Puccini Arias
List Price:
Our Price: $4.49
You Save: $3.50 (44%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Music CD
See more CD details
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
CD Details
Composer: Ludwig van BeethovenComposer: Christoph Willibald Gluck
Composer: Giacomo Puccini
Composer: Carl Maria von Weber
Conductor: Max Rudolf
Performer: Eileen Farrell
Orchestra: Columbia Symphony Orchestra
Edition: Music CD
Format: Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2006-08-01
Music Label: Sony
Soundtracks:
- O mio babbino caro from Gianni Schicchi
- Quando me'n vo' soletta per la via from La bohème (Musetta's Waltz Song)
- Sì, mi chiamano Mimì from La bohème
- Donde lieta usci from La bohème
- Chi il bel sogno di Doretta from La rondine
- Non la sospiri from Tosca
- Vissi d'arte from Tosca
- Spira sul mare from Madame Butterfly
- Un bel di vedremo from Madama Butterfly
- In quelle trine morbide from Manon Lescaut
- Tu che di gel sei cinta from Turandot
- In questa reggia from Turandot
- Grands dieux! du destin, qui m'accable from Alceste
- Ah perfido!, Op. 65
- Abscheulicher, wo eilst du hin? from Fidelio
- Leise, leise' from Der Freischütz
- Cavatina: Und ob die Wolke from Der Freischütz
Music reviews of Puccini Arias
Music Review: Legacy Recording of USA's greatest dramatic soprano, bar none
Rating: 5 Stars
Wow, it is ever good - no, great - to have Eileen Farrell back with us. Even if only via these reissued, remastered discs. One can only hope that the DSD remasterings which have been trickling out from giant Sony/BMG will soon get published in SACD versions.
It is ever too facile to look back on musicians of the past and hear a Golden Voice in a Golden Era. But, the cliché comes perilously near reality in this case.
Eileen Farrell was undoubtedly one of the most prodigiously gifted of dramatic sopranos who has ever walked the planet. Her physical vocal talents were so unfailingly there. She never had to wonder if her voice was going to show up, and neither did anybody else.
On top of these generous physical gifts, Farrell was the most dedicated of vocal musicians. She never showed up without being ready for work, and everybody knew it. In fact, her down to earth competency and Rock of Gibraltar professionalism tended to cast unwelcome shadows over some of the other divas - a category of grandstanding musician not strictly limited to singers - who might stand next to her on the opera or concert stages where she appeared.
To our very, very great loss, she eventually dropped out altogether. She loved the music - but she had little or no patience for the intrigues, the opera politics, and the over-inflated vanities of so many people whom she encountered in the music biz of her era.
To our great happiness, she did make some fine recordings, of which the current release is one. This CD actually gives us the old Puccini arias LP, plus a few added selections from another LP of famous arias for dramatic soprano.
Without affectation or strain, Eileen Farrell conquers each operatic challenge. And she does this by entering into the music, not by bending the music to her own wayward will or egotism. If Farrell had been eccentric, we surely would have forgiven her somewhat, so great was her voice. But she didn't need to pile difficult narcissistic postures or attitudes on top of her abilities. Technically, she lightens her huge voice to characterize the more youthful of the Puccini heroines on offer, starting with Gianni Schicchi, and moving on through La Boheme and La rondine, to Tosca and Madame Butterfly and Manon Lescaut. The climax of the Puccini program is Turandot, but true to Farrell's generosity and fine form, we get Liu, plus Turandot's In questa reggia.
If Birgit Nilsson could be said to have owned the role of Turandot in that past era, it probably was only because Farrell dropped out so quickly. Had Farrell stayed, we surely would have been happy to get every single note she sang. This In questa reggia is so much solid gold that one roundly curses the USA record companies for not rushing to get the whole opera down complete, with Farrell in the title role. Or, in a risible tour de force of studio recording, could she have been double cast as both Liu and Turandot? That sensationalistic oddity of a trick would have yielded nothing but the best music in Farrell's hands, if anybody had even dared go so far.
To complete the disc, we get five additional great dramatic soprano arias from Gluck, Beethoven, and Carl Maria von Weber. If anything, these leave a listener aching like a silly opera pig for more, more, more, more, more. (There is more; look for a disc of Verdi arias. Also pure gold.) She has the imperturbable facility that we have tended to associate with Nilsson, plus a certain North American cultural or interpretive directness. There is simply never a fussy moment in these great dramatic arias. The Beethoven arias especially benefit from this self-assured directness, because something true in Farrell's personality - she knew she was good, period - is echoed in Beethoven's musical personality. The Gluck and von Weber arias also benefit from this directness of utterance, because their grand operatic, dramatic soprano strength is delivered, clear and present and whole. In their examples, Romantic opera does not depend on having to use operatic character acting to cover for any vocal weaknesses or limitations whatsoever. Farrell simply lets her characters stand and deliver.
If your best sense of Verdi has gotten squishy, just go to the other Farrell disc and she will get you right back to Verdi home base, no holds barred.
Who was the Columbia Symphony Orchestra? Membership probably varied from session to session, and from east coast bands, to west coast bands. Whoever they were, they play wonderfully well for Max Rudolf. Partly, their fundamentally professional competency matches Farrell's work, and partly all concerned must have felt privileged to get the call to be a session player for this disc. No problems with the band, then. And kudos to dear old Max Rudolf. He conducts as open-heartedly and as musically involved as Farrell sings.
If you have slightly or greatly lost sight of opera as music - if opera has gotten tarnished by pretense, theatrics, diva-dom, and brand name singer marketing spin published by the remaining big record labels - well, just put this gem of a CD on the player and return to a time and place when opera was still a real musical deal. Farrell would like that, assuming we listen with a no nonsense attitude that wants nothing better than to hear the music for what it is worth.
Do not hesitate to get this disc. And if it comes out in SACD some day soon, get that too.
Farrell and the music are the point. And, looking back, we cannot take such dedication for music as a great cultural calling for granted, even for a split second, in the slightest. This and the other Farrell recordings belong on a best of all times list. Now shake your piggy bank vigorously, and click.
Description of Puccini Arias
All products are BRAND NEW and factory sealed. Fast shipping and 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed.Classical CDs
Music Genres
Bestsellers in Classical CDs
Winterscapesby London Philharmonic
Prophetic Voice; Published: 2000-07; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $2.75
Price in other shops:
The Queen, the Bear, & the Bumblebeeby Dini Petty
Children's Group; Published: 2001-03; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $13.38
Price in other shops:
Classical Kids - Beethoven Lives Upstairs CdrRelease date: 2000-04-05; Music CD
Best price: $24.98
Tchaikovsky (Life and Works (Naxos))by Malcolm Sinclair, Jeremy Siepmann
Naxos; Published: 2003-11; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $35.99
![Jose Carreras - Jubileum Concert [VHS] Image](/images/Jose-Carreras-Jubileum-Concert-VHS-1584481471-X.jpg){kind=small}
Jose Carreras - Jose Carreras - Jubileum Concert [VHS]Sling Shot; Release date: 2000-04-18; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $5.86
Price in other shops:
![Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker / Nureyev, Park, Royal Ballet [VHS] Image](/images/Tchaikovsky-The-Nutcracker-Nureyev-Park-Royal-Ballet-VHS-156127092X-X.jpg){kind=small}
Tchaikovsky - The Nutcracker / Nureyev, Park, Royal Ballet [VHS]Kultur Video; Release date: 1997-09-09; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.89
Price in other shops:
![Lonely Town Lonley Street / Sergeant's Early Dream [VHS] Image](/images/Lonely-Town-Lonley-Street-Sergeant-Early-Dream-VHS-1561270857-X.jpg){kind=small}
Rambert Dance Company - Lonely Town Lonley Street / Sergeant's Early Dream [VHS]Kultur Video; Release date: 1997-10-28; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $14.99
Price in other shops:
Winter Music: Composing the Northby John Luther Adams
Wesleyan; Published: 2004-11-10; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $21.90
Price in other shops:
![Puccini - La Fanciulla del West / Santi, Domingo, Neblett, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS] Image](/images/Puccini-La-Fanciulla-del-West-Santi-Domingo-Neblett-Royal-Opera-Covent-Garden-VHS-0769720382-X.jpg){kind=small}
Puccini - La Fanciulla del West / Santi, Domingo, Neblett, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS]Kultur Video; Release date: 1999-05-25; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $6.38
Price in other shops:
![Verdi - Falstaff / Giulini, Bruson, Ricciarelli, Nucci, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS] Image](/images/Verdi-Falstaff-Giulini-Bruson-Ricciarelli-Nucci-Royal-Opera-Covent-Garden-VHS-0769720358-X.jpg){kind=small}
Verdi - Falstaff / Giulini, Bruson, Ricciarelli, Nucci, Royal Opera Covent Garden [VHS]Kultur Video; Release date: 1999-05-25; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $12.95
Price in other shops:
Similar CDs
Eileen, Farrell - My Very BestRelease date: 1994-10-03; Music CD
Best price: $8.14
Price in other shops:
Eileen Farrell in New OrleansRelease date: 2007-01-09; Music CD
Best price: $10.78
Price in other shops:
Joe Wilder - Eileen Farrell sings Torch SongsRelease date: 1993-12-17; Music CD
Best price: $7.77
Price in other shops:
Wagner: Selections from Tristan und Isolde, Tannhäuser & Götterdämmerung / Wesendonck-Lieder (Royal Edition No. 100)Release date: 1993-11-02; Music CD
Best price: $13.99
Wagner: Wesendonck-Lieder; Act 3 of SiegfriedRelease date: 2008-10-14; Music CD
Best price: $16.34
Price in other shops:
Eileen Farrell, Luther Henderson & His Orchestra - Carols For Christmas EveRelease date: 2009-12-29; Music CD
Best price: $10.57
Price in other shops:
Can't Help Singing: The Life of Eileen Farrellby Eileen Farrell, Brian Kellow
Northeastern; Published: 1999-11-09; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.90
Price in other shops:
Eileen Farrell Sings Opera Arias & SongsRelease date: 1996-05-09; Music CD
Best price: $17.20
Price in other shops:
Eileen Farrell Sings VerdiRelease date: 1997-01-14; Music CD
Best price: $44.99
Eileen Farrell - I Gotta Right to Sing the BluesRelease date: 2011-03-11; Music CD
Best price: $11.98