George London (bass-baritone)
Grosse Sänger unseres Jahrhunderts
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra/Richard Kraus, Rudolf Moralt, Hermann Weigert
rec. 1953-56, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Munich
Reviewed as downloaded from press preview
ORFEO C220051 [80]
George London (1920-1985) was born in Montreal in Canada to parents of Russian origin but grew up in Los Angeles. He made his operatic debut as early as 1941 as Dr Grenvil in La Traviata at the Hollywood Bowl. Towards the end of the 1940s he was part of a vocal trio, consisting of, besides himself, soprano Francis Yeend and tenor Mario Lanza. This was obviously an eye-opener also for Europe, since the Vienna State Opera engaged London in 1949 and two years later he sang Amfortas in Parsifal in Bayreuth to great acclaim – a production that also was recorded and still is a classic. The radio recordings issued here, find London in his early thirties when he was at his freshest. Unfortunately his career was cut short when contracted voice problems a few years into the 1960s. The problem was diagnosed as a paralyzed vocal cord, he got treatment for it but never recovered fully, and in 1967 he gave up his career, aged 46.
Fortunately he got the opportunity to record some of his signature roles commercially, while he was at the height of his powers. For Philips he set down the title role of Don Giovanni with a stellar supporting cast (review). I have to admit that I wasn’t too enchanted by London’s singing here, but my colleague Ralph Moore rated him very highly, so it is a matter of personal taste. There are however a handful of bonus tracks with London singing other Mozart arias with Bruno Walter as conductor, and here I was very satisfied. For Decca he sang Scarpia in Tosca with Tebaldi and Del Monaco, and there he is more on his home ground. In the French repertoire the four evil genii in Les Contes d’Hoffmann were ideally suited to his magnificent voice and his dramatic capacity, and in 1965 HMV set down the work with Nicolai Gedda in the title role. London was Coppelius and Dr. Miracle, and by then his vocal decline had already begun, and especially Coppelius is rather rough-hewn. He didn’t sing Dapertutto then, but can be heard in his famous diamond aria on the present disc, sung in French and in brilliant voice. In the German repertoire he was an outstanding Holländer, and RCA set it down in the early 60s (later transferred to Decca), a version that can still challenge the best of later efforts (review). He was also a great Wotan, and on Solti’s Das Rheingold in the late 50s, and at about the same time took part in an isolated Die Walküre, conducted by Erich Leinsdorf and with Birgit Nilsson as Brünnhilde. This was also a Decca recording and so was his Mandryka in Richard Strauss’s Arabella, again with Solti in the pit (review).
The excerpts on the present disc are uniformly excellent, and the recorded sound is surprisingly good. A number of the items were issued by Archipel some 15 years ago – a disc I rated very highly at the time (review). Besides the glorious diamond aria, which was also on that disc, the trio from the Antonia act, unfortunately sung in German, London is a sensitive and expressive Dr. Miracle, and with excellent assistance from Teresa Stich-Randall and Maria von Ilosvay. With Russian speaking parentage, London had a special leaning towards Russian operas, and thus it is pity that he sings the excerpts from Eugene Onegin in German. But his identification with the role is high and he sings the finale with great warmth.
Igor’s aria from Borodin’s unfinished masterwork Prince Igor, which is one of the really great bass (or baritone) arias in the Russian repertoire, is sung here with deep involvement and – thank God – in the original language. When London came to the Vienna State Opera in 1949 his debut role was Amonasro in Aida, and sung here with tremendous power and intensity – and opposite another power-house, Hungarian born Astrid Varnay (but her birth took actually place in Stockholm). She is best known for her Wagner roles, and she was certainly one of the great Brünnhildes – heir to Flagstad, contemporary to Birgit Nilsson, later followed by Berit Lindholm and during the last two decades Nina Stemme – a quintet of Nordic walküres covering ¾ of a century. Varnay hadn’t quite the brilliance and steadiness of tone that Nilsson could muster, but the expressivity and insight in the character was second to none, and War es so schmälich from the last act of Die Walküre is truly gripping. That London was a great Wotan is very obvious, even more so in the concluding farewell, where his sensitiveness and beauty of tone is striking. One rarely hears such legato singing in Wagner.
Readers who already own the Archipel disc may feel satisfied with that, but the 20-minute-long duet from Die Walküre may be worth the extra outlay. Those who missed the Archipel are advised to repair that damage instantly. One of the truly great bass-baritones of the post-war era caught at the height of his powers.
Göran Forsling
Contents
Offenbach: The Tales of Hoffmann
Scintille diamant
Antonia … Leise tönt meiner Stimme Klang (with Teresa Stich-Randall and Maria von Ilosvay)
Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin
Sie schreiben mir
Onegin, bitte stehen Sie auf (with Valérie Bak)
Borodin: Prince Igor
Ni sna ni otdycha
Verdi: Aida
Ciel, mio padre! (with Astrid Varnay)
Wagner: Die Walküre
War es so schmählich (with Astrid Varnay)
Leb wohl, du kühnes, herrliches Kind
