MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger


 REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

alternatively
CD: AmazonUK AmazonUS


Gaetano DONIZETTI (1797 – 1848)
L’Elisir d’amore (1832)
Hilde Güden (soprano) – Adina; Giuseppe Di Stefano (tenor) – Nemorino; Fernando Corena (bass) – Dulcamara; Renato Capecchi (baritone) – Belcore; Luisa Mandelli (soprano) – Giannetta
Orchestra e coro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino/Francesco Molinari-Pradelli
rec. Teatro Comunale, Firenze, September 1955
DECCA HERITAGE SERIES 478 1724 [62:32 + 45:37]
Experience Classicsonline


In the early years of the LP – read 1950s – there were four versions of L’Elisir d’amore available: a Cetra set from Turin, conducted by Gavazzeni with Cesare Valetti, Alda Noni, Afro Poli and Sesto Bruscantini; an HMV from Rome, conducted by Nino Sanzogno with Marguerita Carosio, Nicola Monti, Tito Gobbi and Melchiorre Luise; this Decca set and an HMV (or Columbia) set from La Scala conducted by Tullio Serafin with the young Luigi Alva, Rosanna Carteri, Rolando Panerai and Giuseppe Taddei. In the late 1960s Molinari-Pradelli recorded it again, now in Rome and for EMI, with Nicolai Gedda, Mirella Freni, Mario Sereni and Renato Capecchi, who during the intervening years had changed over from Belcore to Dulcamara. These are the five sets that could be considered in the historic category. I haven’t heard the Cetra set but suppose the technical quality must rule it out. Musically I have always been extremely fond of Don Pasquale with roughly the same cast. Nor have I heard the Sanzogno, which was for many years hidden in EMI’s archives and wasn’t unearthed until 2000, when it was given a very positive review in Gramophone by John Steane. I heard the Serafin set many years ago and remember Alva as a honeyed Nemorino in the Valetti mould, Taddei a superb Dulcamara and Panerai a virile Belcore. Serafin’s conducting is much more alive than that of the penny-plain Molinari-Pradelli. The latter is not much different on the later set, which nevertheless is highly competitive. Gedda and Freni are splendid, Capecchi’s Dulcamara is preferable to his Belcore and Sereni is as reliable as ever.

After this overview we can turn our attention more directly to the Decca set, which has been more or less continually available for more than half a century. The sound, in an early stereo recording, is dated but acceptable, in spite of some distortion, and the playing of the orchestra can’t be faulted, whereas I’ve heard much better choral singing.

The solo singing is a different affair. The only non-Italian, Hilde Güden was a lovely lyric soprano in Mozart, German repertoire but also in many Italian roles. Her Gilda for Decca at about the same time as this issue, is a pleasure and in the 1960s she recorded a complete La traviata for DG, opposite Fritz Wunderlich. It’s true that it was sung in German, but her style and voice were truly idiomatic. As Adina she is well-nigh ideal: glittering, charming and haughty, depending on the situation. If in doubt just listen to her in act II Prendi, per me sei libero (CD 2 tr. 10). It is also a pleasure to hear Di Stefano in a role where he has no need to press the voice beyond its natural limits. Quanto e bella (CD 1 tr. 3) is lovely, the long duet with Dulcamara is lively and theatrical and here Molinari-Pradelli is more inspired than elsewhere. Una furtiva lagrima, well known from numerous compilations, is elegant and sung with feeling, and Adina, credimi in the finale of act I (CD 1 tr. 17) finds him on top form with ardent lyric singing of the utmost beauty.

Fernando Corena – only half-Italian but with a diction that surpasses that of most other singers – is in his element as Dulcamara. Though not the possessor of a world-class voice he is so expressive and theatrical that it would be a shame to complain. Renato Capecchi was not really the bel canto baritone that Donizetti had in mind. Though expressive and virile his voice is too heavy to be ideal. Luisa Mandelli is a good Giannetta.

All the above-mentioned recordings of L’Elisir have a lot of positive features to make them recommendable. For me the present version, in spite of the lacklustre conducting of Molinari-Pradelli and a less than ideal Belcore, is still the historic recording of the work. However, first choice, irrespective of age, is the thirty-year-old (and isn’t that so respectable an age that it is on the verge of being historical as well?) Pritchard recording on Sony from Covent Garden, with Ileana Cotrubas, Placido Domingo, Ingvar Wixell and Geraint Evans. But just as I am writing this I hear Di Stefano’s Una furtiva lagrima in my headphones –and Gosh! What beauty, what feeling, what charisma! I could never be fully satisfied with just one version of this opera and this old Decca recording is certainly on my shortlist.

There is no libretto, no synopsis, no notes at all – just a cast-list and a track-list. Never mind – it’s the singing that counts, and it will – forever!

Göran Forsling

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.