The Very Best of Beverly Sills

The Very Best of Beverly Sills

The Very Best of Beverly Sills
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Performer: Alan Titus
Performer: Donald Gramm
Performer: John Rawnsley
Performer: Rolando Panerai
Performer: Sherrill Milnes
Composer: Gaetano Donizetti
Composer: Franz Lehar
Composer: Jules Massenet
Composer: Gioachino Rossini
Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Conductor: Aldo Ceccato
Conductor: James Levine
Conductor: Julius Rudel
Conductor: Lorin Maazel
Conductor: Sarah Caldwell
Conductor: Thomas Schippers
Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra
Orchestra: New Philharmonia Orchestra
Orchestra: New York City Opera Orchestra
Orchestra: Philharmonia Orchestra of London
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 2005-04-26
Music Label: EMI Classics
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
  1. Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville), opera: Act 1. Una voce poco fa
  2. Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville), opera: Act 1. Dunque io son
  3. Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville), opera: Act 2. Contro un cor
  4. Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville), opera: Act 2. Ah, qual colpo inaspettato!
  5. Rigoletto, opera: Act 1. Ã? il sol dell'anima...Addio! speranza ed anima
  6. Rigoletto, opera: Act 1. Gualtier Maldè...Caro nome
  7. Rigoletto, opera: Act 2. Tutte le feste al tempio...Compiuto pur quanto...Sì, vendetta
  8. Rigoletto, opera: Act 3. V'ho ingannato...Lassù in cielo
  9. Don Pasquale, opera: Act 1. Quel guardo il cavaliere...So Anch'io la virtù magica
  10. Don Pasquale, opera: Act 1. Pronta io son...Vado, corro
  11. Don Pasquale, opera: Act 3. Via, caro sposino
  12. Don Pasquale, opera: Act 3. Tornami a dir che m'ami
  13. Don Pasquale, opera: Act 3. La morale in tutto questo
Music CD 2
  1. Die lustige Witwe (The Merry Widow), operetta: Act 2. Vilia
  2. Thaïs, opera in 3 acts: Act 2. Ah! je suis seule...Dis-moi que je suis belle
  3. Le siège de Corinthe (The Siege of Corinth), opera: Act 2. Cielo! che diverrò?...Sì, ferite...Dal soggiorno...Ah! che spiegar
  4. La Traviata, opera: Act 1. Libiamo ne' lieti calici
  5. La Traviata, opera: Act 1. Un dì felice, eterea
  6. La Traviata, opera: Act 1. � strano...Ah, fors'è lui...Follie! follie!...Sempre libera
  7. La Traviata, opera: Act 2. Pura siccome un angelo...Ah! dite alla giovine
  8. La Traviata, opera: Act 2. Che fai?
  9. La Traviata, opera: Act 3. Addio del passato
  10. La Traviata, opera: Act 3. Parigi, o cara

Music reviews of The Very Best of Beverly Sills

Music Review: EMI Does It Again: Beverly Sills - A Tribute
Rating: 5 Stars

EMI's "Very Best Of" series are perfect introductions to operatic singers of the 20th century. Once you hear these artist tribute albums (much like The Singers series) you will get hooked on the singer and seek out their full-length studio recordings. Beverly Sills was the first truly famous American opera star. One may argue that she was not, that she was merely a continued tradition of American divas such as Mary Garden and Lily Pons and which still continues today with Renee Fleming, Elizabeth Futral and Susan Graham. Beverly was raised in New York City, which is still her home, and which is the home of the New York City Opera and the Met, opera houses which rocketed her to fame. Her first success (not featured in this recording...UH WHY ?) was Cleopatra of Handel's Julius Caesar, a performance she sang opposite the illustrious baritone Norman Treigle. Those performances were legendary because coincidentally at the same time the Met was opening its new theatre and season with what became a disastrous Samuel Barber's Antony and Cleopatra starring Leontyne Price in an overblown, big-budget, epic fiasco. The great roles that followed the 1965 Cleopatra were Manon, Queen Elizabeth I in Roberto Deveraux, Maria Stuarda and Anna Bolena in the Donizetti Tudor Queen operas, Pamira in The Siege of Corinth (which were Sill's La Scala and belated Met debut. None of the Queens are featured in this recording, though its supposedly the Very Best Of. An aria from Rossini's Siege of Corinth is featured here however. What we are treated to however are fine lyric roles- Beverly Sills shone brightly and acted convincingly as Gilda in Rigoletto (the final scene is featured here) as Violetta in La Traviata, Thais, The Merry Widow (the beautiful Vilja is featured here)and the ingenue role of Norina in Don Pasquale is also showcased here. To each of these roles, Beverly Sills delivered an authenticity and dramatic interpretation, not ot mention beautiful, sweet tone. I love her pianissimos, her high notes, her chest register. It was the voice of Beverly Sills who first hooked me into opera. For a recording that should showcase her best work, Manon is not featured nor any of her prized French heroines- Marie in The Daughter of the Regiment and the heroines in Tales of Hoffman. Also not in here is the role that was her first success- the Broadway opera Ballad of Baby Doe. Even as such, the arias here are gorgeous. The Barber of Seville is in here and as Rosina she is playful and charming. Sills was a modern singer, with a voice that was beautiful but willing to sacrifice beauty for the sake of dramatic content. When Sills was once asked what she thought of the supposed rivalry with Joan Sutherland (which was never real and only gossip from partisan fans) Beverly said something to this effect -Joan and I are apples and oranges in our take on opera, we are Picasso and Monet. She would do anything for the effect of beauty and tone, I'd sacrifice beauty for the sake of dramatic text. Even as such, I see no ugliness to any of the roles here. All of them are beautiful to hear, full of rich floating celestial tones. It would have been nice to hear the roles that did call for Sills to step up the tense drama - Norma, will her recording ever be reissued by EMI ? Also, few people know that Beverly Sills sung role most would consider dangerous for her voice (though she sang them long before her career even took off)- Aida and Carmen!!
More The Very Best of Beverly Sills free music reviews:
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Description of The Very Best of Beverly Sills

Details TBA. EMI. 2005.
Beverly Sills hardly needs an introduction. She sang on the radio as a child and on the operatic stage as a teenager; her meteoric international career was launched by appearances in several virtually unknown bel canto operas at the New York City Opera. This compilation of arias and ensembles from some of her signature roles, recorded in the 1970s, with splendid partners like Nicolai Gedda, Alfredo Kraus, and Sherrill Milnes, displays her unique vocal and dramatic artistry at its peak. Her voice, effortlessly produced over an enormous range, is bright, pure, infinitely variable in color, inflection and intensity. Her intonation is impeccable even in huge leaps, and her breath is endless. The coloratura roulades are like strings of perfect, luminous pearls, clearly articulated in seamless legato. But this stunning technique (whose only flaw is a sometimes wide, wobbly vibrato) is never used for show; every note has life and expression, serving the music and the dramatic situation. Indeed, her characters are flesh-and-blood human beings, whose thoughts, emotions and interactions, from inwardness to ecstasy, from lamentation to overflowing joy, she projects with riveting concentration. Rosina in Rossini's The Barber of Seville is a charming, mischievous minx who succumbs to delighted tenderness; Pamira's great scene from his Siege of Corinth shows clearly why her Metropolitan Opera debut in that role was a sensation. In Verdi's Rigoletto, Gilda's hopeful innocence turns into hopeless despair: she dies, palpably, on a floating, celestial pianissimo. In his La traviata, Violetta's initial cool, hesitant restraint gradually melts as she opens herself (and her voice) to Alfredo's ardor and the bliss of love. The vocal balance in their final duet is uncanny; its tremulous tenderness in the shadow of death breaks the heart, as does her duet with Germont. Massenet's Thais is sensuous; Donizetti's Don Pasquale and Lehár's The Merry Widow provide comic relief. --Edith Eisler

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