Although overshadowed by the more celebrated second recording of Otello that Mario del Monaco and Renata Tebaldi made with Karajan (1960), many feel this earlier (1954) recording features both protagonists in fresher voice, and Alberto Erede and his Santa Cecilia forces really pack a punch.
GIUSEPPE VERDI
Otello
Otello: Mario del Monaco, tenor
Desdemona: Renata Tebaldi, soprano
Cassio: Piero de Palma, tenor
Jago: Aldo Protti, baritone
Emilia: Luisa Ribacchi, mezzo-soprano
Roderigo: Angelo Mercuriali, tenor
Montano: Pier Luigi Latinucci, bass
Lodovico, Venetian envoy: Fernando Corena, bass
A herald: Dario Caselli, bass
Coro e orchestra dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Roma
Alberto Erede
Recording Producers: Victor Olof, James Walker
Balance Engineers: Gil Went, Roy Wallace
Recording Location: Santa Cecilia, Rome, Italy, July 1954
‘Tebaldi has the most haunting pianissimo of any soprano in my time; and how she can manage it!’ … The recording has warmth, depth, fullness … Del Monaco’s enunciation is ringingly true … I find this lovely soprano [Tebaldi] an unfailingly wonderful Desdemona: such tenderness, such feeling, such glow and strength in sustaining the big lines of the great duets and the ensemble at the end of Act 3.’ Gramophone