Rossini Gala: Spectacular
Arias
ROSSINI:
Il Barbiere di Siviglia: Largo al factotum (grB); Una voce
poco fa (duz); La calunnia è un venticello (jpD); La Cambiale di
Matrimonio: Come tacer … Vorrei spiegarvi il giubilo (anw); La
Cenerentola: Nacqui all'affanno (cny); Guglielmo Tell: Non mi
lasciare .. O muto asil del pianto … Corriam! Voliam! (fmvC); S'allontanano
alfine! … Selva opaca (btx); L'Italiana in Algeri: Pria di dividerci
… Dite: chi è quella femmina? (cehilqD), Otello: Assissa
a piè d'un salice (duz); Semiramide: Bel raggio lusinghier
(aksA).
Joan Sutherland (soprano)
(a), Renata Tebaldi (soprano) (b), Teresa Berganza (mezzo-soprano) (c), Marilyn
Horne (mezzo-soprano) (d), Luigi Alva (tenor) (e), Luciano Pavarotti (tenor)
(f), Leo Nucci (baritone) (g), Rolando Panerai (baritone) (h), Fernando Corena
(bass) (i), Nicolai Ghiaurov (bass) (j), Chorus of the Royal Opera House,
Covent Garden (k); Coro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (l), Vienna Opera
Chorus (m), London Symphony Orchestra (n), Naples Rossini Orchestra (p),
Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino (q); Orchestra del Teatro Comunale
di Bologna (r), Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (s), Santa
Cecilia Orchestra, Rome (t), Suisse Romande Orchestra (u), Vienna Opera Orchestra
(v), conducted by Richard Bonynge (w), Alberto Erede (x), Sir Alexander Gibson
(y), Henry Lewis (z), Franco Molinari-Pradelli (A), Giuseppe Patanè
(B), Nicola Rescigno (C), Silvio Varviso
(D).
Decca 458 247-2 [75'36]
Crotchet
Midprice
It is a pity the weakest item is the first; Leo Nucci makes distinctly heavy
weather of Largo al factotum and Patanè's orchestra is not
so much vivacious as just plain noisy. Following this Sutherland and Horne
give excellent accounts of, respectively, Bel raggio and Una voce
poco fa but somehow they just miss that frisson which is the essential
ingredient of a night in the opera house; then Pavarotti comes on and the
spine begins to tingle. Since the great man nowadays lapses further into
self-parody with every wave of his handkerchief, it is good to be reminded
that back in 1969 he was a really great singer, quite in the royal line of
Italian tenors which ran from Caruso to, well, somewhere in the middle of
Pavarotti. After a pingingly accurate Nacqui all'affanno from Berganza,
Sutherland and Horne both return to make a much more favourable impression.
As Sutherland begins her Cambiale piece she appears to be swooning
dangerously from note to note (the comparison with Berganza points this up),
but by this means she is able to humanise the brilliant writing, giving it
those vital Italian elements of dolcezza and morbidezza for
which the English words "sweetness" and "softness" are no real translation.
Now it is time for a slow aria, and as Horne gloriously unfolds the Willow
Song one wonders why this piece is not heard more often as an alternative
to the Verdi. But then one reflects that it is not so surprising since
Shakespeare seems very distant, lovely as the music is in its own way, while
Verdi breathed the spirit of Shakespeare as almost no other composer has.
Ghiaurov's La calunnia is another high point while Tebaldi's firm-toned
Selva opaca, exemplary in its breath-control through some very long
phrases, is not one of her best-known recordings (it dates from 1955) and
her fans will be glad to have it. After this string of arias the CD concludes
by reminding us that Rossini was no less a master of the ensemble and the
L'italiana extract, splendidly controlled by Varviso, leaves the listener
in the best possible of spirits.
Just a few quibbles. The sound in this last piece has a notable bloom and
draws attention to a problem which is as old as the CD itself; while the
engineers have done a very good job in lining up all these recordings, made
in different venues over more than thirty years, so that there is scarcely
a jolt as we pass from one to another, in the process a lot of them have
acquired a paint-stripping quality not to be found on the original LPs.
Unfortunately I had no LP pressings of these particular performances to hand
but I listened to an off-the-air recording of Horne singing the Willow Song
in Milan in 1971 (the recording here is from 1965) and in spite of the obvious
limitations the effect is warmer, more likeable. The very slightly more flowing
tempo helps, too, and it is difficult to say whether this stems from another
6 years of experience of the piece, or whether the Milanese orchestra's natural
Rossinian instincts cause it to nudge the conductor (Henry Lewis again) ever
so gently into what it felt to be the right tempo. But it does lead me to
my second point; that opera is a particularly difficult beast to control
in the studio and live recordings, for all their faults, can often give us
more musical, dramatic and even vocal truth than the most carefully prepared
studio performance.
As for my third point, I know some readers will see red when I mention it,
but a shadow hangs over a lot of this repertoire and its name is Maria Callas.
Now a lot of "Callas-widows", particularly in Italy, make life impossible
for anyone who sings roles and arias associated with their idol and this
is plainly wrong since life goes on, the opera houses are still open and
other singers have (and always had) things of their own to say. But one cannot
pretend that Callas never existed, and anyone who has heard what she could
do with the single word "ma" in Una voce poco fa is going to feel
short-changed by Horne's performance here.
Enough of the grousing. This is not really a record for the specialist, who
will want either complete operas or single-singer recitals. But for the relative
novice to classical music who has enjoyed a record of Rossini overtures and
is wondering where to go from there, the answer is surely to buy this disc.
He will get a fine showcase of some of Rossini's finest exponents of the
50s, 60s and 70s. He will also get a useful introduction with full texts
and translations, not something to be taken for granted these days, alas,
and I sincerely hope he will get a jewel-case which doesn't fall to pieces
like mine did.
Christopher Howell
