COMPOSERS: Mascagni
LABELS: Sony
WORKS: Cavalleria Rusticana
PERFORMER: Plácido Domingo; Renata Scotto The Ambrosian Opera Chorus & National Philharmonic Orchestra/James Levine
CATALOGUE NO: 88697576572
He has varying success, too, in Cav and Pag. Here advisedly separated – I still have the Pagliacci in a double bill with Il tabarro, which works better – the results run parallel to the different quality of the two works. Mascagni’s slow-to-kindle Cavalleria Rusticana isn’t helped by some of Levine’s deliberate tempos; Scotto is an earthy Santuzza but both she and, especially, Domingo, come under too much strain in the rip-roaring duet which ought to be the heart and soul of the opera. David Nice.