The only reason for owning this previously unreleased, 1954 RAI recording of Verdi’s four-act version of Don Carlo is the King Philip of Cesare Siepi, a role he otherwise did not record. Mario Rossi leads a well-prepared but uninspired reading (with disfiguring cuts in the last-act duet), and Mirto Picchi, always a useful tenor, does well enough by the title role. Domingo, Carreras, Bergonzi–just to name three–outdo him in other recordings. Antonietta Stella, a perfectly fine light spinto soprano, had the misfortune to be an exact contemporary of Tebaldi and Callas. She comes across here, as on other recordings, as a soprano you’d be happy to encounter live, but whose voice and imagination do not weather well with familiarity.
Oralia Dominguez sings the daylights out of Eboli, but she’s graceless, and as long as we have Baltsa and Verrett, she’s unnecessary. Enzo Mascherini also is “good enough” as Posa, but Cappuccilli, Bruson, Hvorostovsky (one of the few good things about the Philips recording, the other being Borodina) and Milnes sing him under the table. Marco Stefanoni’s Grand Inquisitore lacks the lowest notes, but he’s truly nasty-sounding–and not to carp, he’s no Talvela or Ghiaurov. Siepi is stunning, singing with gorgeous legato and ravishing tone and never resorting to shouting to keep his imperiousness. The sound is bad. And that’s that.
