Pergolesi - Stabat Mater / Ricciarelli, Benedetto Marcello Orchestra (Jubilaeum Collection)

Rating:
Summary: Awful
Review: After being disappointed with Rossini's Stabat Mater in the Jubilaeum 2000 series, I was hopeful that Pergolesi's would be better. Alas this is not so. The audio is perhaps the worst I have yet come across. The accoustics are terribly flat and dead, and sound as if the performance was recorded in a padded cell and not the Basilica Santa Maria degli Angeli in Rome. The audio selection is Dolby 5.1 and 2.0 but I noticed that each of the two sopranos had her own microphone and they looked as if they were just small mono models. For much of the time their voices came mainly from the front and rear right speakers, so I changed my seating 90 degrees to the right and listened that way for a while. There was a distinct improvement in what had been a non-existant stereo image! I can only conclude from this that the channels have been mixed wrongly. On track #6 the level of the blond soprano's voice was so low at times as to be barely audible above the orchestra!

I'm really sorry I can't give a better review. My recommendation is to give this one a VERY wide berth and spend your hard earned cash on something else.

Rating:
Summary: Utterly Disappointing Performance Overall
Review: I purchased this DVD with much anticipation for three reasons: first, I simply adore Pergolesi's Stabat Mater; second, I have been to Basilica Santa Maria degli Angeli in Rome and wanted to visualize the performance; and third, it was Vatican commissioned and expected it to be fraught with bells and whistles by top performers. Katia Ricciarelli, bless her heart, is indeed a "world-renowned" soprano--a great Italian diva. Her performance in the DVD, however, proved to be the same as most other great divas of the past -- streched out and elongated intervals and starting every phrase with a sliding drawl. She managed to retain her ability to sing musically with careful phrasing and dynamic control, but her performance was simply not the same as when she performed at the Met in the 70s.

Plus, Orchestra Benedetto Marcello did not help the performance. The strings sounded out of tune with very little musicality, homegeneity, and fluidity. I will still keep the DVD and watch it from time to time for sentimental value; but I am going to stick with my CDs to enjoy the music and to comtemplate on the text.

P.S. If I were you I would not purchase any other DVDs from the Jubilaeum Collection 2000 A.D. series lest you might get the same disappointment.

Rating:
Summary: Some of the other concerts in this series are excellent
Review: I would not purchase this recording based on the reviews it has received but I have purchase other recordings in this series and they are excellent, of the highest caliber.