Need a new Aida recording

GaryProtein

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I need help here. I have an old recording of Aida - Caballe-Domingo-Muti - that was probably recorded in the 1970s and remastered to digital in 1986. The performance is good but the age of the recording is apparent.

What suggestions can you make?

Thank you.
 

LL21

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marty

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Apr 20, 2010
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https://www.amazon.co.uk/Verdi-Aida...501327205&sr=1-1&keywords=verdi+aida+carreras

I dont know Opera or really listen to it, but Penguin Guide 2010 (the one my wife gave me several years ago) lists this one as their 1-key, 4-star recommendation. Their only Rosette is a DVD.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_s...sotto+aida&rh=n:229816,k:chiara+cossotto+aida

hope that helps.

Excellent article on Aida from Gramophone
https://www.gramophone.co.uk/feature/verdi-aida-a-complete-guide

Their recommendations:

"From the 1960s, Verdi became international property and all the best recordings have multinational casts. Of these, two stand out: Georg Solti’s 1961 set gives us conducting that’s red in tooth and claw, with the kind of big voices that we’d love to have today: Leontyne Price as Aida, Rita Gorr as Amneris, Jon Vickers as Radames (Decca 478 2679). The EMI recording with Riccardo Muti hails from a revival at London’s Royal Opera House and is handsomely cast: Montserrat Caballé’s Aida floats top notes like moonbeams beside the Nile, Fiorenza Cossotto flaunts her brass trombone of a mezzo as Amneris, and Plácido Domingo’s Radames is golden-voiced (EMI 640630-2).

Screen Shot 2017-07-29 at 3.38.53 PM.png

That was in 1974, and there’s been little to equal it since. Not Lorin Maazel on Decca, which was an excuse to record Pavarotti’s Radames (478 3058); not James Levine on Sony, despite the luxury of the Met orchestra (88691 92955-2); not Claudio Abbado on DG, Verdian aristocrat though he is (477 5605); and certainly not the wildly unidiomatic Nikolaus Harnoncourt on Teldec (2564-64348-2).

But then Antonio Pappano, Jonas Kaufmann, Anja Harteros et al made their imposing, 2016 Gramophone Opera Award-winning recording – and set a new modern benchmark."
 

eljr

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Aug 12, 2015
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Great suggestions, but why not something highly regarded and recent? Technology only gets better, so if the performance is good.....




Anja Harteros / Jonas Kaufmann / Antonio Pappano
Verdi: Aida

Release Date October 2, 2015
Duration02:25:20
Genre
Classical
Styles
Opera
Recording DateFebruary, 2015
Recording Location
Sala Santa Cecilia, Auditorium Parco della Musica, Rome



James Manheim [-]
This recording of Verdi's Aïda makes a good impression even before the first bit of information meets the laser. It's a non-live recording of an opera, in a time when those were thought to belong to the past. It features the hottest Italian opera conductor, Antonio Pappano, whose fame has apparently reached such levels that he needs only his surname in the cover graphics, along with veteran Italian instrumental forces who know the music almost by heart. The vocal stars, however, are from outside Italy, and part of the appeal of Anja Harteros and Jonas Kaufmann is that when you do get into the music is that they seem to approach the score fresh; although both are certainly competent in Italian music, neither has had much contact with Aïda in the past. The recorded sound is captured in the new Renzo Piano-designed Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome, and it turns out to be splendid, right from the orchestral prologue that is tantalizingly shaped by Pappano in a way that wouldn't be as vivid in a live recording. The bottom line is that the recording justifies the high expectations. You can believe Harteros in her varied moods of nostalgia for home, grief, and undying love, and Kaufmann's set pieces are, as usual, marvelous exemplars of pure technique. The supporting cast, notably Ekaterina Semenchuk as Amneris and bass Erwin Schrott as the slightly over-the-edge High Priest Ramfis, is uniformly strong. This is state-of-the-art Verdi, musically, sonically, and vocally, and for a lot of listeners it's going to be the new Aïda they've been waiting for.
 

LL21

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Interestingly, that was actually the very last line of Post #3...Kaufmann. Great to know one of our members recommends it as well.
 

GaryProtein

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Jul 25, 2012
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Thank you all very much!

I will be checking these out.


Marty, the recording you listed first in your post is the recording I have! Maybe I hit the nail on the head when I got it 25 years ago! Like I said in my first post, the singers performance was very good, the orchestral part I thought was also good, but the recording quality was lacking compared to what should be available today.

I have to check out this one you mentioned: Antonio Pappano, Jonas Kaufmann, Anja Harteros et al made their imposing, 2016 Gramophone Opera Award-winning recording – and set a new modern benchmark.
 
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LL21

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Hi Gary - any update? Most curious! I am not a listener of opera (at all)...but am open minded to give it a go if you decide if this Kaufmann is the new one to own. Alternatively, if you need time to decide, will wait in case you decide your current reference is still the definitive version.
 

GaryProtein

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I purchased the Hasrteros/Kauffmann/etal recording of Aida.

The orchestra and soloists sound wonderful and is very clear. I give this recording high marks. My only criticism is when there are numerous people singing together and especially in scenes with the entire cast, the lyrics/voices become a bit muddied, as if they are not all enunciating exactly in unison. Th
e 1974(?) Cabale/Domingo/Muti recording that I own really excels with the intelligibility of the lyrics even though I do not speak Italian.

I have come to the conclusion there is no perfect recording of choral/orchestral "combination" works. If there was, I wouldn't own a dozen recordings of Carmina Burana, although I admit to having a fetish for that work.
 

LL21

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Dec 26, 2010
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I purchased the Hasrteros/Kauffmann/etal recording of Aida.

The orchestra and soloists sound wonderful and is very clear. I give this recording high marks. My only criticism is when there are numerous people singing together and especially in scenes with the entire cast, the lyrics/voices become a bit muddied, as if they are not all enunciating exactly in unison. Th
e 1974(?) Cabale/Domingo/Muti recording that I own really excels with the intelligibility of the lyrics even though I do not speak Italian.

I have come to the conclusion there is no perfect recording of choral/orchestral "combination" works. If there was, I wouldn't own a dozen recordings of Carmina Burana, although I admit to having a fetish for that work.

Thank you! If I only wanted to buy one Aida, which would you recommend?
 

LL21

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Dec 26, 2010
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On vinyl Tebaldi, Bergonzi, Karajan decca from the sixties. Made with valve amps. .. but remastering is generally awful.

Thanks...there is a Japanese 24/96 remastering of that one i was looking at if i were to go it. But was generally looking at muti or this new one from Kaufmann. Have you heard these 2 and any comparison you can offer?
 

gilles13

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Dec 17, 2015
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No,sorry. I listen mainly to vinyl and choose generally performances from the sixties when possible. I didn't t heard the Muti andKaufmann ones.
 

LL21

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No,sorry. I listen mainly to vinyl and choose generally performances from the sixties when possible. I didn't t heard the Muti andKaufmann ones.

thanks...will likely start with the kaufmann, and take it from there.
 

GaryProtein

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Jul 25, 2012
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I purchased the Harteros/Kauffmann/Pappano recording of Aida.

The orchestra and soloists sound wonderful and is very clear. I give this recording high marks. My only criticism is when there are numerous people singing together and especially in scenes with the entire cast, the lyrics/voices become a bit muddied, as if they are not all enunciating exactly in unison. Th
e 1974(?) Cabale/Domingo/Muti recording that I own really excels with the intelligibility of the lyrics even though I do not speak Italian.

I have come to the conclusion there is no perfect recording of choral/orchestral "combination" works. If there was, I wouldn't own a dozen recordings of Carmina Burana, although I admit to having a fetish for that work.

Thank you! If I only wanted to buy one Aida, which would you recommend?

SORRY for the delayed response.

If I were to buy one Aida, the Harteros/Kauffmann/Pappano is the one I would buy.
 

LL21

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Dec 26, 2010
14,411
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