Let's start with Placido Domingo, the star of the show. I have heard Domingo sing many, many roles over my short five years of being an opera fan-- a sweet and slightly foppish Alfredo (in Verdi's "La Traviata), a manly and dashing Manrico (Verdi's "Il Trovatore"), a frustrated and bitter Faust (in Gonoud's "Faust"), and a broken-hearted yet vindictive Canio (in Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci"). He can manipulate his voice to such a great extent! I must say, after all of the roles I've heard him sing, it was refreshing and pleasantly surprising to hear him do Nemorino. He sounds so youthful, so credulous, so sympathetic! You just listen to him and think, "Aw, poor Nemorino! He's such a nice guy-- Adina should treat him better!" His acting is beautiful, and he hit notes verging on the falsetto range with ease. I've listened to clips of other tenors singing Nemorino, but, truth be told, Domingo is the most charming Nemorino I've yet heard, with Joseph Calléja following close in his footsteps.
Next, Ileana Cotrubas. I am a huge fan of hers! I love how full her voice is, and how delightfully she acts. She makes the perfect Violetta (Verdi's "La Traviata"), and her rendition of Tatyana in Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin" is superb (I listened to her do the Letter Scene on Youtube). There is a youthful but very soulful quality to her voice, and it adds real depth to every character she sings. I really enjoy listening to her sing, and she did a great job with Adina, but I'll make a confession: The first couple of times I listened to "L'Elisir," I thought, "What's Violetta doing in this opera?" But that could be because I listened to her and Domingo in "La Traviata" for probably a year before I got my mitts on any other operas on CD.
Let's hit the lower voices! You've probably guessed by now that I adore Ingvar Wixell, so that's a no-brainer. Getting to listen to him is a pleasure and an honor in itself. His introduction is very suave, and he's very playful and mischievous during the scene where he enlists Nemorino. Sir Geraint Evans is a side-splitting hilarious and puckishly charming Dulcamara! Hearing him go on about how he's known through the whole universe "and...and... and elsewhere, too!" and when he says "Musica, amaretto!" and "Si, Briconna?" makes me smile and sing along (which might be annoying or just plain weird to the people around me as I listen to my headphones, but so what?). These two are dead on in their roles!
I would also like to make note of Lillian Watson's excellence! Her voice is so sweet and pleasant, the listener is immediately whisked away to the pastoral locale of the opera, just from hearing her sing.
I have one qualm with this particular set, however: there is no physical libretto. The second disc of the set contains the libretto along with the second half of the opera. In other words, to read the words and translation, the listener must import both discs onto their computer, start the music, and open up the libretto from the second disc while it's still in the drive. I find this very frustrating, because I'm the kind of person who figures out what's going on solely from reading the libretto, and also the kind who loves to look up the exact words of a certain aria at any given moment. Can't really do that if you're playing the opera from an ipod, boombox, or portable CD player. But, this is a really beautiful recording with a terrific cast, and I highly recommend it.
Next week: "Die Zauberflöte" No. 1!
Until then, friends, I remain,
Yours truly,
~R.M.
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