Margherita di Cortona ia also avaiable free at:
https://archive.org/details/lp_margherita-da-cortona_licinio-refice-orchestra-and-chorus-of/disc2/03.01.+Act+2.mp3
with some useful notes, tho9ugh the transfer (from LP) doesn't sound quite as good as the House of Opera download.
Previous Message
You can buy Margherita da Cortona form houseofopera.com. I am listening to it at the moment (Milan 1969) - bearing in mind it's an off-air source, it's a fine performance and more than acceptable recording (quite a passionate one) in mono. Voices a little too forward. Well worth investigating, especially at its current sale price of $US14.36
They also have the full private recording of the 1976 Scotto Cecilia. Previous Message
That 1955 RAI broadcast is available from Houseofopera.com as a download, Chris, but I can find no trace of the Bernardelli recording. (Sorry to have deprived you of the opportunity to review the new recording, Jim, but I can only say that you're not missing much...) Previous Message
I was interested to read Ralph Moore's review of the recent recording of Celcilia by Licinio Refice. In view of his strictures over the singers, and the drawbacks of the earlier versions he mentions, I would point out that there were two RAI productions that have had some circulation among aficionados. The earliest, 1955, is conducted by the dependable Oliviero De Fabritiis and has Maria Pedrini and Alvino Misciano in the lead roles, as well as two better remembered names, Plinio Clabassi and Saturnio Meletti. This was once on YouTube but doesn't seem to be there any longer. It was followed by a 1975 production under Danilo Benardelli, the nearest you could find to a Refice specialist since he also recorded Margherita da Cortona in 1969. The principal singers are Renata Mattioli, Renato Cioni, Walter Monachesi and Laura Londi. Unfortunately I've never managed to track this down, but the singers all did good work in their day (Mattioli's excellent Lił sometimes turns up) so I can only hope it exists somewhere
Message Thread Licinio Refice's Cecilia - Chris Howell August 15, 2023, 7:05 pm
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