40TH ANNIVERSARY RECITAL.(Review)

Luciano Pavarotti [] "40TH ANNIVERSARY RECITAL" Arias by Bononcini, Scarlatti, Verdi, Puccini, Donizetti and Cilea, songs by Beethoven, Bellini, Donizetti and Tosti. Magiera, piano. Decca 466 350-2

Anyone exposed to Luciano Pavarotti's recitals anywhere in the world during the past fifteen years or so could have anticipated the program of this highly touted "first new recital recording since 1988." It is pretty much the last concert he gave, or the one before that: a few familiar opera arias interspersed with Italian songs Decca has been assembling and reassembling for the tenor with regularity over the past many years.

There is one important difference, however. This is Pavarotti in the year 2000, at age sixty-five. He still has the well-remembered bright, gleaming tone and communicates his music with charm and enthusiasm, rounding out final phrases with his characteristic ecstatic exhalation. Enthusiastic, too, is his effect on the audience, as proved by their reaction. But forty years before the public have taken their toll on the sustained notes, and his intonation is not so dependable as it was in days of yore. The two Tosca arias sound labored; Federico's lament from L'Arlesiana may still have ...