James Creswell’s Count squares up to him vocally, and Christine Rice shines all too briefly as the duchess. Disabling it will result in some disabled or missing features. - always has that rather bleaty quality to his tone (though "Gramophone" reviewer Alan Blyth, whose taste I esteem, always raves about his being the best post-war baritone; not for me...) and Maazel's direction is choppy. The rest of the cast is also unusually strong and offer singing of very high order with special mention to Cornell MacNeil and Shirley Verrett. So, my choice for this RCA is set is clear but I can understand anyone going for the Decca - however, I would avoid the DG. There’s humanity in Horáková’s direction, but her insights seem slapped on like all that paint. The clear, smoothly slicing quality of her soprano makes special impact in this opera, in which Luisa stands out in a field of dark male voices. The orchestra and chorus are excellent and Maestro Cleva paces the opera very well. English National Opera’s cast is notably fine, the chorus and orchestra are on top form, and the performance that Alexander Joel conducts has urgency, breadth and bite, right from the start. Leah Crocetto and Vitaliy Bilyy. Luisa Miller is a beautiful opera that deserves to be better known and this recording - the first commercial studio recording - does it full justice. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Cornell MacNeil uses his lovely, pharyngeally resonant, true Verdian baritone tastefully, Moffo sounds pure and innocent while despatching the coloratura easily and and Bergonzi is his usual model of style and restraint, but still rises to the passion of "Quando le sere al placido". Anna Moffo gives the performance of a lifetime here, her beautiful voice balanced in all registers, youthful and very moving. More intriguing, if still fussy, is the presence of Luisa and Rodolfo’s child selves, reminding us of the innocence all on stage have lost. Was it ego? On the rest of the recording it is somewhat thin and breathy. It sounds like something recorded in the 1950's. Large swaths of his voice are still uncannily preserved, but the low part crucial to a baritone’s range tends to grow vague for him. This opera recording will thrill Verdi lovers, particularly those that are looking to explore his early style. Reviewed in the United States on May 3, 2019. This revival was to have been a special reunion: Mr. Domingo and Mr. Levine’s first collaboration here was “Luisa Miller” in 1971. He’d run opera companies and found young singer competitions. Review: Plácido Domingo Takes On a New Role at the Met Opera. It remains a glorious performance, idiomatically conducted by Fausto Cleva, much maligned or taken for granted in his prime. But on Thursday, he eventually warmed and settled, his voice taking on increased presence if not ideally hale glow. Around the year 2000, it was assumed that Mr. Domingo, one of the great tenors of the 20th century, would do what generations of opera singers had done before him. If you’ve been longing to see it, you might not be in such luck: Barbora Horáková’s busy yet stark production is harder to love. Moffo is peerless at these romantic/tragic roles (Lucia and Gilda being two others at which she excelled). Better still is the US bass Soloman Howard, singing in a fabulously velvety bass and bringing a touch of ambiguity to horrible henchman Wurm: repulsive, yes, but also tall, handsome and ripped. Also Moffo sings as if her life depended on it and it is one of her most winsome recordings. As for the Federica in the DG, Obratsova (excellent when aptly cast) is a disaster; it sounds as though Amneris has dropped by to chew everyone's ear off. At the start of the finale to the first act, Miller — a sturdy retired soldier whose country-girl daughter tragically seeks to marry above her station — indignantly says that an innocent like Luisa shouldn’t have to bow before a powerful man, but only before God. Cleva conducts unobtrusively and really supports his singers. This is another lucky recording with an embarrassment of riches in the low voices-- too bad they didn't have this exact cast stick around to record 'Simon Boccanegra' or 'Don Carlo' or 'I Puritani' while they had the orchestra handy. Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2008. Luisa Miller review – a treat for the ears, if not the eyes 4 / 5 stars 4 out of 5 stars. David Junghoon Kim sings Rodolfo in a supercharged, ringing tenor. He is a straightforward singer, as he always has been, with straightforward feelings. For him to be even credibly appearing in leading parts on the world’s major stages, and adding new ones each year, is as if Roger Federer, today already an ancient champion at 36, were still winning Wimbledon a decade from now. A brilliant set and a must for anyone interested in beautiful music and beautiful singing. If you are looking for "old school" conventions, such as the obligatory, opening chorus, and the double aria, cavatina followed by cabaletta, Luisa Miller is for you. And even though Moffo sings like a goddess in the duet with the baritone, her glorious voice that day seems to have been a one-day event only. Plácido Domingo is, depending on the source you consult, on one or the other side of 80. Piotr Beczala, left, as Rodolfo, and Ms. Yoncheva in “Luisa Miller.”. It’s unprecedented in opera history. And in fast music, that part in particular turns blustery and cloudy, making Mr. Domingo sound awkward in, for example, Miller’s big cabaletta, “Ah! Whatever the combination of all the above, Mr. Domingo didn’t stop. And now let this: On Thursday he sang, for the first time, the father of the title character in Verdi’s “Luisa Miller” at the Metropolitan Opera.