If you love Rossini, or great singing, and don’t own the recordings from which these excerpts are taken, this 75 minutes will delight you. From the composer’s early Cambiale to his final opera, Tell, we get gorgeous melodies, endless roulades, great wit and charm, all sung with the kind of virtuosity that creates legends. Marilyn Horne is heard in all her glory as Rosina and Desdemona; her older, lighter-toned-but-just-as-great mezzo colleague Teresa Berganza sings Cenerentola’s final Rondo with great style and takes part in a swell ensemble from L’Italiana; Joan Sutherland almost stuns as noble Semiramide and simple Fanny (in Cambiale); Nicolai Ghiaurov booms as Basilio; Leo Nucci impresses without overwhelming in “Largo al factotum”; Renata Tebaldi is lovely as Mathilde in Tell; and almost best of all, Pavarotti, from 1969 (when he actually was the greatest tenor in the world), tackles Arnold’s near-impossible final act scene from the same opera with such glorious tone, ringing high Bs and Cs, that had it been his only recording he would be worshipped. Don’t ask questions, just go out and get this. [4/21/2001]
