The July Opera News issue is out and our new Simon Boccanegra recording is an Editor’s Choice!
“Constantine Orbelian leads Dmitri Hvorostovsky and a stellar cast…of Verdian interpreters in a new recording for Delos that captures the intimacy and grandeur of this difficult opera with superior sound. Reveling in the opera’s somber colors, Orbelian brings dramatic shape and fine detail to accompaniment figures and clarity to the orchestral textures, while eliciting eloquent ensemble singing and dramatic, committed performances. … In the role of Amelia, Barbara Frittoli’s golden timbre conveys sweetness, and she bursts into the council chamber to tell of her abduction with highly charged vocal intensity that never turns metallic. She and Secco share an ear for linguistic detail, and their sounds blend beautifully in ensembles… Delos’s Paolo is the excellent baritone Marco Caria, who shows real dramatic edge in the scene in which the villain drops poison into the Doge’s water pitcher. … But it’s Boccanegra’s show, and Dmitri Hvorostovsky’s authority and dramatic maturity are out in full force. By now the vocal glamour is a given, and he tears into the role’s demands, from heavily declaimed commands to gently traced lines, with consummate artistry and technical security.…” —Judith Malafronte, Opera News
