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Title: Freni shines in poorly recorded video.
Review: Giordano's Fedora may be a good opera but you will never find out from this video. On the positive side, the two principalsMirella Freni and Sergei Larin are both excellent, especially Freni,who dominates the performance with her superb dramatic acting and fine voice. The supporting cast is also very competent.Unfortunately, there are many drawbacks. The sound recording is poorly balanced, it favours the singers to the extent that the orchestra is suppressed and the overall effect is distorted.There are no subtitles, only a hasty synopsis on the tape box.The conducting of Stefano Ranzani seems only adequate, but that could be attributed to the bad balance already referred to.There is no information as to the origin of this performance, it looks like a provincial Italian house with the irritating custom of loudly cheering and applauding singers on entering the stage.Fedora needs a great recording to show its worth. This one isnot.
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