Verdi: Falstaff

Naxos 8.110198-99
(released last week in US)

Rimini, Tassinari, et. al.
Lorenzo Molajoli, cond., La Scala

***** Wonderful performance, amazing sound for its time

This is a reissue of the well-known very first complete recording of
Verdi's Falstaff, made in 1932 at La Scala and featuring some of the
finest Verdian singers of the time, all melded into a brilliant ensemble
by veteran La Scala conductor, Lorenzo Molajoli.  The performance is
lively and touching.  The second disc is filled out by an additional 35
minutes of aria recordings by soprano Pia Tassinari, made mostly in the
early 1940s.  They, too, are in quite good sound.

Be warned that there is no libretto with this issue.  Obviously for this
reason this should not be anyone's only recording of this comic masterpiece.
There is a very thorough synopsis with index numbers for the discs and
this makes it fairly easy to follow developments in the story-line.

This performance has been issued on various labels over the years, but
this issue has the best sound and is, in a word, amazing.  The sound
restoration was done by that engineering wizard, Ward Marston, whose
work has been a boon to all lovers of historic recordings.

Scott Morrison