Warwick Thompson’s moronic notes to this release suggest that producer John Culshaw and conductor Herbert von Karajan’s “soundstage” recording concept realizes this opera more faithfully than the composer himself could ever have achieved in the theater. That this type of production, with its numerous sound effects and singers dashing about, bouncing between speakers, had been largely abandoned (indeed discredited, not least by Karajan himself) by the late 1960s seems not to impress Mr. Thompson. He then goes on to suggest that Verdi, arguably the most experienced and practical composer for the stage in musical history, deliberately included all sorts of impossible suggestions in his scores in the prophetic hope that someone like Culshaw would come along and realize them all on disc. Finally, he contends that the reason certain music critics did not like Karajan’s approach, indeed refused to even review him, is because Jews were indignant over his Nazi party membership. All of which is completely irrelevant to the reason that this is a legendary recording of Aida. That reason is, simply, the presence of three great singers: Renata Tebaldi, Carlo Bergonzi, and Giulietta Simionato. Karajan’s leadership is slow and monumental, and as for Culshaw’s production, it’s still dry in the bass, and sports an artificially wide dynamic range. But then again, who among us (except maybe Mr. Thompson) buys opera recordings to listen to a production philosophy? No, it’s the singers, Mr. Thompson–just the singers, only the singers. There’s some great singing here, and nothing else matters.
