Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Surta e la notte...Ernani! Ernani!, involami
2. Che mai vegg'io!...Infelice!...Infin che un brando vindice
3. Vieni meco...
4. O de' verd' anni miei
5. Gran Dio!...O de' verd' anni miei
6. O sommo Carlo
7. Tacea la notte piacida
8. Deserto sulla terra
9. Stride la vampa!
10. Condotta ell'era in ceppi
11. Perigliarti ancor (sung in german)
12. Il balen del suo sorriso
13. Ah! si ben mio, coll'essere
14. Di quella pira (sung in french)
15. Di quella pira
16. Timor di me?...D'amor sull'ali rosee
17. D'amor sull'ali rosee (sung in german)
18. D'amor sull'ali rosee
19. Udiste?...Mira, d'acerbe lagrime...Vivra!
20. Se m'ami ancor...Ai nostri monti

Disc 2:

1. La luce langue (sung in german)
2. O figli, o figli miei!...Ah la paterna mano
3. Una macchia qui tuttora!
4. Questa o quella
5. Questa o quella
6. Pari siamo!
7. Gia tre lune...Veglia, o donna (sung in german)
8. E il sol dell'anima (sung in french)
9. Caro nome (sung in russian)
10. Caro nome (sung in german)
11. Cortigiani, vil razza damnata (sung in german)
12. Cortigiani, vil razza damnata
13. Ciel! Dammi coraggio! Tutte le feste
14. Tutte le feste...Piangi fanciulla
15. No, vecchio, t'inganni...Si, vendetta
16. La donna è mobile
17. La donna è mobile
18. Bella figlia dell'amore
19. O mia Gilda...Lassu in ciel

Disc 3:

1. A te l'estremo addio...Il lacerato spirito
2. A te l'estremo addio...Il lacerato spirito
3. Un di, felice
4. Ah fors è lui (sung in russian)
5. Ah fors è lui
6. Ah fors è lui...Follie!...Sempre Libera
7. De' miei bollenti spiriti
8. Lunge da lei...De' miei bollenti spiriti
9. Dite alla giovine
10. Madamigella Valery?..Pura siccome un angelo...Dite alla giovine
11. Che fai? Nulla! Scrivevi?.. (sung in german)
12. Mio figlio...Di Provenza
13. Alfredo, Alfredo...
14. Teneste la promessa... Addio, del passato
15. Teneste la promessa...Addio, del passato

Disc 4:

1. Sperate, o figli
2. Anch'io dischiuso un giorno
3. Ah! prigioniero io sono...Dio di Giuda
4. Ma pellegrina ed orfana
5. Madre, pietosa Vergine
6. Son giunta!...Madre, pietosa Vergine
7. Chi puo legger nel futuro (sung in german)
8. Alzatevi...La Vergine degli Angeli
9. O tu che in seno agli angeli
10. Solenne in quest'ora
11. Morir!..Urna fatale...E salvo (sung in german)
12. Invano, Alvaro
13. Pace, pace, mio Dio
14. Pace, pace, mio Dio
15. Non imprecare

Disc 5:

1. E lui...Dio, che nell'aima
2. Nell giardin del bello (sung in german)
3. Restate
4. Ou suis-je...Je dormirai dans mon manteau royal
5. Ella giammai m'amo!...Dormiro sol
6. O don fatale
7. O don fatale
8. Convien qui dirci addio...Per me giunto..O Carlo ascolta...Io morro
9. Tu che le vanita
10. O tu Palermo
11. In braccia alle dovizie
12. Giorno di pianto (sung in german)
13. Arrigo! Ah parli a un core
14. Merce, dilette amiche

Disc 6:

1. Je veux encore entendre
2. Grace, mon Dieu!...O jour fatal
3. Or non piu...Qual volutta trascorrere
4. Celeste Aida (sung in french)
5. Se quel guerrier io fossi!...Celeste Aida (sung in german)
6. I sacri nomi (sung in french)
7. Ritorna vincitor
8. Ritorna vincitor
9. O patria mia (sung in german)
10. Qui Radames verra...O patria mia (sung in russian)
11. Pur ti riveggo
12. Fuggiam gli ardori inospiti (sung in german)
13. Io l'amo sempre...Gia i sacerdoti (sung in german)
14. Ohime!...morir mi sento
15. Morir! Si pura e bella (sung in german)
16. O terra, addio

Disc 7:

1. O vecchio cor
2. Questa dunque
3. Esultate
4. Esultate
5. Qua, ragazzi...Inaffia l'ugola!
6. Gia nella notte
7. Credo in un Dio crudel
8. Tu! Indietro...Ora e per sempre addio (sung in french)
9. Tu! Indietro...Ora e per sempre addio
10. Era la notte
11. E qual certezza...Era la notte
12. Si Pel ciel
13. Dio! Mi potevi scagliar (sung in german)
14. Dio! Mi potevi scagliar
15. Piangea cantando (sung in german)
16. Mia madre aveva una povera ancella (sung in french)
17. Ave Maria (sung in german)
18. Niun mi tema
19. Niun mi tema

Disc 8:

1. Ah! tutto m'arride...Il mio sangue
2. Oh! Fede negar potessi...Quando le sere al placido
3. Quando le sere al placido
4. Zitti...l'incanto..Re dell'abisso
5. E' scherzo od è follia
6. Ma dall'arido stelo
7. Ma dall'arido stelo
8. Morro, ma prima in grazia (sung in german)
9. Morro, ma prima in grazia
10. Eri tu
11. Saper vorreste
12. Forse la soglia attinse...Ma se m'è forza perderti
13. L'onore!
14. Alfin, t' ho colto...Quand'ero paggio
15. Quand'ero paggio
16. Ehi! Taverniere
17. Da labbro il canto
18. Sul fil d'un Soffio etesio

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #320160 in Music
• Released on: 2001-02-13
• Number of discs: 8
• Formats: Box set, Original recording remastered

Amazon.com
This collection, whose French title might be translated "Verdi Vocal Rarities," is a unique contribution to the Verdi centennial year. Its 136 selections on eight compact discs offer an in-depth survey of singers who recorded notable Verdi performances during the era of 78-rpm recording. Coincidentally, this period covers, within a few years, the half- century after the composer's death, in 1901. Some of the singers in the earliest cuts--tenor Francesco Tamagno and bass Victor Maurel, for example--had known Verdi and sung for him. Many of the singers will be familiar to connoisseurs of Verdi discography--Enrico Caruso, Boris Christoff, Fedora Barbieri, Ezio Pinza, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Tito Gobbi, Beniamino Gigli, and Jussi Bjoerling, to name a few. Others, such as Frieda Hempel, Emmy Destinn, Martha Modl, Joseph Schwarz, Gino Cigna, and Mattia Battistini, are names you come across in books about opera, but you have heard their voices only if you spend a lot of time with historic recordings. And a lot of performances, including some of the best, are likely to be the work of singers encountered for the first time.

Most of the big moments from Verdi's operas are included--grouped by opera, not by chronological order of recording. There are a few strange omissions; for example, the "Miserere" scene from Il trovatore. But other selections, such as "Ah fors' e lui" and "La donna e mobile," are given in two or three performances--sometimes in French, German, or Russian as well as Italian. Some of the performances are classics; many are mind-boggling.

Some favorite Verdi singers--Maria Callas, Joan Sutherland, Placido Domingo, and Luciano Pavarotti, among them--are absent because they began recording after the collection's cutoff date. Other problems are mostly related to the dates of the original recordings. The sound is all pre-high-fidelity and sometimes quite primitive, though some remarkable work has been done to optimize the earliest items. The annotations are minimal--mostly the date, venue, and performers in each cut, with pictures of the biggest stars. This decision was probably made to keep the price low, and those who already know most of the arias and ensembles will likely find the tradeoff acceptable. --Joe McLellan

Customer Reviews

Rare but well-polished Verdi gems.
Classical music enthusiasts will have become aware that EMI have been marketing several boxed sets with a French title containing the word "introuvables". The word suggests that when you open the box you'll find items that are so rare as to be almost unobtainable. It suggests also that their rarity is not due only to age or production limitations, it is also due to the incomparability of their quality.

Few would quibble about the quality of what is to be found in this splendid collection of Verdi "introuvables". You will hear how Emmy Destinn portrayed Aida yearning for her homeland in 1908, and how Elisabeth Schwarzkopf portrayed Violetta intereacting with her lover's father in 1953. You will hear several items duplicated. Francesco Navarini, recorded in 1907 with a piano, makes a stunning Fiesco in the "Simon Boccanegra" prologue, as is not up-staged by the more familiar Alexander Kipnis version which follows.

You might regret that your favourite Verdi record is not here. You'll have opportunities to make comparisons, however. I could never believe that anyone could equal Giuseppe de Luca'a 1930 "O sommo Carlo" from "Ernani, but here I have a chance to hear for the first time how the famous baritone Mattia Battistini did it in 1906.

Keith Hardwick compiled and transferred this collection originally in the late 1980s. He has augmented and transferred that issue onto 8 CDs, and provided the annotations. Full recording details are provided, there are many singer photographs but no singer biographies.

The recording dates range from 1903 to 1953. Sadly, almost all the singers - Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf being a notable exception - are all dead by now. Those of us who have opportunities to hear and collect their work, however, can be grateful that the older we get the better it sounds. Indeed, I have never heard any of the items included here in better transfers. Elsewhere I have given this issue a five star rating. Subsequent hearings have made me aware of a technical matter which may bother some listeners. This set has been transferred from the long playing records on which it was originally issued. Their pristine sound quality has been preserved but also some of the ghostly "swish" that accompanied each revolution.