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List Price: $37.98 | | Label: Decca
Salesrank: 106516
Released: June 15, 2004 |
| Our Price: $3.90 |
| Used Price: $1.55 |
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| Media: Audio CD |
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Editorial Review:
This is Andrea Bocelli's third complete opera recording--after La bohème and Tosca. Manrico is a role to which his type of lyric sound is completely unsuited. How odd it is then that it should be the most successful one to date! Some of the problems persist, but all of them to a lesser degree than previously: a sameness of delivery regardless of situation, forcing the voice for volume (the engineers have recorded the whole opera at such a high volume that everyone sounds as if they're yelling), and, in general, just sounding as if he's trying on shoes which are too big for him. On the other hand, "Di quella pira" is thrilling, with a blazing high C at its close, and, at times, Bocelli actually sounds ardent and caring. The rest of the cast is good without approaching greatness, with Veronica Villaroel singing at times quite beautifully as Leonora and at other times sounding dead. Carlo Guelfi offers fine legato and power as di Luna, and Elena Zaremba is an energetic Azucena. Mercurio conducts the note-complete performance with energy. Bocelli fans will need this in their collections. --Robert Levine
Verdi: Il Trovatore (Complete Opera) Reviews:
Painfully bad 
2009-05-02 - I appreciate the fact that Bocelli is introducing a new generation to the world of opera, but his singing is NOT opera singing. He has a weak, unfocused, supremely unsupported tone. He doesn't seem to be very musical and the interpretation felt supremely uninspired. Not to mention that he could never be heard in an opera house over a Verdian orchestra without being miked. Opera singing is supposed to unamplified. Not to mention that singing the wrong repertoire incorrectly ruins even the most skilled singers. Eventually he'll kill what little voice he has. Opera has survived for hundreds of years for the most-part unchanged. To have Il trovatore given this popera treatment to make palatable to unaccustomed ears is painful to hear. As for the rest of the cast, it was over all, pretty lackluster. If you want a really good recording of this opera my vote goes for the Price/Corelli recording. That will knock your socks off.
HORRIBLE
2006-12-07 - I purchased this CD because I love this opera...I listened to it and it was not half bad...after all how bad can Verdi be?.... but then I just listened to a recording of a live performance of Il trovatore with Franco Corelli and Leontyne Price...and I will never listen to the Bocelli CD again..it is garbage...
A recording to enjoy........ 
2005-04-10 - I love opera,Italian operas especially.I have a good collection, both on film and CD's.I have never enjoyed one more than this one.I find I can listen to 'Trovatore daily,in fact I am so enamoured of the the last two acts,it's a wonder I havenot
worn it out.There seems to be a clinical dissection of anything Bocelli does.I have listened to three other recordings of this opera and each has it's own interpertation by the artist performing.They are very different.I do not listen to opera to
dissect the performance line by line,note by note.I listen for the overall quality and effect I feel from the performers.Yes,I could write a more technical review,but for this one,no.Suffice it to say that Bocelli brings a new and different feeling.This does not mean it is right or wrong it means that it is just different,and startlingly beautiful.To me opera is about feelings and those who don't recognize the intense feelings delivered by Bocelli have not opened their ears and more importantly their minds.I fear it has become the "fashion"to only praise tenors who bellow at the top of their lungs.Perhaps Bocelli will never get the praise he deserves.Could it possibly be those who do nothing but critize,just have a problem with his success?Forget the critics,buy this CD turn the lights low,make yourself comfortable,and enjoy !!! Then go buy Tosca if you haven't gotten it yet and if you like sacred music,don't miss DVD Sacred Arias.There are few artists whose voices are instantly recognized.Callas,Pavarotti and Bocelli.None were/are as successful as Bocelli,may he continue to persevere and make many more recordings for us to enjoy.
Fairly close to the WORST version out there 
2005-03-08 - This is actually a horrible recording, simply terrible, and I have to admit, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to it. Quite a contradiction, isn't that. Well, not really, this is VERDI, and well, this goes to show that no matter how horrible the singers are, how boring the conductor is (and he is really dull most of the time) and how expressionless the entire concept of the opera as a whole is, it is still great music. And it still can just sweep you away.
Unlike a few reviewers think, THIS IS CLASSICAL OPERA. There is no such thing as popular opera, even if there are many operas that are well loved and constantly in the repertoire of all opera companies. Carmen is one of the most beloved operas, as is Aida, but no one would dare to call them "popular opera" and then wish them sung by pop stars. Trovatore was written and premiered in 1853, that is over 150 years ago, that is no longer popular. Besides, even when it was the most popular opera around and all its tunes could be heard on barrel organs around the country, there was still a standard required by the singers singing it.
This opera, like all opera, requires good voices, ones with real "squillo." (this term is an Italian term meaning, RING, penatrating power, something not to be confused with volume or loudness, though it is more evident while singing loudly, but is always present so that delicate pianissimo notes carry to the furthers corners of the theatre). Until recently, that was the only idea a manager or a theatre or a company would consider; do the voices have the necessary "squillo", and energy to make the music move forward dramatically. Sadly, no one thinks of that anymore, and now that more and more people who have never seen live opera, or even heard the real human voice in its natural state unaided by microphones, are learning to enjoy opera, they are learning to enjoy something that is simply fake. One is not hearing the real voice at all, but a manufactured one created by recording engineers.
Recording engineers love weak non-descript voices because they are a dream to record, and you can do all sorts of mixing and stuff to create a sound that simply doesn't exist. Real voices that contain all the squillo, all the upper and lower overtones (the ones needed for works like this) don't record well, and are an engineer's nightmare. The equipment simply can't handle the sound.
As a result, more and more recordings that are simply horribly sung by completely the wrong voices for the music are being released. This is one of those. It isn't that each and every singer is all that horrible (though they are not great), it is simply we are not hearing the truth. I really care less if someone who loves Bocelli (and I am a really big fan of his, when he is singing the correct music for his voice) or the more "popular false recording creations" singing this music comments that they like the opera better now it resembles the popular stuff they are used to listening to. Good for you, but for those of us who know what this music is about, well, all we can say to you is, it is time to learn something about the music now you have opened your mind enough to even listen to it.
Now to the meat of the review. Firstly, let us start with Bocelli. His voice is completely wrong in this role, and in the closing of the first act it is reduced to chirps here and there when singing with the other singers. It does improve as the opera progresses, but the STRAIN is so evident in all he is singing, and as with all his opera recordings, there is virtually no character development at all. He has no clue whatever about the personality he is trying to recreate. Some of the music is sloppy and not always in time with his accompaniment or the other singers, but for the most part, it is a more successful interpretation than anything he has previously done, though it has nothing to offer someone who understands the play and characters.
Veronica Villarroel was a complete bore, for the most part. Her introductory aria reminded me of Tebaldi when singing the last phrases of Mimi in La Boheme just before she dies! And just think, Leonore has three more acts to sing before she dies. This was about the most lifeless and directionless performances of this role I have ever heard. She did improve in other parts of the opera, and of course, her last act has much to recommend it. Her voice sounded super pushed at times, but something tells me that was more the fault of engineering than of her singing. I must say, I really did enjoy her scenes much more than when Bocelli sang, for she did feel them a bit more, one was certain some type of emotion was being expressed, even though it was hard at times to figure out what it was.
Elena Zaremba really disappointed me. She came alive later in the opera, but her voice is far too pushed and she sings with a very heavy delivery. Her introductory "stride le vampa" was more a lesson in how to gargle with mouthwash than a real presentation of the music. Her trill was simply horrible and sounded nothing like a trill at all, but rather some strange bumping of her glottis. She does not sing the high C in her duet with Manrico, which was sad, for her A was quite good, and one thought that the C would not be beyond her. However, she was very good in act three, and her ending phrases of Act four were wonderful.
Carlo Guelfi sang well, but was simply forgettable. Now this is sad, he was one singer who actually had a good techique, and seemed to have some idea what his part was all about, but he had no ability to make his voice and interpretation even memorable.
Basically, this opera was sung by "non-descript stock singers."
The conductor's interpretation was more than dull.
The packaging, however, was very beautiful, only one was instantly aware that Decca saw this completely as a "Bocelli recording." His picture is all over the place, and the conductor gets a shot, but no other principle is seen at all. The booklet contains the necessary but uselessly uniformative history of the work (something so well knows it is a waste of paper to write it each and every time the work is recorded), and nothing whatever about the singers (most of whom you have never heard of, or not much of). Recording companies are getting super stupid that way, they record something and hope we don't care who is singing, when in reality, the singers are the ones that make or break a recording (or even a performance; not even super creative strange and new stagings do a thing if the singing is horrible, and if the staging is simply terrible good singing can save an otherwise failure of a performance and concept of a work). I happen to be one who wants to knew about the singers and what their experience is. I think it adds to understanding the recording one is listening to. It also helps to know if the singer has experience with the work, or if they are coming to it new. Experience adds a lot. Anyway, we have some really good up and coming singers, but if we are never told much about them, how can we know who to watch out for? And there are some pretty terrible ones that are forced on to us, and don't we have the right to know who to avoid? I do feel insulted, and most people who love opera do as well, by the endless retelling of the plot (those who buy the opera for the most part know that), or the boring history around the writing of the opera. I would rather read the explanations of the singers/conductor of what they are trying to present, or how they envision the work, than all that boring stuff that has been printed and reprinted ad nauseum in every issuing and reissuing of a given work, especially the super well known ones (it is different if one is finding a work really quite unknown, then background information is a must; but even then, so is learning about the singers who are recreating the music for us to enjoy).
Horrible as the recording is, there is still a great deal of pleasure to be enjoyed listening to it. If you like Bocelli, buy it for him; if you are well versed in good singing, buy it anyway so you can see just how well Verdi's genius stands up to abuse, and truly great music will each and every time survive bad performances.
Good stuff 
2005-03-02 - What people don't understand is that opera is not "classical music". It is popular material. It is written for the masses to enjoy and, in the history of music it was around opera that the first cases of fan-histeria happened to be. In this sense it is more than legitimate that Mr. Bocelli decided to record this particular opera, defined by Verdi himself as decidedly composed to satisy the common listener. This recording is an excelent production and Mr Bocelli's voice has character and gives a new flavor to material that was previously recorded thousands of times. It is good stuff and great fun!!!
