# Luisa Miller



## Guest (Mar 10, 2018)

In a few weeks I will be going to see a live cinema broadcast from the Met of Luisa Miller. This opera is unknown to me.

I would like to listen and watch some recordings before the event. What CDs, DVDs, You Tube videos etc would you recommend? Are there any good commentaries or analysis of the opera on the internet that I can be pointed to. 

Thanks!

:tiphat:


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## schigolch (Jun 26, 2011)

For free, in youtube: 




This is one of my favorite recordings. as I am a big fan of Gilda Cruz-Romo in the role of Luisa:


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

Charles Osborne and Julian Budden's excellent books on Verdi each have a chapter devoted to the opera.

Otherwise: https://opera.org.au/home/productions/luisa-miller/cheat-sheet


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

​Excellent CD recording.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Moffo/Bergonzi for sure. The epitome of perfection.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Caballe/Pavarotti/Milnes is also a recording on CD that is worth a listen.

N.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

There are three recordings I like, all of which have something to commend them. I only own the Cleva, but really I could be happy with any of the below recordings.

Moffo/Bergonzi/MacNeil; Cleva 
Caballe/Pavarotti/Milnes; Maag
Ricciarelli/Domingo/Bruson; Maazel

Best conducted is Maag, and also probably the most vocally entitled, though, curiously, I find it the least moving.
Ricciarelli is the most affecting of the Luisas, but also the most vocally fallible. Domingo is excellent as Rodolfo.
Moffo steers a somewhat midway course between Caballe and Ricciarelli, and I think it one of her very best complete opera sets. Bergonzi is, as ever, a great stylist and MacNeil is in good form. In the relatively small role of Federica, we have Verrett, who is much better than either the overblown Obrasztsova on the Maazel or the overparted Reynolds on the Maag.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

The Conte said:


> Caballe/Pavarotti/Milnes is also a recording on CD that is worth a listen.
> 
> N.


I rather prefer the Domino/ Ricciarelly / Maazel then, Caballé sounds a bit "old"


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## Belowpar (Jan 14, 2015)

High on my list of want to see's.

One off coming up in London but I wil be away.

https://www.list.co.uk/event/904465-verdis-luisa-miller-presented-by-midsummer-opera/


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Pugg said:


> I rather prefer the Domino/ Ricciarelly / Maazel then, Caballé sounds a bit "old"


I agree that Ricciarelli sounds more like the part than Caballe. However, I find the Maazel lacking in dramatic tension and Pavarotti and Milnes just can't be beaten. I suppose in some ways it depends whether you prefer a recording with the most suited soprano or you are interested in the three main roles overall.

N.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

The Conte said:


> I agree that Ricciarelli sounds more like the part than Caballe. However, I find the Maazel lacking in dramatic tension and Pavarotti and Milnes just can't be beaten. I suppose in some ways it depends whether you prefer a recording with the most suited soprano or you are interested in the three main roles overall.
> 
> N.


You are absolutely right, that's why I stay wit the Cleva recording.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

GregMitchell said:


> There are three recordings I like, all of which have something to commend them. I only own the Cleva, but really I could be happy with any of the below recordings.
> 
> Moffo/Bergonzi/MacNeil; Cleva
> Caballe/Pavarotti/Milnes; Maag
> ...


Bergonzi isn't for me, I'm afraid. I was always puzzled by the mantra "Bergonzi was a great Verdi stylist" and variations on that theme. His Verdi singing above anything else has always left me completely cold. I finally realised that I had to get to the bottom of this mystery and so I listened to some of Bergonzi's key verdi arias and compared him with other versions of those arias. As expected I found the Bergonzi renditions the least convincing when it came to Verdi's style. I then tried to work out why and hey bingo the mystery was solved. I felt Bergonzi was too refined and removed from the innate drama of Verdi's style. My opinion is that when people talk about Bergonzi being a great stylist, they mean he sings with great style. These are two different things, the 'style' and essence of a composer may not be refined and stylish. (Just think of the jagged edges and rough contours of Shostakovich's music.)

What entails the Verdi style is a matter of opinion and it's difficult to pin down as the style of Falstaff is quite different to that of Nabucco. I would say that however you describe his style, it is never smooth and even as an end in itself and the music always serves the drama. I don't get that from Bergonzi's singing of Verdi arias. I now use 'X is a great stylist' to mean one of two things:

1) that their singing is rather boring; or
2) that they have a very successful hair salon.

N.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

The Conte said:


> Bergonzi isn't for me, I'm afraid. I was always puzzled by the mantra "Bergonzi was a great Verdi stylist" and variations on that theme. His Verdi singing above anything else has always left me completely cold. I finally realised that I had to get to the bottom of this mystery and so I listened to some of Bergonzi's key verdi arias and compared him with other versions of those arias. As expected I found the Bergonzi renditions the least convincing when it came to Verdi's style. I then tried to work out why and hey bingo the mystery was solved. I felt Bergonzi was too refined and removed from the innate drama of Verdi's style. My opinion is that when people talk about Bergonzi being a great stylist, they mean he sings with great style. These are two different things, the 'style' and essence of a composer may not be refined and stylish. (Just think of the jagged edges and rough contours of Shostakovich's music.)
> 
> What entails the Verdi style is a matter of opinion and it's difficult to pin down as the style of Falstaff is quite different to that of Nabucco. I would say that however you describe his style, it is never smooth and even as an end in itself and the music always serves the drama. I don't get that from Bergonzi's singing of Verdi arias. I now use 'X is a great stylist' to mean one of two things:
> 
> ...


Maybe I'm a little more tolerant, (I don't think stylish singing necessarily equates to being boring) but I do know what you mean. Compare the Cavaradossis in Callas's two recordings of *Tosca*. Bergonzi sings beautifully and elegantly, but he is a little anonymous, whereas Di Stefano is a real flesh and blood character, a passionate and impassioned revolutionary and a sensuous lover. His personality fairly bursts out of the speakers, where Bergonzi tends to stay benignly within his frame.

That said I can think of countless singers who can be both stylish _and_ thrilling, Callas for one, but there are plenty of others.

Incidentally the style of Nabucco and Falstaff might be quite different, but my favourite for both roles is the same singer, Tito Gobbi.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

GregMitchell said:


> Maybe I'm a little more tolerant, (I don't think stylish singing necessarily equates to being boring) but I do know what you mean. Compare the Cavaradossis in Callas's two recordings of *Tosca*. Bergonzi sings beautifully and elegantly, but he is a little anonymous, whereas Di Stefano is a real flesh and blood character, a passionate and impassioned revolutionary and a sensuous lover. His personality fairly bursts out of the speakers, where Bergonzi tends to stay benignly within his frame.
> 
> That said I can think of countless singers who can be both stylish _and_ thrilling, Callas for one, but there are plenty of others.
> 
> Incidentally the style of Nabucco and Falstaff might be quite different, but my favourite for both roles is the same singer, Tito Gobbi.


I absolutely agree, it is possible to be stylish and thrilling. Also there's nothing wrong with bringing more refinement than we usually hear in Verdi.

When I suggested Nabucco and Falstaff as two opposites ends of Verdian style I wasn't thinking about the roles, just the operas and it's interesting that Gobbi could embody both parts so wonderfully. It's also interesting that the main soprano part in each are for totally different singers, but that's more to do with fach than style.

N.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

The Conte said:


> I absolutely agree, it is possible to be stylish and thrilling. Also there's nothing wrong with bringing more refinement than we usually hear in Verdi.
> 
> When I suggested Nabucco and Falstaff as two opposites ends of Verdian style I wasn't thinking about the roles, just the operas and it's interesting that Gobbi could embody both parts so wonderfully. It's also interesting that the main soprano part in each are for totally different singers, but that's more to do with fach than style.
> 
> N.


It's also true that, when most people talk about Verdi sopranos, they are likely to be thinking of Leontyne Price, or Renata Tebaldi, or Rosa Ponselle, but maybe they are thinking of the ideal Aida soprano, rather than the ideal Verdi soprano. All three were great Aidas, but could any of them have sung Gilda, or been a creditable Luisa for that matter. Maybe Ponselle, but, though she had an admirable florid technique, her voice might have been a trifle heavy.

How many sopranos can you think of, who could be as equally convincing as Abigaille and Gilda, or as Lady Macbeth and Violetta? I can think of only one, and she also numbered in her repertoire the roles of Leonora in *Il Trovatore*, Elena in *I Vespri Siciliani*, Amelia in *Un Ballo in Maschera*, Leonora in *La Forza del Destino*, Elisabetta and Aida, all in the theatre, not just in the studio. Maybe an ideal Verdi soprano would be one with a degree more versatility than Price or Tebaldi.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I've always been annoyed by such concepts as "Verdi soprano," "Verdi baritone," Wagnerian soprano," "heldenwhatever," and so on. If Gilda, say, can be sung superbly by both Moffo and Callas, or Rigoletto by both Stracciari and Gobbi, or Amfortas by Hotter and Mattei, remarks such as "she's not really a Verdi soprano" sound rather emptily pretentious. No singer is equally effective in all the Verdi (or Wagner, or Strauss, etc.) roles for a given vocal range, but a few have come close; a sufficiently large voice with fine technique, allied to musical intelligence and dramatic imagination, can be effective in practically any role, even if the vocal timbre and temperament are less than ideal, as with Callas's interpretations of young girls like Gilda or Mimi, which strike me as triumphs of art over nature. At the more "dramatic soprano" extreme, I want to hear a richer, more sensuous timbre - Ponselle's or a Tebaldi's, say - in Aida, a one-dimensional character and something of a waste of Callas's unique dramatic art.

We should resist categorizing singers too easily, whether by composer or by "fach." If we mean, specifically, that so-and-so "lacks the heft and squillo needed for an ideal Manrico" we ought to say just that, while remembering that some strong lyric tenors - e.g., Bjorling - have been quite successful in the role. "Lyric tenor" is another too-easy category!


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

NickFuller said:


> Charles Osborne and Julian Budden's excellent books on Verdi each have a chapter devoted to the opera.
> 
> Otherwise: https://opera.org.au/home/productions/luisa-miller/cheat-sheet


I can't recommend the Scotto/Domingo/Milnes DVD highly enough.

For CD recordings, I own both the Maag (Caballe, Pavarotti, Milnes) and the Levine (Millo, Domingo, Chernov) and love both. I don't own the Moffo/Bergonzi/Macneil version but heard it years ago. Actually, I don't think there's ever been a bad recording of LUISA MILLER (it's one of my favorite operas, by the way, and I too am going to the HD performance next month). About how many operas can _that_ be said?


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## Guest (Apr 10, 2018)

OP here. Many thanks for all of the recommendations. It is good that there is so much knowledge in all corners of TC.

I've listened to Gilda Cruz-Romo and watched:

Ricciarelli, Domingo, Maazel (my favourite); 

Kundi, Ciofi and Alaimo from Liege 2014 and 

Martinez, Vargas, Zanetti from Paris 2008 (best production).

Also I've seen several performances by Marcelo Alvarez of Quando le sere al placido.

Clearly there are plenty more great versions as indicated above and I'll note them for future listening.



I also got both Osborne's and Budden's books. They will come in useful for other Verdi operas too.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

^^^^
And I hope you have great fun, I know I am looking froward to coming Saturday.


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## JosefinaHW (Nov 21, 2015)

NickFuller said:


> Charles Osborne and Julian Budden's excellent books on Verdi each have a chapter devoted to the opera.
> 
> Otherwise: https://opera.org.au/home/productions/luisa-miller/cheat-sheet


Although I knew I was not going to be able to go to the theater for the simulcast, I started to listen to three different performances in the archives of the Met. Two are just audio and the one video available was this one. I am really not liking this opera: the female voices just sound terrible to me. Especially the voice of Jean Kraft. I don't know anything about her, but I hesitated to mention my dislike of this performance in case the woman had throat or brain cancer or something....

Wish I could hear what those of you who like this opera are hearing....


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## Annied (Apr 27, 2017)

JosefinaHW said:


> Although I knew I was not going to be able to go to the theater for the simulcast, I started to listen to three different performances in the archives of the Met. Two are just audio and the one video available was this one. I am really not liking this opera: the female voices just sound terrible to me. Especially the voice of Jean Kraft. I don't know anything about her, but I hesitated to mention my dislike of this performance in case the woman had throat or brain cancer or something....
> 
> *Wish I could hear what those of you who like this opera are hearing....*


I've often wished that.

By the same token, I've often wished people could hear music as I hear it. I think we'd all be absolutely astounded.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

I have just returned from probably one of the very best Met productions of the season so far. I saw the HD Encore performance of Luisa Miller with Yoncheva/Beczala/Domingo, and to a person every single singer was absolutely superb. I have never been a particular fan of the story itself -- kind of just another form of "Trovatore, Rigoletto, Ernani etc. but these singers really made it come alive.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

nina foresti said:


> I have just returned from probably one of the very best Met productions of the season so far. I saw the HD Encore performance of Luisa Miller with Yoncheva/Beczala/Domingo, and to a person every single singer was absolutely superb. I have never been a particular fan of the story itself -- kind of just another form of "Trovatore, Rigoletto, Ernani etc. but these singers really made it come alive.


I booked us tickets for the summer encores also, want to see it again definitely.


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## Autumn Leaves (Jan 3, 2014)

All right, it's a bit late to discuss anything in relation to the Met's spring broadcasts, a pity I've missed this thread. But still, since no one else wrote of it - there is an amazing 2012 recording of _Luisa Miller_ at Malmö Opera. I think it deserves mention especially because of Ivonne Fuchs as Federica and Lars Arvidson as Wurm: these poor aria-less villains are usually stuck somewhere in the background, but here, they really manage to stand out (in Wurm's case, literally). The main cast is wonderful as well, but I feel a bit wary of praising modern young singers in the end a thread dedicated to Ricciarelli and Bergonzi 

The production manages to be dynamic without being Regietheater.

(Unfortunately, this video lacks the ending scenes).


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