• Maria Caniglia (Aida)
• Beniamino Gigli (Radames)
• Ebe Stignani (Amneris)
• Gino Bechi (Amonasro)
• Tancredi Pasero (Ramfis)
• Italo Tajo (Il Re)
Chorus and Orchestra of the Rome Opera House/Tullio Serafin
Naxos 8.110156-57 ADD
I have to admit that it did take me a while to get used to the singing style of the first half of 20th century. It’s BC (before Callas) for me after all. Once I got accustomed to it, I started to hear the brilliancies in the singing. Caniglia’s voice is really impressive. In one critic I read: “…she suffers from stridency, wobbling, and intonation problems.”, but I somehow failed to hear those problems. Her voice is immense, the middle and low register are gorgeous. Comparing to the other two, the upper register does sound a bit strident, but that’s fine with me. What I like most is her crystal clear diction. I can actually understand every word she sings right to each syllable. I always appreciate good diction. I find it makes a lot more fun to understand what’s been sung, than just aaaaaoooooiiiiieeeeuuuu. If there’s anything I would like to see in Caniglia’s Aida is a little bit of more vulnerability. Her Aida sounds like a tigress who can take on a whole troop of Egyptian army. Stignani’s performance is fab as well. Steady voice and lots of temperament (although still a bit lamp-ish next to Caniglia’s tigress Aida).
For a 56-years-old tenor, Gigli’s voice is in great shape. It does make me envy the opera audience of that time a bit, because nowadays one can hardly find a decent Radames, not to mention, sung by a 56-years-old! Then again, they didn’t have the Rossinian and Mozartian tenors that we have, and I don’t care all that much for Verdian tenors, to be honest, so I don’t feel *THAT* sad, not having seen one single Aida performance yet.
For me, the highlight of Aida isn’t “ritornar vicitor”, nor “patria mia”, nor the triumph scene (unless the soprano hits the E-flat at the end), nor the tomb scene. It’s the confrontation between Aida and Amonasro. Both Caniglia and Bechi are brilliant in the scene. They give a totally breathtaking performance here. If Caniglia had shown a bit more vulnerability here, it would be heartbreaking as well.
Use the term of today, this is an “all-stars” recording, and expectedly it does surpass many Aida recordings I own. (Although the Callas/Gobbi/Tucker/Barbieri/Serafin set still remains my fav.)
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This is an old post of mine, written in March 2004.
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