Editorial Reviews

With two discs containing 50 well-known songs and arias performed by a handful of great voices, you'll get your money's worth with the #1 Tenor Album. The big three are here -- Pavarotti, Carreras, and Domingo -- opening the program with "La Donna è mobile" from Verdi's Rigoletto, along with arias from Puccini's Manon Lescaut and Bizet's Carmen. Star tenor Roberto Alagna joins the billing with Donizetti's "Una furtiva lagrima" from L'Elisir d'amore, but then the program takes a turn with a lineup of great tenors past: Carlo Bergonzi, Jussi Björling, Mario del Monaco, Fritz Wunderlich, Franco Corelli, Giuseppe di Stefano, and others. Bergonzi offers a heartfelt "Che gelida manina" from his classic 1950s recording of Bohème, while Wunderlich, who possessed one of the great tenor voices of the 20th century but died tragically young, performs a supremely lyrical "Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön" from Mozart's Magic Flute. Franco Corelli's "E lucevan le stelle" from Puccini's Tosca is as impassioned a version as one is likely ever to hear, and di Stefano brings elegance and impeccable diction to "Recondita armonia," also from Tosca. Broadening the selections, the second disc offers a pair of Wagner arias from Walküre and Meistersinger (sung by Jon Vickers and René Kollo) and moves in other directions, too, with a series of Spanish, Italian, and German popular songs. Domingo, Carreras, and Pavarotti are up to their usual standards in these, but di Stefano shines, singing five celebrated Italian songs as if to the manner born. EJ Johnson, Barnes & Noble

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