Verdi: Ernani / Pavarotti, Sutherland, Nucci, Burchuladze; Bonynge

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Music reviews of Verdi: Ernani / Pavarotti, Sutherland, Nucci, Burchuladze; Bonynge

Music Review: Sutherland Goes Out in Style
Rating: 5 Stars

When I went to hear her U.S. farewell as The Merry Widow in Dallas in November 1989, I asked Bonynge after the performance what other recordings were "in the can." He said that there was an Adriana Lecouvreur and an Ernani, as well as some arias.

The Adriana was delayed for a couple of years in being released, but once it was I figured the Ernani was soon to follow. Alas I was to wait until April 1998 to see the recording in the shops, almost 11 years after its being recorded in May of 1987. Any concerns I might have had that the recording was delayed because of problems with it were dispelled when I first put it on. I found it to be quite good and I still do.

Sutherland had little contact with the role of Elvira during her career. She recorded "Ernani involami" in an aria recital around 1960, and let us not forget the televised concert from the Met she did with Horne and Pavarotti around 1980 where Horne took the bass role of Silva in a performance of the final trio. But even here, some 37 years after her debut, Sutherland is little short of magnificent. Granted, there is occasionally a beat on a sustained tone and her trill is not quite as clean as it once was, but overall she is in quite good voice and a joy to hear. She decorates the second verse of her cabaletta, which is something I rarely hear, even from much younger singers.

Pavarotti's Ernani on the other hand is a known quantity. He appeared in a "Live from the Met" telecast of the opera in December 1983 which is still available commercially. There is little to choose between that performance and this one, as he is still in his considerable prime here. As he did in the telecast, at the end of Act II he performs the aria "Odi il voto" which Verdi wrote for the tenor Nicolai Ivanov in 1845, the year after the opera's premiere, as a replacement for the chorus "Pronti vedi li tuoi cavalieri." The aria really makes for a much more thrilling ending to the act and I'm surprised that more tenors don't insist on it.

Leo Nucci and Paata Burchuladze as Ernani's two rivals Don Carlo and Silva, while both younger than the soprano and tenor, are fine artists and fit well into the cast. Nucci's "Oh de' verd'anni miei" is beautifully sung and Burchuladze's slightly Slavic sound adds an extra edge to "Infelice."

One of the real surprises of the set is the conducting of Richard Bonynge. I sometimes found him to be a liability on his recordings, but he did improve over the years. Here, his conducting is so good, capturing all of the young Verdi's blood and thunder, that I found myself wishing he could go back and redo all his older recordings (if Sutherland could have been in them all I would have been even happier).

I would have a difficult time choosing between this recording and my other top favorite, Leontyne Price and Carlo Bergonzi under Thomas Schippers on RCA Victor (my third favorite, the rough-and-ready Cetra version with Caterina Mancini and Gino Penno under Fernando Previtali, is sui generis). I would probably end up giving a slight nod to this recording just because of my special affection for Sutherland and my gratitude that the recording finally did come out.

Highly recommended as an outstanding version of the opera and as a chance to hear Pavarotti in a role that suits him like a glove. But most highly recommended as a last recorded glance at Sutherland, still glorious in the twilight of her career.

Description of Verdi: Ernani / Pavarotti, Sutherland, Nucci, Burchuladze; Bonynge

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