Francesco Meli - Prima Verdi (2021) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

It is all dedicated to Verdi the first recital recorded for Warner by the Genoese tenor Francesco Meli, who on December 7 will inaugurate the scaligera season with the Verdi Macbeth, playing the role of Macduff. Perhaps, the title given to the album, Prima Verdi, plays a bit with the next important appointment, to which Meli is not new; perhaps, he wants to underline a predilection that the interpreter takes pride in the author, defined "my Verdi" in the autograph notes that open the booklet. What is certain is that an album dedicated to the register of the tenor in Green and the order of the arias in chronological order, it can almost appear, and to be clear, we say this in a tone melodramatic, a sort of challenge to that incision historical than makes up for this repertoire, which is a touchstone absolute, however, if you are willing to consider the results: I am referring to the collection “31 arias of Verdi's” recorded in 1974, under the direction of Nello Santi, Carlo Bergonzi, “the tenor verdi” for excellence.

Let us reiterate: this is not the intention of Meli, who rightly insists on the possessive adjective. It is” his “Verdi that we hear in this collection, which opens with the famous” La mia Letizia infondere " from the Lombards to the First Crusade and where immediately obvious similarities and differences with the previous illustrious. First of all, the nobility of phrasing, which has a natural breath as much in the emission, soft, as in the results. This naturalness, composed, mastered since in the rendering of detail, is the result of a high intelligence: it transpires that the study, which we imagine to be passionate and intense, the ability to listen to the page by the paris opera, the propensity to intus legere, to go to dig deeper into every single note, every sign agogico and dynamic. This is in common with Bergonzi's rehearsal, except that Meli seems to demand even more, assisted by the orchestra of Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in dazzling form under the precious and precise direction of maestro Marco Armiliato: listen, for example, to the next " Notte! Perpetua notte " by i due Foscari. The richness of colors and shades that Meli finds has a surprising variety, which will expand even more in the recitative that precedes “La PIA materna mano " from the Battle of Legnano. The dramatic effect of the scene is achieved with a contrast of light and dark that follows the great line designed by Green, dipanantesi by the dark and painful prelude of the cello until the climax corresponding to the outbreak of the delusion of the protagonist, which recognizes, in his vision, the Carmagnola; it is a continuous and progressive transmutation of suffering that plunges the listener into the restless supplication final, a growing succession of strong and floors, bursts of anguished terror and phrases that almost whispered that load of dumb with dismay. Meli demonstrates great control in execution, deep concentration. The risk is that a lot of analysis, a lot of details, take away a bit of spontaneity from the character, of theatricality. The fact of being listening to an recording, however, justifies the interpretative choice and indeed offers a full and original experience that justifies that "Mio Verdi" that sounds, at this point, programmatic.

TRACKLIST

1. Francesco Meli - I Lombardi alla prima crociata, Act II: La mia letizia infondere
2. Francesco Meli - I due Foscari, Act II: Notte! Perpetua notte che qui regni!… Non maledirmi, o prode
3. Francesco Meli - Macbeth, Act IV: O figli, O figli miei… Ah, la paterna mano
4. Francesco Meli - La battaglia di Legnano, Act I: O magnanima e prima… La pia materna mano
5. Francesco Meli - Luisa Miller, Act II: Oh! fede negar potessi agl’occhi miei!… Quando le sere al placido
6. Francesco Meli - Il trovatore, Act III: Ah! sì, ben mio, coll’essere
7. Francesco Meli - Simon Boccanegra, Act II: O inferno! Amelia qui!… Sento avvampar nell’anima
8. Francesco Meli - Un ballo in maschera, Act III: Forse la soglia attinse… Ma se m’è forza perderti
9. Francesco Meli - La forza del destino, Act III: La vita è inferno all’infelice…. O tu che in seno agli angeli
10. Francesco Meli - Aida, Act I: Se quel guerrier io fossi!… Celeste Aida
11. Francesco Meli - Otello, Act III: Dio! mi potevi scagliar tutti i mali



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