[ Sony Classical Masters / 5 CD Box Set ]
Release Date: Thursday 1 November 2012
"This is a very fair picture of what one might now term 'early Domingo', mostly culled from recitals..It proves that, while the voice could then be thought of as even more sappy than it is today, the artistry was perhaps just a little less consummate." (Gramophone)
"This is a very fair picture of what one might now term 'early Domingo', mostly culled from recitals..It proves that, while the voice could then be thought of as even more sappy than it is today, the artistry was perhaps just a little less consummate, an unvaried "Una furtiva lagrima" as an example of that. On the other hand, Domingo gives to the two arias of the Duke of Mantua in Rigolelto, a role that he has since renounced, a lightness and variety of colour that precisely suit that elegant but wayward character, a real smile entering his tone. The excerpts from Aida, Tosca and Pagliacci derive from complete sets and demonstrate once again the power and vivid effortlessness of this tenor supreme."
(Gramophone on a single excerpts disc)
CD 1: Arias from Giulio Cesare, Don Giovanni, Il duca d'Alba, La Juive, Luisa Miller, Lohengrin, Simon Boccanegra, Eugene Onegin, Le Villi, Iris, Werther, Luisa Fernanda, El último romántico, Rigoletto, La traviata
CD 2: Arias from La bohème, L'elisir d'amore, Pagliacci, Manon, L'arlesiana, Martha, La fanciulla del West, Rigoletto, Le Cid, L'Africaine, Aida, Carmen, Andrea Chénier, Cavalleria rusticana, Il trovatore, Tosca
CD 3: Arias from Cavalleria rusticana, Faust, Rigoletto, La forza del destino, Adriana Lecouvreur, Turandot, La fanciulla del West, Gianni Schicchi, Les Pêcheurs de perles, Un ballo in maschera, Roméo et Juliette, Chatterton, Mefistofele, Norma, Andrea Chénier, Tosca, I Vespri sicilliani, Il trovatore, Otello
CD 4: Arias from Don Carlo, Un ballo in maschera, I Vespri sicilliani, La forza del destino, Otello, Aida
CD 5: Arias from La bohème, Manon Lescaut, Francesca da Rimini, Les Pêcheurs de perles, Los claveles, Norma, La Gioconda, Madama Butterfly