“AIDA : Verdi
Original Air Date: 02/25/1967
Cast: Schippers; Price, Bergonzi, Bumbry, Merrill, Hines
Media: SID.18090534 Tags: Archive; 2018, Verdi
On paper this performance looks like the dream cast. It is not. Price who sang possibly her very best performance ever in the opening night Antony and Cleopatra six months earlier, sings much too much on
principal with a particularly vulgar opening of Ritorna vincitor. What is most sad is that her first two Aida broadcasts, the first with Gorr, Bergonzi, Sereni, Siepi, and Macurdy under Solti from 1963, the second from 1965 with Dalis, Tucker, Merrill, Ghiuselev, Michalski under Mehta have not been on Sirius. The first I remember vividly , and has been on private European pressings; it is one of the very best Met Aidas. Bergonzi is substantially stronger in 1963; The 1965 performance simply has Mehta as a better Aida conductor than Schippers.
Richard Tucker, whose career is not overlooked by the Sirius folk, has not managed to have his Radames on Sirius despite having broadcast the role with Nilsson, Price, and Arroyo. Bumbry is here in the first of her 3 broadcast Amnerises, and she is better with Arroyo which has been on Sirius.
Merrill is in remarkable voice 21 years after his debut (a few too many woofs, but still the most mellifluous Amonasro ever (though plenty of testosterone if not real anger). So here are 4 relatively recent Aidas (post 1960) which somehow can’t get to the airwaves. This 1967 is on Met Opera on Demand (MOoD) and also appears in the 2013 Verdi at the
Met bicentennial box, but it still does not rank as one of Price’s
best efforts, or one of the best modern Met Aidas.
***
Available in MOoD. This is also in the new Verdi box , but the missing
AIda should be the 1963 with Solti conducting Price, Gorr, Bergonzi, Siepi,
Macurdy. Bergonzi cracks in the Celeste AIda and neither Price nor Bumbry are at their best.
***
On paper this looks like dream casting, but starting with Sgarro (one really wants a major voice in the King, Sgarro is not) Price is not in the outstanding form she showed six months earlier in the Antony and Cleopatra world premiere. Bergonzi (despite a crazk in his Celeste Aida dimuendo), Bumbry and Merrill (esp. ) are in very fine form. Schippers is not my favorite Aida conductor, and he doesn’t get much of a tone out of the Met orchestra, though the chorus is on good form. This is on Met Player (along with the video of her farewell in 1985 and an audio with HOrne and McCracken. What is not on MetPlayer and has not been on either Sirius is Solti’s Met farewell staged opera (he also has a Verdi Requiem which has not been on Sirius) with Price, Gorr, Bergonzi, Sereni, Siepi. That is the performance that should be available.”