No doubt such titles are not meant to be taken seriously, but I find some difficulty in accepting the idea that 'the essential Domingo' can be presented without recourse to Otello or that the proportion here of nine popular songs to nine popular operatic items does essential justice to either.
Perhaps it would be a slightly different matter if the song recordings were good of their kind—and even then perhaps it depends on what you think their kind truly is. If one is thinking of, let's say, the tunes that Caruso and Gigli sang, then to my mind there is about these arrangements something as unsatisfactory as Bach played on a cinema organ or for that matter Chopin on a harpsichord. In the Mattinata a mechanical one-two-three is tapped out by what in another context might be called the rhythm section, and a similar touch (though attributed to a different hand) further disfigures Non ti scordar di me. The Core 'ngrato opens with a portentous crescendo, and a great rattling of cymbals is later to confer epic status on a simple song which when dressed in its own clothes instead of all this Grand Hotel and Hollywood stuff can be genuinely moving. Siboney and Be my love belong to that world anyway and the arrangements are quite suitable, but for the older songs there is a kind of death in this treatment—and, curiously, however well Domingo sings he is here somehow reduced and generalized as a celebrity in white tie and tails standing amongst a glossy orchestra in an expensive setting performing to people of uncertain taste who want to be reassured that this is 'life'.
In all of this it must be said that Domingo sings with his habitual beauty of tone and avoidance of cheapness or excess. To the operatic music he brings these qualities and more. His Rigoletto solos are carefully pointed, the ''Nessun dorma'' displays the ravishing velvet of his middle voice the ''Una furtiva lagrima'' if somewhat uneventfui is admirably clean and smooth in style. Best is the Aida, imaginatively dramatized, broadly phrased, scrupulous in its dynamics and opulent in tone: the essential Domingo is a gloriously vivid presence in this.
His presence in the New York Philharmonic concert on CBS is felt both in his singing and in a lively rapport with the audience. This and the better arrangement of the song elicit a more stylish performance of Granada, which comes quite happily as an encore after the Capriccio espagnol. Otherwise the best singing is heard in the Traviata aria, taken at high speed to catch the excitement of Alfredo's mood (arco and not pizzicato in the accompaniment, though). The other solos, while not 'essential Domingo', bring affection to the music and plenty of the famous golden tone. In duet with Adriana Morelli he is a considerate partner, she being one of those singers who manages well enough on the top notes but leaves much to be desired in steadiness and colour in the main body of the voice. Under Mehta, the New York Philharmonic play with distinction, and the recording has an opulent concert hall ring about it. Principal complaint is the hotch-potch programme. For instance, when you have such an ideal opening piece as the Donna Diana Overture, why not use it for that purpose?'