So much is enthralling in this superbly executed recital that it is hard to know where to begin. In some respects Elisabetta’s long scene from Don Carlo is a template for everything. There you hear the spinto sound that is just about ideal for the long-breathed phrases at the start. Then there’s the floated tone and voce portando in the remembrances of happier days in France. Finally, in the agitated section, comes the glottal attack so reminiscent of great Verdi sopranos from the past. As important as any of these attributes is Gheorghiu’s ability, given to few, but happily evident in all her portrayals, to think herself from nowhere into a new character. Thus all Elisabetta’s torment of the soul is there. Callas is an obvious influence at certain key moments, and the reading need fear nothing by comparison. Montserrat Caballe in the complete Don Carlo (EMI, 7/87) is another great singer recollected, but Gheorghiu, as sensitive as the Spanish soprano, has the more appropriate voice.
‘O patria mia’ is again just about ideal, with the difficult close nicely encompassed. One notices here, too, the acuity with words, the wonderful control of breath, the poise of line. Here, as throughout the programme, Chailly gives not only considerate support but also helps by establishing tempos that never drag, as is so often the case these days. Each aria flows easily and naturally, effects all the better for being made within a firmly set context. That’s true again of the Trovatore Leonora’s thoughts of love: here in the recitative one notes and commends the richness of the soprano’s lower register and, in the cabaletta (one verse), the agility it calls for.
Gheorghiu’s warmth of feeling and tone informs the Boccanegra Amelia’s sea-influenced thoughts, but here, and possibly for Gilda (a poor note near the end of ‘Caro nome’ should have been re-taken), a slightly brighter timbre would be preferable: listen to Victoria de los Angeles on the EMI/Gobbi set (9/90). The prayer of that other Amelia, the erring wife of King Gustavus in Ballo, adumbrates all her desperation. Better still are the even more desperate thoughts of the Forza Leonora in extremis, an interpretation to rank with the most compelling on disc – Ponselle, Muzio, Milanov, Callas … The cry ‘Fatalita’ rends the heart, the first ‘Pace’ has a real diminuendo, the later ones a searing attack.
At last, sated with so much sure artistry, we reach Desdemona. Once more at a sensible speed, the Willow song flows beautifully in voice and orchestra, and with so many shades and colourings used the ‘Ave Maria’ has a beseeching, inward quality. Scotto, de los Angeles, one or two others maybe, find even more pathos in the scena, but none sings with quite such security, such natural ease. The Milan recordings, at two sessions and venues, are excellent. This is bound to be a choice of the year, and deservedly so.'