COMPOSERS: Mozart
LABELS: Sony
WORKS: The Marriage of Figaro
PERFORMER: Roberta Peters, Cesare Siepi, Kim Borg, Lucine Amara, Mildred Miller, Ezio Flagello, Regina Resnik; The Metropolitan Opera & Chorus/ Erich Leinsdorf
CATALOGUE NO: Sony 88697853102
It’s not clear why Sony should have chosen to release this particular performance of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, when it must have far greater Met broadcasts to choose from. Leinsdorf, the conductor, is at his most routine, and the singers don’t put up much of a fight against him. Kim Borg is grotesquely miscast as the Count, and although Cesare Siepi was a great Figaro, he puts little into this particular effort. The only artist who acquits himself with distinction is Ezio Flagello, and no one buys a Figaro for its Bartolo. Michael Tanner
