  G.Verdi, Hits'n'Pieces, G.Noseda / A.Netrebko (+ R.Villazon) DG     |
Nocturnal Verdi Toffee
There is certainly a market for Anna Netrebko recording a Verdi hits’n’pieces, especially since she’s now left Mozart behind her and aims for rôles that demand a darker, larger voice than, say, Figaro’s agile Susanna. After her successful traveling operatic circus with Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta, Verdi’s Giovanna D’Arco—successfully launched it in Salzburg—will receive that treatment next. Two arias are wisely included as teasers of things to come.
Macbeth is the focus of this album and she is a gorgeously, focused singing Lady Macbeth, though strangely without as much as an inkling of demented wickedness. The sleepwalking-scene takes place under a self conscious limelight, not on the crepuscular edge between two worlds. Her Munich premiere of the rôle in 2014 should yield a bit more, dramatically… benefiting from her stage talent that is naturally lost on a CD.
Rolando Villazon, her erstwhile partner in fame, is on hand to help out for the duet among the Trovatore scenes. This, along with the other Act IV Trovatore scenes (“Miserere”) is of the lavish beauty that makes the attraction of Netrebko’s “Verdi”. The same goes for Elisabetta’s aria “Tu che le vanità” from Don Carlo. Callas-disciples will scoff of course, Netrebko-fans will sigh, and anyone who isn’t much into Verdi—snore.
It’s not why anyone will listen to this disc, but Gianandrea Noseda’s conducting of the Orchestra Teatro Regio Torino is outstanding and plugs in the musical excitement where it might otherwise be missing.
