Most Wanted Recitals!: Lisa Della Casa - Operatic Recital

Lovely soprano, lovely sound, simple non effected artistry, beautiful music. It is interesting to hear how Handel was performed in Europe in the 1950's. Della Casa has a beautifully schooled instrument and her sing of Cleopatras arias from Giulio Cesare in German are both rare and beautiful.

Della Casa possessed a stunning voice, similar to Gundula Janowitz. This recital is packed with Handel arias, one from Mozart, and Lieder. It is stunning.

Jus wonderful and a pleasure to listen to this great singer

This is one of the worst examples of the dishonest classical music marketing trend exemplified by Telarc's issuance of "new" CDs of Yolanda Kondonassis, when in fact only a few of the tracks are new and all the others are recycled from her existing CDs, which her fans will already have. Judging from the front cover and the spine, one would expect this to be a CD issue of Lisa Della Casa's 1950s LP of Handel (in German) and Mozart (in Italian) arias. It is, but only to a point. If one looks at the back cover, which is conveniently not available for viewing on line as of this writing, one finds that the CD transfer abruptly stops after the Donna Anna aria from "Don Giovanni." It turns out that all the remainder of the CD - fully half the length - is "bonus tracks" from a Lieder LP. Where are all the rest of the Mozart arias, which were on the second side of the LP, the itemized label of which the inside of the tray card so brazenly sports? They are nowhere to be found. As anyone familiar with the art of Lisa Della Casa knows, it was at Mozart and Richard Strauss that she was matchless. Furthermore, Donna Anna was not her stage role in "Don Giovanni." The rest of the Mozart arias were the best of the LP and yet are completely missing from the CD! So when, if ever, are they going to be reissued? And then will it be as "bonus tracks" to a reissue of her Strauss recital for Decca that her fans will already have? At the very least, the cover of this CD should have stated that it contains only portions of what is pictured on the front cover. Universal should be ashamed of itself. What an insult to one of the noblest sopranos in recorded history! I shall not be purchasing any more of the Decca Most Wanted Recital series without first seeing track lists. I hope that other listeners will join me in exposing this type of marketing fraud to protect other customers and cause Universal to rethink its ways. I don't blame Amazon for this. The fault lies entirely with Universal.

Remastered from the 'London Records' entitled 'Operatic Recital' by the late Swiss lyrical soprano Lisa Della Casa, is only about 'Side 1' of the album plus the 'Don Giovanni' aria.Other fillers come from Della Casa's another album entitled 'Lieder Recital' comprising songs from Schubert, Brahms, Wolf and Richard Strauss.The main bulk of operatic arias come from Handel's 'Giulio Cesare', sung in German. Even if not sung in the original language, Della Casa's performance in these five arias are still phenomenal. Lisa Della Casa was never a famed Handelian (few would apart from British singers in those years), yet her renditions of the arias of Cleopatra are all tip-top, with a burnished and lyrical soprano that gives the just right lyrical and dramatic balance to the demanding role of Cleopatra. This is the result of a rock-solid vocal technique coupled with highly intelligent musicianship. While Handel is a red hot composer in this 21st century, listening to Lisa Della Casa's Handel arias now still makes the listener craving for more, simply that such singing has hardly been surpassed since - not even by the most eminent, alas. The attacks on high notes, the coloratura, the melismas, the perfect intonation, the spot on phrasing...then, of course, the perfect German diction to boot. It is a pity that Handel's operas were just 'beginning' to receive their long over-dued revival, and performances of such are relatively rare and confined only to a couple of the most popular like Giulio Cesare, Alcina (revived by Dame Joan Sutherland).On the lieder side, I wonder if Decca's claim of 'CD Premiere' is fully justified, as some years ago Testament also issued a disc covering Lisa Della Casa's many songs here, namely the Schubert and Brahms, if not Wolf and Strauss as far as one could recall.Even so, these songs are utterly mesmerizing and beautiful sung by Lisa Della Casa, whose voice is a pure silvery gleam wafting in the atmosphere of lovely melodies.The remaining parts of the 'Operatic Recital' LP comprises arias of Donna Elvira from 'Don Giovanni', Fiordiligi from 'Cosi fan tutte', and Rosina from 'Le Nozze di Figaro', which may or may not have been issued before on CD.All in all, an utterly enchanting album now available on CD, if you have not happened to be born early enough to obtain the original LP recordings.Such singing as Lisa Della Casa's is so very rarely heard today any more, alas.Unreservedly recommended.

I love Della Casa's voice. I have been a fan of her Mozart and Strauss since I first heard her Donna Elvira and Arabella on record. I was unaware of the Handel recordings presented on this compilation. I don't think they have been in print in my lifetime actually. Anyways, I thought it would be interesting if nothing else to hear a Viennese vocalist approach Handel translated into German. I didn't think it would be terrible, but I also didn't expect it to be amazing either. If I wanted to be picky, I could reference some stylistic things that some stickler might complain about. However, she sings the Cleopatra arias with great beauty, coolness, and sounds ravishing. Obviously historically informed wasn't the point or a concern when this was recorded. Frankly, I am amazed that she sounds so natural singing these arias. The Cesare pieces are worth the price of the disc. It's just great singing plain and simple. The rest of the album is comprised of pieces I've heard her do elsewhere (many the exact same recordings). No complaints on any of them. She definitely does some of the Schubert differently than many others, but it is a nice different with a valid viewpoint. If you don't know Della Casa and like lush lyric beautiful singing, she may be a good singer to check out. Though the voices are very different, many people that enjoy the voice of Te Kanawa also enjoy Della Casa. Not everyone of course, but both are classy, regal, and just exude beauty of sound.

Great disc

Cantatrice d'une beauté scénique et vocale stupéfiantes , grande rivale à Vienne de Schwarzkopf dans les années 50 . Grande Straussienne et Mozartienne .Insurpassable et inoubliable dans Arabella . Ce récital de lieder ( jamais sorti en France officiellement) est intéressant par sa rareté et la qualité de l'interprétation

Dans ces enregistrements de grande qualité, le timbre clair et lumineux de Lisa della Casa s'exprime parfaitement dans la précision et la perfection de son timbre vocal. Pas d'effet superflu, un vibrato léger, un délice lyrique. M. Charras

Encore une fois , dans cette collection " économique " , un assemblage douteux , car dépourvu de la moindre cohérence artistique et esthétique : d'abord des extraits de Jules César en allemand ( ! ) : curieux mais pourquoi pas , après tout ? au 19°siècle , par exemple , on chantait assez fréquemment l'opéra dans la langue du pays où avait lieu la représentation ... quoi qu'il en soit , Dame Lisa Della Casa nous enchante , même si l'orchestre , très philharmonique , est " guidé " par un tâcheron qui a bien peu travaillé son Haendel et même si je me suis parfois demandé si nous n'étions pas dans une Passion selon Matthieu d'avant-guerre ...Puis , reprise d'un récital de lieder : pianiste quelconque et fort mal capté , instrument lointain et cotonneux , trop de réverbération , ce qui enlève de la définition à la voix ... qui , heureusement , nous emmène vers des rivages de rêve ...encore que je préfère probablement PRICE , pour Schubert et Brahms Lieder et Johannes Brahms : Lieder , mais à ce niveau ...Sur l'édition , un travail bâclé , voire cochonné :- la pochette d'époque , reproduite en caractères minuscules , n'est même pas traduite- aucun commentaire actuel sur les oeuvres , les interprêtes- aucune traduction , bien entendu , des lieder ( il faut donc ressortir d'autres disques ! )- des interrogations sur la pertinence technique du transfert " 24 bits " : l'orchestre et la voix de la cantatrice sont loin d'avoir toutes les nuances et les richesses qu'on pourrait espérer d'enregistrements de 1956 ...( écoutes réalisées sur des panneaux électrostatiques QUAD 2905 )Je pense que beaucoup de mélomanes et discophiles paieraient volontiers , comme moi , quelques € de plus pour disposer d'éditions véritablement soignées .