Cheap Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro (Music) (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Erich Kleiber, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Alfred Poell, Cesare Siepi, Fernando Corena, Hilde Gueden, Hilde Güden, Hilde Rossel-Majdan, Lisa della Casa) Price

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Customer Reviews of Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro

Kleiber is the prize of the set
This set has long been regarded as a classic among Figaro recordings. What really makes its classic status justified is Kleiber's warm, humane and dramatically flexible direction, matched by only a few (among them Fritz Busch) on disc. <
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>The cast is variable in quality. Siepi has a dark, resonant bass that makes him a suave Figaro, even though he dosen't quite have Giuseppe Taddei's (on the Giulini set) ability to articulate the text nimbly and meaningfully. Alfred Poell's Count Almaviva is heavy and unidiomatic and his Italian pronunciation is painful on the ears. <
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>Among the women, Gueden stands out as a pert, soft-grained Susanna in the Austro-German soubrette tradition, even though some might find her a bit too much so. Della Casa is a dignified, aristocratic Countess, dourful at times. Danco's Cherubino is the least satisfying among the female principals, sounding too cool and inappropriately girlish as the young, love-stricken teenage boy. <
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>Taken as a whole, the set is worth acquiring mainly for Kleiber's conducting.

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A Mild Dissent
This performance has never really held my attention despite its classic status. Critical comment has always cited Kleiber's sense of drama in the work - and that's all well and good - but the results have always struck me as a little on the heavy handed side. "Figaro" isn't a farce by any means, but the comedy here takes a back seat to the earnestness of it all. The quicksilver interaction of the characters is missing to these ears. The subversiveness of Figaro's machinations just isn't here. The cast sings well, but seems somewhat straitjacketed by the conductor's prohibition on ornamentation. The Vienna Philharmonic plays with its usual tonal opulence. I realize that this venerable recording is approaching the half century mark and the sound quality can't be expected to be state of the art. In comparison to what RCA in particular was achieving during this same period, the sound is tubby with a curious "peak" in the midrange that adds a nasal quality to the arias an ensembles. The recitatives are recorded with a different perspective and have a different and more natural sound quality in my opinion. Finally, does anyone know why Marcellina's aria is sung by Hilde Gueden (the Susanna)? Maybe Rossl-Majden couldn't handle the coloratura, but the result is jarring.

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A wonderful and historically important recording of this great opera. Gorgeous sound and impeccable musicianship
When Mozart had decided to set the politically controversial play "The Marriage of Figaro" by Beaumarchais (even Napoleon credited it with laying the groundwork for the Revolution) he enlisted Lorenzo Da Ponte to write the libretto. The play had premiered only recently and was banned by Mozart's great patron, Leopold II. The Emperor had allowed the play to be published rather than performed because he reasoned that the working class enjoyed going to see plays but did not read books. In this atmosphere one may wonder at Mozart's audacity. Yes, they toned down the political aspects of the play, but it is still an opera about a Count who decides to go after his valet's fianc�e and comes up on the short end. <
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>Da Ponte said that Mozart wrote the music as quickly as he could write the words and the opera was premiered in Vienna almost exactly two years after the first public performance of Beumarchais' play. However, it was when "Figaro" was performed in Prague that Mozart had his greatest success. The acclaim was so great that Mozart was commissioned for another opera. He and Da Ponte soon came up with "Don Giovanni", but that is another story. In 1787, Mozart wrote to Gottfried con Jacquin, "... I watched with greatest pleasure how everyone was hopping about with sheer delight to the music of my "Figaro," which had been transformed into Contredanses and German dances; for here they talk of nothing but - "Figaro"; nothing is played, blown, sung, and whistled but - "Figaro"; no opera is seen as much as - "Figaro"; again and again it is - "Figaro"; it's all a great honor for me." <
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>This great masterwork is not only an audience pleaser; it is also a complex and large-scale work. However, it requires only eleven (first-rate) singers to perform (and orchestra). It is more than four hours in length and contains so many musical miracles it is hard to comprehend all of them. As one example, at the end of the second act, when things are getting most out of control for Figaro, there are over nine hundred (900!) measures of singing without any recitative! It is all singing by ensembles of one composition or another. And it is these ensembles that are the key to this opera. The arias and cavatinas are wonderful, but it is in the ensembles where the characters reveal the most about themselves. <
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>The plot is far too intricate to discuss here, but the gist of it is this: Figaro and Susanna want to marry. Count Almaviva, whom Figaro had help win the Countess in the previous play, "The Barber of Seville", is a letch who is used to having any woman in his domain that catches his eye. Susanna has been fending off his intentions and helps Figaro realize his master's true intentions. The Countess wants the man she married to return to her. Then there is Cherubino. This role is always sung by a woman, usually a mezzo-soprano. He is a boy, old enough to be sent off to the military, but not old enough to be taken seriously as an object of romance, although he is ardently interested in the Countess and nearly every other woman in this story. It is this role that takes the play to another level. He is the mechanism by which comedy, mishap, confusion, and much else happen. He is a bit like Puck in "A Midsummer Night's Dream", but less aware of his part in the larger story than is Puck. <
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>Erich Kleiber and the Vienna Philharmonic did this recording, the very first complete version of the opera put on record, in 1955. The performance is absolutely glorious. It is a studio recording, has been digitally remastered for this release, and the sound is unbelievably full. The singers were chosen spectacularly well. Ceasare Siepi is a wonderful Figaro. He has a baritone voice that is rich and very charismatic. The picture they include of him makes it obvious that he could have also been a movie star. Alfred Poeli as the Count also has a fine voice, but just a bit less strong than Siepi's, which is right because the Count should not overshadow Figaro. After all, the Count is going to lose, right? Hilde Gueden has a voice that makes you believe that Susanna is a sweet young woman. Lisa della Casa voices the Contessa with warmth, kindness, wisdom, and longing. Suzanne Danco sings Cherubino with a wonderful mischievousness that audiences always enjoy. <
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>This is a recording you want in your collection. It is a superb and important recording of this world treasure of an opera.