This collection of
Plácido Domingo's recordings on the Deutsche Grammophon label, allegedly selected by
Domingo himself, doesn't include any texts or even a link to them. Opera has increased in popularity as other classical genres have contracted partly because opera presenters have met audiences halfway with such devices as supertitles -- but leave it to cheapo record companies to grab a few extra cents of profit at the expense of the big picture. As a disc for car and commute, however, this two-disc compilation has much to recommend it. A major attractant in
Domingo's voice, along with his sheer blazing lyricism, is his versatility, which is on full display here.
Domingo has excelled in the standard Verdi and Puccini roles, and his timing in taking on the heavier music of Otello and Falstaff (both of which appear here in excerpts) is generally accounted accurate. He also, however, sang a lot of Wagner, perhaps more than any other modern performer based in Italian repertory. The second half of Disc 1 here is given over mostly to five Wagner selections running from Tannhäuser to Parsifal, and even including one of the non-operatic Wesendonk Lieder in an orchestral version. It is striking to hear these together and to note how well
Domingo's tough-edged voice works in both the heroic and lyric atmospheres in Wagner. Disc 2 brings even more surprises. After more Verdi (including the virtually unknown "Son tra voi!" from his first opera, Oberto),
Domingo points us to some of the odder corners of his repertoire. Sample the quiet, sweetly reverential CD 2, track 8, César Franck's Panis Angelicus, and marvel at the fact that
Domingo could easily have devoted his life to the smaller world of sacred music if he had so desired. The program moves on through Schubert and Handel (where he is stretching pretty far afield of his basic instincts but is never less than listenable) and concludes on familiar
Domingo ground with a set of semi-popular Italian and Latin American songs. Some of these were recorded close to the time of release; the final Non ti scordar di me of Ernesto de Curtis was recorded in 2005.
Domingo may have turned late in his career to this music because of its comparatively modest technical demands, but he grew up singing semi-popular music in the zarzuela genre, and he has plenty of stage-seizing tricks.
Domingo fans will enjoy this set and will grasp something new about the ways he imprints his own personality on the most diverse material, in a range of recordings dating from 1970 to 2005.