Mitch Leigh, Roger Andrews, James Bassi, James Bingham, Rodne Brown, Alvaro Domingo, Placido Domingo, Rosalind Elias, Jerry Hadley, Mandy Patinkin - Man of La Mancha

Plácido Domingo endows Quixote with a vocal richness and intensity no previous man of La Mancha has brought to the role. But as wonderful as Domingo is, he is too overpowering to capture the vulnerability of Quixote's mental state, an essential quality of this character. Julia Migenes gets trapped in Aldonza's massive register changes, even though her lower range is expressive and robust. She is unafraid of indulging the chest tone, a vital necessity in this role. The sore spot is Mandy Patinkin, who is misguided by delivering Sancho in an unnaturally nasal and obnoxious manner--he is more annoying than cute. A worthy, if far from perfect, recording. --Barbara Eisner Bayer Amazon.com

An Operatic Don Quixote

"Man of La Mancha" is my favorite musical. It has a wonderful message and gives people a lot to think and talk about. The music is also very, very good and can withstand a variety of styles and interpretations. This operatic version features the outstanding Placido Domingo who, I feel, brings an authenticity to the role, perhaps because of his own Spanish nationality and background. This version is quite different from the musical, but still very nice. The fiery Julia Migenes is also a very appropriatly sexy, vet vulnerable Aldonza/Dulcinea.

Comparisons: Original Broadway Version; Movie version, Brian Stokes Mitchell as Don Quixote; Jim Nabors as Don Qixote; Jacques Brel as Don Quixote (French version) June 19, 2007

Almost nothing but praise

In my opinion, the vocalists were the best selection. I thoroughly love Patinkin (and have since "The Princess Bride"), Migenes and Domingo is a fail-proof choice. I would have just liked to have seen a bit more of the story told in this track. June 1, 2007

Great, if not a bit confusing

There are two reasons to buy this album.

One is in the breathtaking performances of Placido Domingo in the lead, and in the innkeeper in Samuel Ramey.

Two is the fact that the score from the musical is just plain good.

This recording doesn't capture the essence of the musical. I've only seen the musical once, and it was years ago, but that's always been my one criticism of it.

However, the two aforementioned vocal performances alone makes this recording worth a spin or three. October 12, 2004

Not The Best "Man of La Mancha"

This recording is a real disappointment. I am a huge fan of this musical and I was saddened by this recording, which could have been fantastic. The idea of using opera singers to record American musicals is not a new idea, and has been successfully done in the past, but this misguided attempt can easily be bypassed.
Placido Domingo, miscast in a role that isn't vocally congenial to him, sounds confused most of the time in this unhappy recording. The role needs a deeper, more baritonal voice, preferably a bass with a good upper range. It's too bad they didn't give Ramey a crack at the title role. Domingo doesn't capture the grandeur, nobility, or madness of the role, and his singing on this set sounds a bit under strain with very little resonance. His spoken lines are dull, and it sounds like he is sight reading most of the time.
Mandy Patinkin vocalises so discreetly as to hardly make an impression at all, one is barely aware he is even part of the recording. He sounds like he's doing an impression of a midget. His ideas about this comic side-kick role are obviously some kind of dead-pan but they mostly fall flat. His singing is small-scaled and verges on quasi-falsetto. Another sever disappointment from a normally reliable artist.
Julia Migenes should not have been asked to sing Aldonza. She obviously doesn't take the role seriously: if the idea behind this recording was to capture the operatic beauty of classically trained voices, then why is she singing in some kind of pop vocal style? I'm assuming she's trying to emulate the American Broadway style, but she just comes off sounding wrong. Her voice has little beauty and she has even less sense of style. Her three solos are painful to listen too--she alternates from brash harshness to a wiry soprano upper register. She might have done some interesting things with the role had she taken it seriously. Her spoken dialogue is, paradoxically, done with conviction and skill, but stands out on this recording only because the others can't handle the dialogue at all. All in all, her performance is an embarrassment.
The others are adequate, but no more. Ramey is strong but stolid. Hadley is in good voice, but has a weak lower register (important in his part), and Domingo's sons cope well with their small roles.
The conductor has the score well in hand, but the orchestra sounds as if it were recorded in a completely different accoustic than the voices, which are sometimes too far forward.
There is more dialog included in this recording than the others, but unfortunately as stated before, most of it isn't done convincingly. The music is also recorded completely uncut (as far as I know) which is an advantage over the other recordings. June 25, 2004

My Feeble Opinions...

Okay, this is probably more than biased, but I was given this album quite a few years ago, without even knowing what Man of La Mancha was. It inspired me to listen to the other cast recordings, and I still come back to this one the most!

I like the quality of Domingo's voice, so the accents hardly bother me. His vocals are just too easy for me to fall into. And as for Mandy Patinkin, I couldn't disagree more with general opinion. Maybe since he's the first Sancho I heard, it really grew on me, but I liked his rendition before and after viewing/listening to other versions, and I've always liked his voice. It has a very different quality to it, and if that changes the role for this recording, so be it. I really liiiiike it!

As for Aldonza, Julia Migenes' strong vocals in moments of extreme anger and despair to her reluctantly sweet coming around to Don Quixote's charms really struck me. All in all, I was charmed by this recording early on and still am! The main vocalists are extrememely talented and outshine any of the weaknesses in the recording itself. There's plenty of charming wit, humor, and drama, and I found none of it to be bogged down by any of the performances. December 30, 2003

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