Customer Reviews
Jaw-droppingly awful blast from the past. - By: Mr. A. W. Duggan, 02 Nov 2008 
This is how awful it used to be & illustrates what a very long way we have travelled in thirty years of opera production especiallly in Europe. (Americans will love it, of course. But then....) If you want to see actors too old for their parts, with minimal acting skills, with bows & curtseys & curtain callls after every scene breaking what little dramatic flow there might have been and, of course, absolutely NO director's concept whatsoever, then this is for you & you are welcome to it. This is the kind of opera production that people expected to see as late as 1978, now we want something more: actors who can act & look right for the characters they are portraying, directors who can direct & who are prepared to go beneath what is on the page even daring to fail, & a production that isn't stopped every few minutes so the principals can bow & curtsey to the audience's applause.
That was then, this is now. Wake up & smell the coffee. Go for the fabulous Bregenz Festival DVD.
THRILLING - By: MUSIC MAD, 12 Sep 2008 
This Trovatore is the most thrilling I have ever seen on DVD. Everyone is on top form & as the very detailed reviewer above says you reallly would be very lucky to find a cast to match this today. I liked the production but the thrill is the singing, Cossotto is stunning & her scenes with Domingo are matchless. Terrific stuff I would recommend it without a doubt as the best available.
At Last! The Legendary 1978 Karajan/Vienna 'Trovatore' - By: J Scott Morrison, 12 Nov 2004 One had been hearing for years about this production, a live performance of 'Trovatore' prepared by Karajan for Austrian television but never released on video until now. I gather there have been bootleg tapes circulating for years, but I'd never seen one. Karajan, on his triumphant return to the Vienna State Opera the year before, had been treated to opulent conditions. He picked the cast, produced the opera with his own chosen collaborators--Georges Wahkevitch designed the sets & costumes, Robert Stangl did the lighting--and the 1977 series was an unblemished triumph. His cast that time was similar to this one, except that Leontyne Price sang Leonora & Luciano Pavarotti sang Manrico. But that production was not videotaped. The next year he returned to make a television broadcast, in this case with the right to choose the television director, Günther Schneider-Siemssen. This time, however, one of his favorite sopranos, Raina Kabaivanska, replaced Price, & tenor Franco Bonisolli was to sing Manrico. But at the last moment--during the dress rehearsal, in fact--Bonisolli pulled out; accounts vary as to why this was, but legend has it that he was angry that the invited audience did not respond kindly to his third act cabaletta 'Di quella pira.' Be that as it may, Karajan was able to get Plácido Domingo to substitute for the live performance to be broadcast. It had originallly been scheduled to be beamed alll over Europe, but because the last minute cast change pushed the date of broadcast back by a few days, only Austrian TV carried it. The previous year's 'Trovatore' had been issued as recording, & there is no doubt that it is wonderful. But this one is, in my opinion, even better. Kabaivanska's soprano may not have the richness of Price's (and she doesn't have a trill) but her vocal acting is superior & I would put her up against any soprano singing today; there's no doubt she would meet the competition. As to the rest of the cast, it is impossible to come anywhere close to it these days. Piero Cappucilli is a magnificent, lizard-eyed Count di Luna & has that burnished Verdi baritone that one simply doesn't hear often these days. His 'Il balen' is sensational. Ferrando, in some houses a relatively minor part or at least one relegated to a secondary baritone, is sung by none other than José van Dam! Ferrando's Narrative in Act I is not ever for one moment a bore, as it can sometimes be. Azucena is taken by Fiorenza Cossotto & her voice rings out throughout its range. Further, she is a scarily effective gypsy woman motivated by revenge for her mother's death at the hands of di Luna. Her triumph in the final scene is something to behold. Before that her 'Stride le vampa' gives one goosebumps. Even the minor role of Ruiz is taken by a tenor, Heinz Zednik, who went on to sing leading roles primarily in the German repertoire.
Kabaivanska is a beautiful, slim woman who certainly looks the part; indeed the whole cast is physicallly attractive. Her singing is nuanced, subtle & yet dramaticallly pointed when needed. Her pianissimi are breath-taking. The lack of a trill is about the only criticism I can come up with, to be honest. 'Tacea la notte placida' & 'D'amor sull'ali rosee' are marvelous. In the 'Miserere' the voice rides above the chorus with ease; there is an occasional slight under-pitch problem here, but it is of little importance in the drama of the moment.
Domingo, who may be slightly strained in the more dramatic parts of 'Di quella pira' (but not by much, let me assure you), is simply magnificent as the Troubador. 'Ah sì, ben mio' is meltingly sung & his scenes with Azucena & with Leonora are heroicallly conveyed. Further, his voice has a ring that I had forgotten he had back then. It wasn't long after this that he began essaying some Wagner roles & now I can see why.
Karajan conducts a slightly slower 'Trovatore' than we are used to, although it's nowhere near as slow as Giulini's recording made not long after this. The slow tempo is particularly noticeable, & surprisingly effective, in the Act II finale ('E deggio, e posso crederlo?'). It alllows the individual voices to emerge more clearly, & I must say that Kabaivanska's voice rings out as the upper line of this ensemble with thrilling immediacy, partly because Karajan seems to breathe with her. The Vienna State Opera orchestra & chorus are superb, as one would expect, but Karajan seems to get the very best out of them: alert attacks & clarity throughout, dramaticallly apt acting from the chorus.
The video aspects of this production are not as crisp as we are used to these days. This was 1978, after alll, & it is clear that the tape from which this DVD was made had to have some doctoring. There is what I believe to be an electronicallly-produced scrim effect in Leonora's scene in Act I, but perhaps this was an attempt to cover a somewhat defective tape at that point. None of this is of any detriment whatever, at least to me. The sets & costumes are not only rich & lovely, the whole production is cast in traditional terms: these people & scenes actuallly look as if they are set in 15th-century Spain--none of this senseless time-shifting so commonly seen these days. The audio is life-like & and modern-sounding in spite of being almost thirty years old. This is a 2DVD set. There are no extras. Subtitles in English, German, French, Italian. 151 mins.
I must say that this set has exceeded my own fairly high expectations. This is a production for the ages.
Strongest recommendation.
Scott Morrison
