ABC is the record label of Australian Broadcasting.
It boasts an appropriate history of promoting artists from the
home country and neighbouring New Zealand. It also has a link
with the Universal stable. So, when it comes to collections such
as this which relates to the menu, as it were, of the Saturday
afternoon
Opera Show, there is always, depending on the
selections, the possibility of class acts to be heard. That’s
very much the case here.
Many opera buffs look down on such collections. I on the other
hand am always on the look-out for the odd item that I have not
heard before in my sixty years of opera-going and collecting.
More importantly, I look to hear a singer who is new to me and
has that certain quality which marks him or her out as having
potential. I tend also to give each item a definition, a gem,
a turkey, a golden oldie, a welcome rarity or just OK. Whoever
made this selection did well: the number of gems and golden oldies
I marked was phenomenal. I note from the leaflet that the programme,
whilst taking in the German, Slavic and French traditions, tends
towards
la bella Italia. This is wholly appropriate as
this was where opera was born in the late sixteenth century. This
collection is also notable for the inclusion of live recordings,
many being rarities which I was enchanted to find and might not
otherwise have heard.
The collection opens, not unreasonably, with the ultimate Australian
vocal gem, Joan Sutherland. She sings alongside the incomparable
tasteful tenor Carlo Bergonzi in the vivacious
brindisi
from
La Stupenda’s first recording, 1963, of
La Traviata
(CD1 Tr1). I suppose that its vivacity replaces the overture,
but I couldn’t help wishing that the act three duet
Parigi,
o cara had been chosen with the two of them so well matched
for tonal grace and elegance … and it is longer too, greedy! Sutherland
appears with Pavarotti elegantly introducing the quartet from
Rigoletto (CD2 Tr.15). She also sings with him and her
other great vocal companion, the American coloratura mezzo Marilyn
Horne. This is in a too brief live recording extract of the trio
from Bellini’s penultimate opera
Beatrice di Tenda (CD2
Tr.17). Horne herself gives full justice to the Rossini gem
Di
tanti palpiti from
Tancredi, a tune that, whistled
and sung, dominated popular Italy until Verdi’s
La donna e
mobile forty years later (CD2 Tr.11). Italian dramatic mezzo
Fiorenza Cossotto, soaring above the orchestra in Mascagni’s
Easter
Hymn under Karajan is a performance to savour (CD 1 Tr.10).
Renée Fleming’s
Song of the Moon (CD2 Tr.2) glistens in
any collection as do the contributions of Jonas Kaufmann alongside
her in Puccini’s
La Rondine (CD1 Tr.13) and solo in Walter’s
Prize Song (CD1 Tr.8). Likewise Nicolai Ghiaurov’s sonorous tones
are always welcome either as Galitzky or as Basilio (CD1 Tr.11
and CD2 Tr.16). Whilst I could have lived without Pavarotti’s
constantly repeated
Nessun Dorma, from his studio recording
(CD2 Tr.1), it is interesting to hear him in something utterly
different singing Ernesto from Bononcini’s
Griselda (CD1
Tr.9).
Of the golden oldies? Well, the warm tones of Tebaldi in
Tosca’s
prayer (CD1 Tr.8) and Wunderlich’s plangent singing of the
Portrait Aria from the
Magic Flute (CD1 Tr.14) do
not come much better. Just to remind us that there are some very
good singers around today Juan Diego Florez pings out the high
Cs in the famous aria from Donizetti’s
La Fille du Regiment
with his customary aplomb (CD1 Tr.3). Welcome rarities come with
Vivaldi, Purcell and Handel (CD2 Trs 7-9) with Australians not
being put to shame by Cecilia Bartoli in the first of those.
Any turkeys? I wasn’t over enamoured by the acoustic or singing
in Offenbach’s
Scintille diamant (CD 1 Tr.4) and, to a
lesser extent, New Zealander Teddy Tahu Rhodes’ dry higher notes
in the
Toreadors Song (CD 1 Tr.17). Otherwise this collection
will assist my efforts on the treadmill at the gym and provide
diversity and enjoyment in the car.
Robert J Farr
Track-listing
CD 1
Giuseppe VERDI (1813-1901)
La Traviata, Brindisi - Joan Sutherland
and Carlo Bergonzi [3.00]
A Masked Ball, Di' tu se fedele - Carlo Bergonz
[3.26]
Gioachino ROSSINI (1792-1868)
The Italian Girl in Algiers, Cruda sorte! Amor
tiranno - Teresa Berganza [4.13]
Gaetano DONIZETTI (1797-1848)
The Daughter of the Regiment, Ah! mes amis...
- Juan Diego Florez [6.59]
Jacques OFFENBACH (1819-1880)
The Tales of Hoffmann, Scintille, diamante. -
John Wegner 2.36][
Giacomo PUCCINI (1858-1924)PUCCINI
La boheme O soave Fanciulla - Angela Gheorghiu
/ Roberto Alagna [4.03]
Tosca, Vissi d'arte - Renata Tebaldi [3.16]
La rondine, Bevo al tuo fresco sorriso - Renee
Fleming and Jonas Kaufmann [2.57]
Carl Maria von WEBER (1786-1826)
Der Freischutz, Huntsmen's Chorus - Leipzig Radio
Chorus [2.40]
Richard WAGNER (1813-1883)
The Mastersingers of Nuremberg, Walter's Prize
Song - Jonas Kaufmann [5.09]
Giovanni BONONCINI (1670-1747)
Griselda, Per la gloria d'adorarvi.- Luciano Pavarotti
[4.28]
Pietro MASCAGNI (1863-1945)
Cavalleria Rusticana, Easter Hymn - Fiorenza Cossotto
and Mariagrazia Allegri [7.34]
Alexander BORODIN (1833-1887)
Prince Igor, Galitzky's Aria - Nicolai Ghiaurov
[3.50]
Charles GOUNOD (1818-1893)
Romeo et Juliette, Ah! Je veux vivre! - Amelia
Farrugia [3.23]
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756-1791)
The Magic Flute, Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schon
- Fritz Wunderlich [4.37]
Piotr TCHAIKOVSKY (1840-1893)
Eugene Onegin, Vot tak syurpriz! - Bernd Weikl
and Stuart Burrows and John Alldis Choir [6.32]
Georges BIZET (1838-1870)
Carmen, Toreador's Song - Teddy Tahu Rhodes [5.05]
CD 2
Giacomo PUCCINI
Turandot, Nessun dorma - Luciano Pavarotti [2.58]
Antonin DVORAK (1841-1904)
Rusalka, Song to the Moon - Renee Fleming [5.45]
Georges BIZET
The Pearl Fishers, Je crois entendre encore - Leopold Simoneau 3.54]
Giuseppe VERDI
Aida, Triumphal March - Opera Queensland Chorus [5.11]
Richard WAGNER
Tannhauser, Elisabeth's Greeting - Birgit Nilsson [3.18]
Der Rosenkavalier, Di rigori armato il seno -
Jose Carreras [2.39]
Antonio VIVALDI (1678-1741)
Dorilla in Tempe, Dell'aura al sussurrar - Cecilia Bartoli [2.01]
Henry PURCELL (1659-1695)
Dido and Aeneas, When I am laid in earth - Fiona Campbell 4.56]
George Frederic HANDEL (1685-1759)
Julius Caesar, Va tacito e nascosto - Graham Pushee [6.44]
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART
Cosi fan tutte, Soave sia il vento - Lucia Popp / Brigitte Fassbaender / Tom Krause 2.37]
Gioachino ROSSINI
Tancredi, Di tanti palpiti - Marilyn Horne 2.53]
The Barber of Seville, La calunnia e un venticello - Nicolai Ghiaurov [5.05]
Charles GOUNOD (1818-1893)
Faust, Le veau d'or - John Wegner 2.03]
Giuseppe VERDI
Rigoletto, Un di, se ben rammementomi (Act III Quartet) - Joan Sutherland/Huguette Tourangeau/Luciano Pavarotti/Sherrill Milnes [5.32]
Georges BIZET
Carmen, La fleur que tu m'avais jetee (Flower Song) - Placido Domingo
Erich KORNGOLD (1897-1957)
Die tote Stadt, Marietta's Song - Kiri te Kanawa
Vincenzo BELLINI
(1801-1835)
Beatrice di Tenda, Angiol di pace - Joan Sutherland, Marilyn Horne, Luciano Pavarotti [2.35]
Adrien BOIELDIEU (1775-1834)
La fete du village voisin, Bolero. Sumi Jo [2.31]
ABC CLASSICS 480 5629 [75.40 + 71.48] 
