Mozart - Le Nozze di Figaro - Allen, Popp, Te Kanawa, Ramey - SoltiPerformer: Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Robert Tear, Kurt Moll, Yvonne Kenny, Philip Langridge, Giorgio Tadeo, Lynda Russell, Samuel Ramey, Lucia Popp, Frederica Von Stade, Jane Berbié, Thomas Allen, Anne Mason
Conductor: Sir Georg Solti
Orchestra/Ensemble: London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Opera Chorus
It is headed by a Count and Countess of aristocratic manner, both possessed of the ideal voice for their roles. Kiri Te Kanawa, who began her Covent Garden career as mistress of the Almaviva household, here interprets the part with her familiarly warm, soft tone unimpaired and a much greater understanding than in the past at achieving the maximum with the text. Her recitative, particularly in her tiffs with her husband and her flirtation with Cherubino, is neatly delivered and, in ensembles, her clear line is always secure and well managed. Thomas Allen's Count, also much cherished at the Royal Opera House, transfers to disc magnificently with its cutting edge undiminished, its sexual dimension evident in every bar, most of all in his last-act exchanges with Susanna. He charges his recitative with the relevant emotions and the biting confidence of a man who expects to be obeyed even when he knows he's stretching beyond the bounds of traditional decorum, and his third-act aria has the demonic touch of this singer's Giovanni. The coloratura at the aria's end, such an obstacle to most baritones, gives Allen no problem and he sings it up to tempo. --Arkivmusic
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