Giuseppe VERDI (1813-1901)
La forza del destino (1869 revised version)
Walburga Wegner (soprano): Leonora; Mildred Miller (mezzo-sop.): Preziosilla; David Poleri (tenor): Alvaro; Marko Rothmüller (baritone): Carlo; Owen Brannigan(bass): Melitone; Bruce Dargavel (bass): Guardiano; Stanley Mason (bass): Marchese di Calatrava; Bruna Maclean (mezzo-sop.): Curra; Dennis Wicks (bass): Alcade; Robert Thomas (tenor): Trabuco; Philip Lewtas (bass): Un medico
Glyndebourne Festival Chorus
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Fritz Busch
With Bonus Tracks – see below
rec. live 30 August 1951, King’s Theatre, Edinburgh. Ambient stereo
PRISTINE AUDIO PACO174 [3 CDs: 171:53]
Fritz Busch is known to collectors as the conductor of recordings of a famous trio of complete Mozart operas from Glyndebourne in the mid 1930’s and of Mozart excerpts from the 50’s but this live recording documents his final appearance just five days before his unexpected death in the Savoy Hotel, London. Combined with the bonus tracks from twenty-five and four years earlier, this Pristine issue contains all the Verdi recordings he ever made. Although this production of La forza del destino was devised for performance at the Edinburgh Festival, the intent was to transfer it to Glyndebourne, which never happened.
Some names here might be known to British audiences but the two leads are probably less familiar. The career of David Poleri, who had debuted in opera only the year before this performance, was cut short by a fatal helicopter crash in 1965, by which time he had achieved fame on TV, in film and in international opera houses. He is anecdotally famous for walking off-stage in a 1953 performance of Carmen after a disagreement with conductor Joseph Rosenstock, telling him, “Finish the opera yourself!”. As you may hear from this recording, so successfully restored and refreshed by Pristine, his tenor was a beautiful instrument; he had voiced Caruso in the 1948 in the Warner Brothers film "Pay or Die" and his tenor had something of Richard Tucker and Carlo Bergonzi about it – indeed, he was engaged here as a cheaper substitute for Tucker and Del Monaco, Busch being unable to secure or afford secure their services. He has a rather tight, “old-fashioned” vibrato and the annoying tic of prefacing phonation with of a slight bleat, but the security of his high-flying, arcing phrases and the squillo of his vocal production are thrilling. He delivers an absolutely gripping account of the tortured preamble to the famous tenor aria, “O tu che in seno agli angeli” – except that he mispronounces “volger” with a hard “g” – before singing it magnificently, prompting well-merited applause which is first premature then appropriately timed. He might not have quite Del Monaco’s heft but the voice is laser-like and conversely his soft singing in “Solenne in quest’ora” and towards the close of “Invano, Alvaro” is novel and moving.
Walburga Wegner was a celebrated German soprano virtually forgotten today, but she was Busch’s specific choice for the role of Leonora. Her voice can be vibrant and voluminous but she is tremulous and unsteady under pressure and I miss the warmth and sweep of the best sopranos in this role, such as Tebaldi, Callas, Gencer and the young Price. Furthermore, her intonation can waver and her voice often turns squally, as per when something very peculiar happens to her top B at 1:28 in track 11, CD 1, “Son giunta!”, when she squeals comically. In truth, I find prolonged exposure to her voice wearing.
The other artists here were mostly familiar to British audiences but Busch had never heard Owen Brannigan and had to be convinced that he was right for the part of Melitone; as it was, his music had to be transposed a whole tone down for him, he being a true bass, not a bass-baritone. He tries rather too hard to make his essentially unfunny role amusing and too often sacrifices the vocal line to over-expression. The Marchese is rather light of timbre but adequate. Marko Rothmüller has a light, neat, flexible voice without quite the heft of a true Verdi baritone; he cracks in “Son Pereda” and momentarily gets rhythmically lost in “Nè gustare m’è dato” but is generally a pleasure to hear. His three extended duets with Poleri go well but the prevailing vocal colouring of his singing, especially “Urna fatale”, makes me wonder whether he was perhaps a tenor manqué. Mildred Miller does what she can with Preziosilla and has the vocal resources to do so, but the appeal of her tub-thumping role, like Melitone’s funny business, has worn thin for modern audiences. Bruce Dargavel has sufficient black tone and gravitas for Padre Guardiano but cannot make us forget the greatest exponents of the role like Pasero, Pinza, Siepi and Giaiotti.
There is nothing over-refined about Busch’s direction here, despite being a conductor best known for his Mozart; it is immediately apparent from the frantic pacing of the conclusion to the overture and the manner in which the timpanist is given his head that he is prepared to embraces the true, gutsy Verdian style.
Derived from a set of tape reels of BBC radio broadcasts, the sound here is markedly superior to previous CD issues, as hiss and radio whistle have been virtually eliminated, gaps patched from other sources - albeit somewhat audibly - and the whole thing revitalised by being remastered into XR Ambient Stereo. Inevitably, the chorus is distorted, especially in concerted passages such as the climax to “La Vergine degli angeli” and it is only when applause occurs that we realise how cavernous and primitive the original recording must have been before Andrew Rose doctored it. It must still be accounted of “historical” quality but is eminently listenable by the indulgent opera buff, especially given the rarity of recordings featuring the forces involved.
The bonus tracks provide completeness but don’t serve much purpose other than as fillers and the sound for the live radio broadcast from 1947 is markedly worse than the 1926 studio recordings.
The main points of interest here are Poleri’s sterling contribution and the chance to hear Busch excel in unfamiliar territory, but given the competition, the vintage nature of the sound and the variable standard of the singing, I am not inclined to return to this or recommend it over a dozen better versions. My main recommendations remain as per my survey.
Ralph Moore
Bonus Tracks
La Forza del destino
Sinfonia [6:40]
Battle Music [1:33]
Tarantella [1:51]
Kapelle der Staatsoper Dresden/Fritz Busch
rec. September 1926, Dresden
Luisa Miller
Sinfonia [5:09]
Chicago Symphony Orchestra/Fritz Busch
rec.15 January 1947, Orchestra Hall, Chicago
