Puccini: Manon Lescaut / Olivero, Tucker, Sardinero

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Music reviews of Puccini: Manon Lescaut / Olivero, Tucker, Sardinero

Music Review: The only complete "Manon Lescaut" worth having
Rating: 5 Stars

Richard Tucker was in the last phase of his career, which started around 1967, which means that he sings more cleanly here than at any time since the early '50s (when he got away from the continent style forced on him by Toscanini and began sobbing and glotting). He was suffering from a cold at the time, and in fact cancelled the second performance of this opera in Caracas, and of course his voice was never really as "phonogenic" as Bjorling's or Corelli's with their brighter timbres, but he sings Des Grieux with just the right amount of passion and, as I say, his singing at this time was both highly musical and technically secure. A worthy tribute to a fine tenor who sadly made few great recordings.

Vicente Sardinero is superb as Lescaut and, though Veltri does not conduct with the astounding cohesion and symphonic sense of development revealed by Toscanini in his Act 3 from the La Scala reopening concert, he still conducts as well or better than Levine in the same opera and many of his Italian peers.

I highly recommend this as the best overall "Manon Lescaut" on records. It is a finer work than "Adriana" or "Fedora," the other two complete Olivero recordings that are floating around these days. But how I wish Magda had recorded a complete "Traviata"!

Description of Puccini: Manon Lescaut / Olivero, Tucker, Sardinero

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