Pietro MASCAGNI (1863-1945)
Cavalleria Rusticana - Melodrama in one act
(1890)
Santuzza - Zinka Milanov (soprano); Turridu - Jussi Björling (tenor);
Alfio - Robert Merrill (baritone); Lola - Carol Smith (contralto); Mamma
Lucia - Margaret Roggero (mezzo)
Robert Shaw Chorale; RCA Victor Orchestra/Renato Cellini
rec. January 1953, Manhattan Center, New York City
RCA RED SEAL 88875 054492 [71.02]
In June 1948 CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System of America) stole a march
on their biggest rival RCA (Radio Corporation of America) and brought to the
marketplace their first commercial Long Playing records playing at a speed
of 33rpm. There had been efforts as early as the nineteen-thirties to bring
forward something different and better than the 78rpm shellac discs. The
78's limited playing time of a little over four minutes per side of a
twelve inch disc was a great frustration to the development of opera
recordings in particular. I well remember a La Traviata, much
abbreviated, extending over no fewer than eighteen double-sided 78rpm
shellac discs. In addition to the limited duration of a side being paramount
over a conductor’s preferred tempi, the surfaces were noisy and the discs
themselves very heavy. One had either to use steel needles or constantly
sharpen fibre ones, the former eventually wearing out the discs. It had been
stipulated by the CBS management that the new format was to play a minimum
of twenty minutes per side. With the emergence of the new technology a new
era of opera recordings dawned and as the years passed the length of sides
with microgroove extended.
The advent of opera recordings on LP had the major recording companies
scuttling about signing singers, often to exclusive contracts. RCA, as well
as the National Broadcasting Company also owned the Victor Recording Company
and the RCA Red Seal record division. Using the Red Seal motif they were
quick on the draw, seeing as they had during the 78rpm days, the strength of
the singers at the New York Metropolitan Opera. The Met, along with the
re-opened La Scala could be viewed as the world’s leading venues for opera
performances and singers. Each year RCA cherry-picked the Met’s repertoire
and recorded it for issue on the new LP format.
This is the fourth and last of the recordings conducted by Renato Cellini
(1912-1967) during his period on the music staff of the Metropolitan Opera.
Cellini’s health was not robust and he eventually left the demands of the
Met to become Musical Director of the New Orleans Opera Association. The
present performance was recorded in 1953 in Manhattan Center, New York.
However, recording in America with its strict union rules as to the length
of sessions was very expensive and it was not long before RCA decamped to
Rome for their annual opera recordings. As the Rome Opera House orchestra
and chorus were under contract elsewhere they worked for RCA under the title
of the RCA Victor Orchestra. Over the next decade the best Met performances
and casts were recorded in Rome under this arrangement. These are slowly
being included in this bargain-priced series of Red Seal operatic reissues
by Sony which now owns the RCA archive.
In a 2004 review of this performance on Naxos (review) I found much to praise in the performance as did a
colleague (review). It also appeared at that time on Regis (review). So far as the Naxos issue was concerned we both
agreed that the best singing was by Robert Merrill as Alfio. We also agreed
that the Croat-born naturalised American Zinka Milanov (1906-1989) was not
ideal as Santuzza preferring the mezzo Cossotto under Karajan (DG 457
764-2). We admired Jussi Björling as Turridu but this time around - and
whilst I still think that Merrill’s assumption is by far the best of the
bunch - I now find Björling somewhat thin and not caught well by the
microphones. However, it is the dated quality of the recording that catches
my ear most, distinctly more so than in the earlier Naxos issue. It may be
that Mark Obert-Thorn for Naxos worked his usual magic with the original LPs
and that trounces the current work with the master tapes; I report what I
hear. The minor parts are well taken and all the singers exhibit good
diction to go with their exemplary phrasing. The chorus provide vibrant and
idiomatic support in the Easter Hymn (tr.7). The usual theatre cuts of the
period mean around eight minutes of the score are missing.
The recording was made a few weeks after the companion Pagliacci
and at the same venue. Mark Obert-Thorn’s restoration of both is
outstanding. This issue is a memento of a period and generation of singers
whose strengths can now be compared with many who followed. It also serves
as a reminder of a conductor intent on interpreting the composer’s
intentions rather than imposing his own view of the music on the listener.
That said, its technical limitations are considerable and will limit its
appeal to lovers of particular singers from a bygone age, or those wishing
to make their own assessment rather than accepting secondhand opinions.
Robert J Farr
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