Luciano Pavarotti In Barcelona DVD

No longer the great operatic tenor of his heyday, Pavarotti proves in Pavarotti--Barcelona that he's still capable of remarkable things on a smaller scale. This recital mostly consists of attractive trifles, but the operatic extracts--"Un Aura Amorosa" from Cosi fan Tutte, in particular--remind us of his gift for vocal characterisation and his capacity for real subtlety. Most of the programme is made up of Neapolitan songs--many of them by Tosti, including the less common "A'Vuchella" with words by the poet D'Annunzio--where Pavarotti has a real feel for both music... and words. In some of the songs, notably the two late Rossini songs "La Promessa" and "La Danza Gioacchino", he also demonstrates a sense of fun, playing with the tarantella rhythms of the latter song in a flirtatious yet still musical way. On the DVD: the disc, which is presented in 4:3 ratio, has excellent Dolby sound that gives us just enough of the ambient audience sound to remind us that this is a live performance. It comes with a short interview, a biography and discography as bonuses. --Roz Kaveney [show more]

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