Classic best: Sony presents a Domingo collection that shows off three decades' worth of beautiful singing.(Recordings)(Sound Recording Review)

Placido Domingo

* "THE ESSENTIAL PLACIDO DOMINGO" Arias and songs by Verdi, Puccini, Donizetti, Giordano, Cilia, Massenet, Mascagni, R. Strauss, Mahler and others. Sony Classical/Legacy SK92846 (2)

One of the music world's genuine treasures, Placido Domingo continues to amaze his fans with boundless energy and generosity, and with a natural curiosity and confidence manifested in an astounding and long-lived international career. A new CD compilation, The Essential Domingo, on the Sony Legacy label, draws on material recorded between 1970--when the up-and-coming twenty-nine-year-old replaced Franco Corelli for performances and a recording of the Verdi Requiem with Leonard Bernstein--and 1999, when Domingo made his sole recording to date of any Mahler work: the monumental Das Lied vonder Erde, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Esa-Pekka Salonen.

The "Ingemisco" from the Verdi Requiem shows careful negotiation of the passaggio, always a concern for the former baritone, and Bernstein's indulgent tempos allow both the intimately affecting and the thrillingly visceral aspects of Domingo's voice full sway.

One year later, Domingo appeared again with Bernstein in the important cameo role of the Italian Singer in Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier, a now-classic recording with Christa Ludwig, Gwyneth Jones, Lucia Popp and Walter Berry. "Di rigore armato il seno," the aria excerpted here, shows again the immediacy of Domingo's ringing voice and ardent delivery.

Two roles never to become part of Domingo's legend nevertheless show surprisingly lightweight aspects of his voice in the early days, with more open vowels and less protective covering. Rinuccio's "Firenze e come un albero fiorito," from Puccini's Gianni Schicchi--dearly a novelty, as the tenor also sang the heavier role of Luigi in Il Tabarro (and doubtless would have portrayed one of the nuns in Suor Angelica if allowed) for Lorin Maazel's complete Trittico--sounds fresh and youthful, while one of the collection's best tracks is a supple, warm performance of "Una furtiva lagrima," from Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore, recorded in 1977.

An important first for Domingo was the title role in Massenet's Le Cid in 1976, with Eve Queler and the Opera Orchestra of New York; the live recording of "O Souverain" bristles with intelligence, feeling ...