Verdi: Otello / Domingo, Freni, Cappucilli, Kleiber

Difficult to review and to award stars. This recording is good, the conducting and orchestra great and Freni interesting in the part; the sound, while clear, has a somewhat distant quality of an older live performance; but not bad. The voice of Domingo has all the fire but as another reviewer noted, it seems ( and I don't want to say strained) as though he was too young for the part. His young voice is not ready for the intensity of the mad with jealousy Otello. Not that it is bad, it just isn't there yet. Freni is quite convincing in the role of Desdemona, and although I thought she might be better suited for the part than Renata Scotto, I find I prefer the later with Domingo in his 2nd recording of this great opera with James Levine conducting. This was a gamble, as I am searching for the 'perfect' Otello. I have most recently added to my search recordings with del Monaco and Tebaldi with mixed results. I just do not appreciate del Monaco's loud, bellowing voice and lack of subtlety; Tebaldi,on the other hand, is near perfect as Desdemona. Although I have not heard the recording with Freni and Vickers, to date, my 'go to' recording of Otello and top recommendation is Domingo's 2nd with Scotto and Levine conducting. Unless you are curious as i was, skip this recording and buy the Domingo, Scotto, Levine recording of Otello. It is the best I have heard.

While this recording is not perfect, it's one of the best there is of this amazing work.First, the singers -- so many recordings of Otello miss the mark with one or more singers; the best example that comes to mind is the recent Muti recording, where the great singing (IMHO) of Antonenko and Stoyanova are dragged down by the Iago, who is just subpar or worse. In this recording, all three principals are dazzling -- Domingo is at the height of his singing and acting powers, Freni is just exquisite, and Cappucilli is the personification of suave evil -- and he hits the notes, which isn't always the case when a snarler takes the role.The conducting is peerless. Kleiber wasn't that well known on this side of the Atlantic, but he was a brilliant conductor, and in this recording he manages to bring out the beauty and the drama of the score to perfection.So why isn't the recording perfect? Primarily because the sound is mediocre to poor. It's a live recording, and when it was made the art was not nearly as refined as it is now. However, the sound really isn't a problem given the quality of the singing and the conducting. What DOES bother me is that one of the beauties of a live recording is listening to the audience go bananas -- which it does here, but you'd never know it because they cut it off. Not good, but it doesn't mar the quality of this otherwise wonderful recording.

That very first-ever performance by Domingo as the tragic Moor warrior hero was actually in Hamburg conducted by James Levine, 9/28/1975... a sort of 'trial run' before this La Scala performance 2 months later. As great as Kleiber and the all-star cast here, I would have loved to hear THAT recording! Domingo's Otello had been meticulously coached by Levine and for La Scala all Kleiber could do was working his magic with the orchestra and letting Domingo do his thing.

As I was reading the previous review I kept thinking yes but what about Kleiber and then the reviewer got to it. I just want to add that the conducting is electrifying! This is indeed a great recording all around.

Superschnell, alles perfekt, immer wieder gerne, danke!