Aside from the lovely, fragile, beautifully sung Violetta of Mirella Freni, her coloratura in place, “Amami Alfredo” grandly expressive, and final act wonderfully nuanced, this 1973 set is of only passing interest. The recently departed Franco Bonisolli was an exciting if unsubtle tenor; here he is not bad but is not memorable either. He sings one verse of “O mio rimorso” and ends it with a bad high-C–very odd, since he was a high-note sort of guy. In the second-act confrontation scene he is effectively angry and hurt, but little stays with the listener after Bonisolli stops singing. Sesto Bruscantini’s Germont is oddly inelegant; only in the second verse of “Di Provenza…” does he impress. Lamberto Gardelli’s leadership is tedious and truly uninspired, the orchestra and chorus play and sing well enough, and the comprimario roles range from good to funnily bad. As suggested–this is only for Freni completists.
