Spirito
Marina Rebeka (soprano)
Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Massimo di Palermo/Jader Bignamini
rec. 2018, Teatro Massimo, Palermo, Italy
Sung texts available as a free download
PRIMA CLASSIC PRIMA001 [78]
This bel canto album was previously glowingly reviewed by Göran Forsling in May 2019 when it was designated as “Recommended”. I was much less enthusiastic about a previous recital disc,
Amor fatale, finding both her voice and her characterisation there to be interpretatively bland and undistinguished. I am certainly much more impressed by her singing here. Her programme is artfully selected and compiled, presenting some of the most melodic, dramatic and affecting of celebrated arias from two operas by each of Bellini and Donizetti and four excerpts from the now rarer La vestale by Spontini – revived by Callas in 1954 at la Scala in a Visconti production.
There are, however, still aspects of her singing which disappoint: although she negotiates the roulades of “Casta diva” – a daring opener – successfully, if rather carefully, there is a certain lack of variety in her expression, some thinness to her top notes - immediately evident in the cabaletta of “Ah! bello a me ritorna” – and, unforgivably, she takes a breath in the middle of the word “mondo” at 1:48. The warmth and roundness of sound required in alt to avoid sounding shrill are missing; the climactic C-sharp is not a pleasing sound. The same accusation could, however, be made of greater singers in this repertoire, such as Callas, but the compensatory dark beauty of tone, acuteness of phrasing and Individuality of vocal inflection are missing, too. While she hasn’t Callas’ power and trenchancy, she has, however, picked up some nice touches evidently from listening to her, such as the way she injects a little glottal catch, rolls the r’s and digs into her lower register in the opening phrase of the recitativo of “Oh! S’io potessi (track 4). The great, long, flowing melody of “Col sorriso d'innocenza” is in many ways a paradigm of the archetypal bel canto aria. She sings it confidently; I just wish there wasn’t the almost constant suggestion of an edge in her tone in her higher notes and her lower register, of which she bravely attempts to make use in “Oh! Sole!” (track 6) correspondingly lacks resonance. Her own ornamentation, too, is ambitious but not always easy on the ear. Comparison with Renée Fleming’s own Bel Canto album from two decades earlier reveals the American soprano as possessing a much lusher, rounder, freer sound of an almost instrumental quality which really caresses the ear. For example, there is a persistent grittiness or catch in Rebeka’s prolonged G, rising to a similarly sustained B-flat, half way through “Deh! Tu di un umile preghiera” from Maria Stuarda; likewise, the subsequent long phrase from B-flat to A-flat up to a top C is not pure, although her control is admirable and these embellishments are the product of her own research into the original manuscript scores. Those additions are not, however, always successful or even advisable; you can tell from the way Rebeka embarks hesitantly upon the phrase rising to the screechy and laboured top E-flat concluding “Coppia iniqua” from Anna Bolena that she is not confident or content with it – it is essentially redundant and Donizetti did not demand it – but she sings the cantilena “Al dolce guidami” winningly with nice pianissimi and sports a credible trill.
It is, I suppose, debatable whether the excerpts from Spontini gel with those from the other two composers here, as his style is so identifiably French, belonging to a much more classic, formal, French sensibility perhaps reminiscent of Mozart, Gluck and Cherubini than the latter’s Romantic Italian contemporaries; I hear a great deal of the influence of Medea, premiered only a decade earlier, and to my ears those final four tracks represent something of a stylistic wrench. Nonetheless, Rebeka is more alive and responsive to text here than elsewhere and the novelty of the music will provide interest for many listeners. The fury of “Impitoyables dieux” might not sit so well with the pathos of the preceding Italian arias but it does provide contrast and Rebeka’s performance here reminds me of the kind of frisson spinto sopranos like Carol Vaness could produce when singing “rage music”.
The orchestral accompaniment, the conducting, the singing of the Palermo chorus and the sound engineering are all impeccable - as is almost to be taken for granted these days. Individual instrumental soloists, such as the various woodwind contributors to the orchestral preludes to the numbers from Il pirata, are outstanding. Generously filled at 78 minutes, this album is a creditable compendium of great music – but there are better exponents of it.
Ralph Moore
Previous review: Göran Forsling
Contents
Vincenzo BELLINI (1801 – 1835)
Norma:
1. Casta Diva ... Fine al rito [9:01]
2. Ah! Bello a me ritorna ... [4:54]
Il pirata:
3. Scena [3:41]
4. Oh! S’io potessi ... [4:40]
5. Col sorisso d’innocenza ... Qual suono ferale [5:12]
6. Oh! Sole! Ti vela di tenebre oscure [3:01]
Gaetano DONIZETTI (1797 – 1848)
Maria Stuarda:
7. Io vi rivedo alfin! [3:36]
8. Deh! Tu di un umile preghiera ... Oh colpo! [5:16]
9. Di un cor che muore ... Giunge il conte [5:33]
10. Ah! Se un giorno da queste ritorte ... [5:10]
Anna Bolena:
11. Piangete voi? ... [4:49]
12. Al dolce guidami ... Che mai sento [6:25]
13. Coppia iniqua [3:28]
Gaspare SPONTINI (1774 – 1851)
La vestale:
14. Ô des infortunés ... [2:22]
15. Toi, que j’implore avec effroi [5:27]
16. Sur cet autel sacré ... [2:58]
17. Impitoyables dieux [2:15]
