Leo Nucci - Kings and Courtiers: Great Verdi Arias (2014) Hi-Res

Still a remarkable vocal presence at seventy-two, Leo Nucci offers this disc of late-career traversals of some of Verdi's most demanding baritone arias, along with three of the composer's songs. Because Nucci is such a celebrated Verdi baritone, with more than four hundred performances of the title role in Rigoletto alone, comparison with his younger self is inevitable, if pointless; this is a viable collection on its own terms. The disc is a product of The Rosenblatt Recitals, the series of live recitals and recordings, founded by British attorney and vocal music devotee, Ian Rosenblatt, and was recorded at the Teatro Municipale in Piacenza with a chamber ensemble, rather than a full orchestra.

The concept of creating arrangements of Verdi arias and songs for a small ensemble of piano, strings, and harp probably plays better in a live recital, when the intimacy of the setting, coupled with the singer's presence, creates a warm salon ambience. Although one does adjust ones ears as it goes along, at first it's difficult not to notice what isn't there in the orchestra to support the singer. An additional feature of the recital is the pasting of an instrumental prelude — concocted using themes from the particular opera — on to an aria:” Va pensiero" for a Nabucco selection, "Dite alla giovine" for Traviata, etc. The results are variable, but one becomes accustomed to it.

In any case, the main attraction is the baritone; the big question is, "How does he sound?” The happy answer is that on the whole, Nucci sounds pretty terrific. There is some thickening of the voice, and a slight loosening of vibrato that comes with the years, and Nucci tends to slide into pitches from time to time. But richness of tone and solid high notes are not in short supply.

In Rigoletto's "Cortigiani, vil razza" emotional investment and vocal virility carry the day. Nucci’s bluster comes off a bit beefy in Di Luna's tender "Il balen,” but many younger singers are unable to scale down for this aria, and lack Nucci's ringing high G. "Dio di Giuda" from Nabucco, full-throated and rich, is impressive, despite some intrusive scooping at the onset of tones.

Nucci's sometimes-stentorian approach suits perfectly the early Verdi of Attila; Ezio's lament for the past glory days of Rome possesses the requisite maturity, the baritone's voice matching the nostalgia for something faded yet still splendid. Maturity also works in Nucci’s favor in "O vecchio cor, che batti" from I Due Foscari, as does the soft-grained delivery of the recitative, a welcome relief from rather unrelenting forte.

“L’Esule” (Exile) marks a shift into Verdi song repertoire. Set to a text by Temistocle Solera, librettist for Nabucco and Attila, this 1839 piece is more a scena than a song, looking ahead to a structure and style Verdi would use in his operas to come. Nucci gives it an appropriately operatic treatment, particularly successful in the ironically joyful cabaletta, as the exile longs for death as a way to finally return home, as a spirit. A group of Verdi songs that the disc titles "Tre preghiere" ties together "La preghiera del poeta,” composed about 1858 but not published until 1941 with the gorgeous "Sgombra o gentil" and "Invocazione a Maria Addolorata,” a song composed in the style of Verdi by the disc's arranger, Paolo Mancarini, with text translated into Italian from Marguerite's prayer in Goethe's Faust.

The disc returns to opera with Germont's "Di Provenza,” which suffers from a slight flatness of intonation at the outset, and some sliding into pitches; Verdi's markings are observed, but over-emphatic vocalism makes them a bit bumpy, and the piano endings of each strophe are not achieved. There is wonderful emotional variety in the second verse, and breath line is impressive throughout, as are the climactic G-flats. In "Eri tu" from Ballo, Nucci manages to contrast Renato's rage, nostalgia, hurt, and tenderness through dynamic shading. The double aria from Don Carlo finds Nucci thick of voice for "Per me giunto" and lacking youthful ardor (though at least he does try the written trill), but "Io morrò" is absolutely spectacular singing, beautifully acted and phrased.

The disc concludes with Macbeth's brief death aria "Mal per me,” cut from the 1865 revision, and a welcome change of pace from the expected, albeit wonderful, "Pietà, rispetto, amore.” A Notturno, based on themes from Falstaff, arranged by Mancarini, provides a pleasant interlude along the way. spacer