http://www.mascagni.org/recordings/501399
2. Speaking of the Ave Maria, I added two other versions recently:
http://www.mascagni.org/recordings/503571
http://www.mascagni.org/recordings/503601
The first one is performed by Kathleen Battle. The second one is
the English version by Irish tenor John McCormack in 1914 with
Fritz Kreisler on the violin: quite a nice performance. The
performances by McCormack and Kreisler at the beginning of the 20th
century prompted maestro Lorin Maazel to do the orchestrations of
Andrea Bocelli's latest album, "Sentimento". He tells the story
here:
http://www.maestromaazel.com/storyofsentimento.html
3. A new page regroups all the MRF issues:
http://www.mascagni.org/recordings/mrf
It is important to mention these releases that so many Mascagni
fans treasured for years!
4. I recently (re-)listened to the version of Silvano recored in 1973
with Gianni Jaia, Renata Matioli, conductor Pietro Argento. The
performance was released on what I think was a "private" (maybe
one-time use!) label, Foyer. It is actually quite a good
performance, more exciting than the more recent version conducted
by Tiboris (even if Joseph Wolverton, the tenor on this recording,
has a beautiful voice). The sound is monophonic but decent. I
recommend it if you can get a hold of it:
http://www.mascagni.org/recordings/3121
Details about the recording with Wolverton:
http://www.mascagni.org/recordings/3181
This time I'm really done for today ;-)
-Erik
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