Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Preludio
2. Act 1: "Sì, corre voce che l'Etiope ardisca"
3. Act 1: "Se quel guerrier io fossi..."
4. Act 1: "Celeste Aida"
5. Act 1: "Quale insolita gioia nel tuo sguardo!"
6. "Vieni, o diletta appressati"
7. Act 1: "Alta cagion v'aduna"
8. Act 1: "Su! del Nilo al sacro lido"
9. Act 1: "Ritorna vincitor"
10. Act 1: "Possente Fthà"
11. Act 1: "Sacred Dance of the Priestesses"
12. Act 1: "Nume, custode e vindice"
13. Act 2: "Chi mai tra gli inni e i plausi"
14. Act 2: Dance of the Moorish Slaves
15. Act 2: "Vieni, sul crin ti piovano"
16. Act 2: "Fu la sorte dell'armi ai tuoi funesta"
17. Act 2: "Pietà ti prenda del mio dolor"
18. Act 2: "Su! del Nilo al sacro lido"
19. Act 2: "Gloria all'Egitto, ad Iside"
20. Act 2: Triumphal March
21. Act 2: Ballet
22. Act 2: "Vieni, o guerriero vindice"
23. Act 2: "Salvator della patria"
24. Act 2: "Che veggo! Egli? Mio padre!"
25. Act 2: "Il dolor che in quel volto favella..."
26. Act 2: "O Re, pei sacri Numi... Gloria all'Egitto, ad Iside"

Disc 2:

1. Act 3: "O tu che sei d'Osiride"
2. Act 3: "Vieni d'Iside al Tempio"
3. Act 3: "Qui Radamès verrà..."
4. Act 3: "O patria mia"
5. Act 3: "Cielo! Mio padre!"
6. Act 3: "Rivedrai le foreste imbalsamate"
7. Act 3: "Pur ti riveggo, mia dolce Aida"
8. Act 3: "Nel fiero anelito di nuova guerra"
9. Act 3: "Fuggiam gli arbori inospiti"
10. Act 3: "Ma dimmi, per qual via"
11. Act 4: "L'abborrita rivale a me sfuggia"
12. Act 4: "Già i Sacerdoti adunansi"
13. Act 4: "Spirto del Nume"
14. Act 4: "A lui vivo... la tomba..."
15. Act 4: "La fatal pietra sovra me si chiuse"
16. Act 4: "Vedi? Di morte l'angelo"
17. Act 4: "O terra addio"

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #694959 in Music
• Released on: 1999-06-15
• Number of discs: 2

Customer Reviews

''Aida'' with Pertile and Minghini-Cattaneo
The singing in this performance is, of course, the very
best. Act 4, Scene 1 with Pertile and Minghini-Cattaneo
as Radames and Amneris is devastating. The bass voice
of Manfrini, who sings Ramfis, is rich and powerful. The
Triumphal March is less than two minutes long, which is a
disappointment; we have come to expect long, lavish Grand
Marches.
This performance was recorded in 1928, so one cannot
expect 21st-century sound reproduction, and most of the
album sound is of very high quality. However, there are
three or four tracks that still sound like the old 78s, and
perhaps there is a reason the surface noise could not be
reduced. Nevertheless, even with the noise, I still am glad
to have this recording of 'Aida'. The service received from
the album seller was prompt and satisfactory.

Old style singers at their very best.
Aida, when you can find singers who can really sing it, tends to be oversung and unsubtley acted. The music is not all loud! It has great passion, true, but some times the singers ruminate at the bottom of their range. This is one of the few recordings where one gets really involved with the whole performance, forgetting after about 2 "sides" of the old acetate 78s that this isn't a modern recording. Is it murky? A little bit. So much of the performance is "clear" that the recording seems newer than its 1928 year indicates. The important thing is that Verdi was less than 30 years in the grave, so this performance captures a style of performance much closer to what Verdi actually heard. Other than a few phrases at climaxes - dropped out to gain vocal strength for climaxes - the performance is uncut. It is a gem.

Aureliano Pertile is both heroic and poetic. He actually sounds involved in the proceedings. I was raised on Corelli, so I love the squillando in Pertile's voice. But the older singer gets so much out of every phrase, and he has no trouble trumpeting the high phrases in Act two and three. Dusolina Giannini is not a name known to most of us, but don't let that bother you. She is fully the equal of her more famous counterparts. Her warm and full voice sails through the entire role - only the high C in "O patria mia" goes a bit straight on her. Irene Minghini-Cattaneo, the Amneris, is a great singer, unfortunately forgotten today - as are most singers before 1950. Her duet with Aida is powerful stuff. Giovanni Inghilieri, the Amonasro may not be the smoothest baritone alive, but he certainly rips into the words, a major plus in his scene with Aida. (In fact everyone rips into the words.) Luigi Manfrini as Ramfis is a well-schooled basso and sings with pointed phrasing.

Carlo Sabajno may have been a "house conductor" but he has one of the most poetic readings in the catalogue. Rather than ploughing through at top speeds (as Mehta unfortunately did) he actually finds the variety in the music and makes it tell. Listen to the strings tearing into their parts in the end of Act three.

A major effort. It isn't the first choice, but it is a very strong second one.