Mascagni: L'Amico Fritz
Roberto Alagna (Fritz), Angela Gheorghiu (Suzel), Laura Polverelli (Beppe), George Petean (David)
Chor und Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin, Alberto Veronesi
The entire score comes over persuasively here, with conductor Alberto Veronesi revealing the music's graceful lyricism with a keen sense of forward movement… Robert Alagna moves between the...
Mascagni: L'Amico Fritz
Roberto Alagna (Fritz), Angela Gheorghiu (Suzel), Laura Polverelli (Beppe), George Petean (David)
Chor und Orchester der Deutschen Oper Berlin, Alberto Veronesi
Purchase product
The entire score comes over persuasively here, with conductor Alberto Veronesi revealing the music's graceful lyricism with a keen sense of forward movement… Robert Alagna moves between the...
About
Pietro Mascagni’s charming though seldom recorded romantic comedy L’amico Fritz, featuring a “phenomenal” (klassik.com) cast: Roberto Alagna is Fritz, the confirmed bachelor who succumbs in the course of this delightful opera to the irresistibly lovely Suzel, sung by Angela Gheorghiu. The recording was made in 2008 from wildly acclaimed live performances at Berlin's Deutsche Oper, eliciting superlatives from the critics: “Two stars at the height of their powers...It was good to hear wholehearted ovations again from the Deutsche Oper audience” (Der Opernfreund); “The soloists gave of their phenomenal best and the orchestra under Veronesi played sensationally... I can't recall the last time I heard such enthusiastic (and prolonged) applause at the Deutsche Oper” (klassik.com); “A rare musical treat” (Das Opernglas). This release is certain to be a must-have for all lovers of Italian opera as well as the many fans of Alagna and Gheorghiu
Contents and tracklist
- Roberto Alagna (tenor), George Petean (baritone), Hyung-Wook Lee (bass (vocal)), Yosep Kang (tenor), Andion Fernandez (soprano), Angela Gheorghiu (soprano), Laura Polverelli (mezzo-soprano), William Spaulding (chorus master)
- Deutsche Oper Berlin, Chor der Deutschen Oper Berlin
- Alberto Veronesi
- Recorded: 2008-09
- Recording Venue: Deutsche Oper, Berlin
Awards and reviews
January 2010
The entire score comes over persuasively here, with conductor Alberto Veronesi revealing the music's graceful lyricism with a keen sense of forward movement… Robert Alagna moves between the understated and the ardent in his sympathetic portrayal of Fritz, with Angela Gheorghiu finding a credible way into Suzel's shyness.
December 2009
…Angela Gheorghiu's… first solo, "Son pochi fiori", wins all hearts at once, while her expressive powers command both the sadness of "Non mi restar che il pianto" and (a rarer blessing) the smiling happiness of the famous duet in Act 2. Roberto Alagna... can soften and sweeten, and always sings with feeling. Alberto Veronesi conducts sympathetically, and the orchestra and chorus are a credit to the house.
14th January 2010
[Gheorghiu] proves to be heavenly in it from start to finish. Alagna nicely captures Fritz's emotional uncertainties and collapsing self-delusion...and there's marvellous conducting from Alberto Veronesi. It's real feel-good stuff.
