Luciano Pavarotti - Recital

Rating:
Summary: The Worst
Review: I cannot believe what happened to me. Just purchased the latest and greatest DVD sound systems and bought this album. The sound is the WORST and thus make the performance only okay. I played it once and probably will never play it anymore. The DVD cover said available on CD and I though the sound is at least okay .....do not buy this one

Rating:
Summary: The Worst
Review: I cannot believe what happened to me. Just purchased the latest and greatest DVD sound systems and bought this album. The sound is the WORST and thus make the performance only okay. I played it once and probably will never play it anymore. The DVD cover said available on CD and I though the sound is at least okay .....do not buy this one

Rating:
Summary: Nice Recital, Poor Sound Quality
Review: Pavarotti sings a piano-accompanied recital in Barcelona (1989) before an enthusiastic audience. It's a very nice program of his usual recital repertoire (arias and songs). He seems to have been in fine voice for the occasion. I wish I could have been there to hear it, because I certainly CAN'T hear it properly by playing this DVD. The entire sound track seems to have been modulated by an extraneous signal, so that every note is accompanied by combination tones which are not part of the music. The voice is afflicted less than the piano, which often sounds as though John Cage had "prepared" it. The DVD is branded "Q" Records and "Atlantic." I am not familiar with these brands, and probably will not get more familiar if this is a representative sample of their production quality. A note on the jacket states that this recital is also available on CD. I presume that the CD sounds better than the DVD!

Rating:
Summary: Great singing, OK piano playing, annoying camera work
Review: The singing is very good. Piano playing is only OK. Leone Magiera is not too good here. I wish they could have gotten James Levine as the pianist; he was GREAT in the other recital.

Here, Pavarotti sings Rossini, Bellini, Resbeghi, Verdi (only one song, La mia letizia), Puccini (only one song, Donna non vidi mai) and Donizetti (only one song, Una furtiva lagrima) .

Visually, it's a mixed bag. The camera goes frequently from Magiera to Pavarotti, and does really annoying close-ups of Pavarotti's face. One annyoing example is in La Danza (after a horrible rythmical mistake) where we see Pavarotti wincing and shaking his head. There is more, but enough.

So do get this one, but don't let it be the final word for you. A better recital is the one with Pavarotti and Levine at the Met. That one is much better.