Donizetti: L'Elisir d'amore[2 CD/Blu-ray Audio Combo]

Donizetti s L elisir d amore was a work learned on the Australian tour. There were a couple of performances in Modena and four in San Francisco. The chemistry between Sutherland and Pavarotti, their vivid characterisation, their technical prowess and Bonynge s conducting of a much smaller ensemble, the English Chamber Orchestra, came together to give us a true winner. Gramophone s review was typical of the set s reception: Pavarotti has a Gigli-like quality in characterisation and this suits him ideally for the role of the simple, devoted Nemorino ... you should readily be won over by the sheer exuberance, vocal as well as dramatic, that Sutherland brings to the role. It is a joy to the ear to have well-loved music treated to extra vocal splendours at both ends of the soprano register.
The glory years of the 1980s and 90s when Pavarotti had become a true superstar lay ahead, but this recording contains some infinitely treasurable singing Pavarotti was a celebrity who d earned his fame, and learned his craft slowly and completely. He was indeed grandissimo in every way.
James Jolly
Extract from Luciano Pavarotti Edition 1: The First Decade