L Elisir D Amore Comp (Ital)

So - why is this a 3 star recording and not 5 stars? two reasons: Leo Nucci as Belcore and Enzo Dara as Duclamara. Nucci barks and shouts all his voice out, his performance is driven and humorless, and his intonation is just horrible. For those of you with perfect pitch (like myself), you will be very unhappy with his performance. Enzo Dara is really a bad singer. Why is he in this recording? His intonation is also bad (but not as bad as Nucci's), and he cracks on almost every high note he sings (including the "Excellente!" in the Nemorino/Duclamara duet, plus more). His singing is boring also, including in the Barcarolle duet with Adina ("Io son ricco e tu sai bella), and the other duet with Adina ("Quanto amore!"), and the way he presents the elixir to the village people is pathetic.

but if you ignore Nucci and Dara, skip their solo scenes and duets, or simply don't listen to them, then this is really a fantastic recording, and you SHOULD buy it. however, it's really a shame that they couldn't get better singers to play Belcore and Duclamara, perhaps Juan Pons as Belcore and Bryn Terfel as Duclamara. then this would be a 5-star recording, not a 3-star recording as it is now with Nucci and Dara doing their parts.

overall, get this recording for Battle, Dawn Upshaw (as Gianetta) Levine and the Met orchestra and chorus, but mostly for Pavarotti himself. this is one of his best recordings.

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First for the positives. The cast is wonderful and mostly in good form. For his part Pavarotti is a wonderful Nemorino. He is very involved during this performance, and delivers a wonderful combination of fun and sorrow which captures Nemorino to a tee. You can truly feal that he was having fun during this performance. Kathleen battle delivers a stron performance but one which is sub par for someone of her considerable tallents.
Leo Nucci is simply fantastic. He is truly the embodyment of the arrogant Belcore, and his voice is in excellent form here.
Lastly Enzo Dara delivers a solid performance as the excentric doctor Dulcamarra. There are better performances out there(See the Gheorghiu-Alagna set)but Dara does a good job with this difficult role.

The second major positive about the recording is the Orchestra and Conducting. Levine generall has a good sense for the pacing of a piece, as well as the talent with which he is working. This skill is on full display here. Levine moves the opera along at a brisk pace, yet one that does not force the singers to fight to catch up with the orchestra. In addition the orchestra does not drown out the performers(as is so often the case).

Now for the negatives: The production work here is not perfect. At one point in the first act you can hear someone coughing, as well as there is the occasional page turning which I assume is from the orchestra. These things are not constant, but they are annoying and show a lack of attention to detail on the part of the production team. The second weakness is actually related to Battle. She never hits any of the high notes built into this opera. One such case is at the end of the first trio in act one. I don't quite understand why she does this, she is certainly more then capable of comfortably reaching a high D or E.This is truly dissapointing. Lastly Enzo darra at times struggles whith the Dulcamara role. At one point his voice even cracks during his first duet with Nemorino. Grant it this role is very demanding, but again a dissapointment.

Whith all that said, this is a fine recording of a wonderful opera, and a solid 4 star selection.

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