The young Verdi - Vol. 4I Lombardi - Lamberti, Sass, Kovats - Gardelli 1984 (Hungaroton)
3CDs - DDD - 50'19, 45'39, 38'14
Hungaroton
Ezio di Cesare - Arvino, Kolos Kováts - Pagano, Sylvia Sass - Giselda, Zsuzsa Misura - Viclinda, József Gregor - Acciano, Klára Jász - Sofia, Giorgio Lamberti - Oronte, Péter Jánosi - Pirro, Ferenc Gerdesits - A Prior of Milan
Hungarian Radio and Television Chorus/Ferenc Sapszon
Hungarian State Opera Orchestra/Lamberto Gardelli
Recorded in 1984 in Hungary (DDD)
Listen to the whole performance by clicking the white arrow in the red circle!
Review: Gramophone 7/1985, Alan Blyth:
"I Lombardi, Verdi's fourth opera, is a curate's egg. Just when you are inclined to write it off as one of the most obvious and empty of the operas in the galley years, an aria or an ensemble (usually the latter) reminds you that this is really the work of a burgeoning master. For that reason, the earlier and shorter Oberto recently recorded by Orfeo/Harmonia Mundi... [already uploaded] is the more satisfying work as a whole, less inspired in its moments but more consistent as an entirety. The fault in Lombardi lies in its desultory, poorly written libretto (by Solera). Yet, the best of the work — Giselda's solos, the duet for her and Oronte, the baptismal trio (once famously recorded by Rethberg, Gigli and Pinza on a 78rpm disc) and the fourth-part chorus — are indeed noble Verdi. Gardelli knows how to make the most of them — as he showed on his 1972 Philips LP set (still in the catalogue but not available on CD yet) and when he brought the work to Covent Garden in the Budapest Opera staging in 1976, which also had Sass as Giselda.
And Sass' singing is a cogent reason for acquiring this new version. A slightly less exciting singer than she was ten years ago, she is now far more disciplined. Tender in her two beautiful prayers, vibrant in her duet with her beloved Oronte, exciting in the fioriture of the fourth-part's "Non fu sogno", she encompasses almost every aspect of a role that lies uncomfortably between coloratura and spinto. She wants only that extra weight and absolute steadiness called for by the trio. She also conveys more than adequately Giselda's distress and passion with truly Verdian attack and involvement. She is every way superior to Philips's Deutekom.
