Caruso 1873
Roberto Alagna (tenor)
Alessandra Kurzak (soprano)
Rafał Siwek (Bass)
Yvan Cassar (piano)
Orchestre National D’ Île-De-France/Yvan Cassar
rec. 2019, La maison de l’Orchestre National D’ Île-De-France
Sung texts and English translations provided.
SONY CLASSICAL 19075950482 [72:12]
Roberto Alagna has had a lifelong appreciation of and curiosity about Enrico Caruso (1873-1921). According to the liner notes of this CD, the tenor has intently studied the recorded legacy of the Golden Age singer who made his first best-selling recordings in 1902. By any standards, this project is certainly a labour of love. Over the years there have been many attempts by RCA to breathe new life into the original pre-electrical recordings made by Caruso. One of the most unfortunate - Caruso 2000 - was an attempt to combine the ancient vocal recordings with a modern orchestra playing the accompaniments in tandem. For me, that enterprise belongs firmly on the pile of CD failures. Here, Alagna and conductor Yvan Cassar, who provided the orchestral arrangements, have taken a very new approach with this repertoire. Each original recording was studied very carefully with regards to breathing and phrasing. Copious musical notes were made into the score before Mr Alagna was recorded while replicating the interpretation of each number as closely as possible to that of Caruso. In addition, the scoring for the instruments has also been replicated with the addition of a tuba to most of the tracks replacing the string section of the orchestra which did not register well on those early recordings. The pitch has been lowered to what is described as “the pitch of the day” something that was played about with very freely in the early days of recordings to make things more comfortable for most opera singers of the time.
I find this recording to be a real curator’s paradise. The various excerpts have been selected for variety and contrast within the Caruso legacy. There are a couple of true rarities, such as the aria from Rubinstein’s Néron sung in French, as did Caruso himself. Alagna sings with wonderful commitment and zeal. The lower pitch gives a baritonal roundness to his singing that I quite enjoyed. In my opinion, Alagna has always excelled in interpretive subtleties. I find that most of those have evaporated by adopting the Caruso approach to each piece. Comparing this version of the Manon aria to his earlier version on EMI is a case in point. The version here would lose out; the comparison is pointless in any case because of the different nature of this entire project. There are times when Alagna sounds like a totally different singer, although he states very clearly that he is not trying to make his voice sound like Caruso’s, but on some of the tracks I would have been challenged to identify who the singer was.
There is at least one track on this CD that I will be returning to again, a truly wonderful version of the trio from Verdi’s I Lombardi. Mr Alagna is joined by his wife, Alessandra Kurzak (who also joins in for the duet from Il Guarany), and Rafał Siwek. This is truly grand Verdi singing where she proves she is absolutely ready to take on the high-flung Verdi soprano roles in her repertoire.
This recording would best be heard by sampling a few tracks at any one time rather than listening from beginning to end, as the sum of the whole can be rather wearying in extended listening. The recital opens with something of an odd duck in a version of the “popera” song ‘Caruso’ which has been recorded by such singers as Bocelli and Groban. This is obviously an effort to give this CD an appeal to a broader market and very little to do with the bulk of the content of this recital. The final track on the CD is described as a “vintage bonus”. It is an interesting idea to include a track that has been recorded on an antique gramophone recording apparatus. The result is worth hearing as it enables us to note exactly how much sound information was lost by the early recording process and also to hear what an original gramophone record sounded like before it had been damaged by repeated playing.
A unique and very worthy labour of love, best for listening to in short periods rather than in its entirety.
Mike Parr
Contents
Lucio Dalla (1943-2012)
‘Caruso’ [5:15]
Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868)
‘Domine Deus’ (Petite Messe solennelle) [5:17)
George Frideric HANDEL (1685-1759)
‘Frondi tenere...Ombra mai fu’ (Serse) [3:57]
Antonio Carlos Gomes (1836-1896)
‘Mia piccirella’ (Salvator Rosa) [3:46]
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi attr. (1710-1736)
‘Tre giorni son che Nina’ [2:57]
Louis Niedermeyer attr. (1802-1861)
‘Pieta, Signore’ [4:54]
Anton Rubinstein (1829-1894)
‘O lumière du jour’ (Néron) [4:04]
Teodoro Cottreau (1827-1879)
Santa Lucia [4:13]
Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)
Vecchia zimarra (La Bohème) [2:29]
Antonio Carlos Gomes (1836-1896)
Sento una forza indomita (Il Guarany) [4:52]
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Sérénade de Don Juan op 38/1 [3:21]
Jules Massenet (1842-1912)
Élégie [3:52]
Helen Rhodes (aka Guy d’Hardelot) (1858-1936)
Parce que (Because) [2:34]
Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
Qual volutta trascorrere (I Lombardi alla prima crociata) [4:18]
Emanuele Nutile (1862-1932)
Mamma mia che vo’ sapé [3:37]
Georges Bizet (1838-1875)
Mi par d’udir ancora (Les Pêcheurs de Perles) [3:23]
Ruggero Leoncavallo (1857-1919)
Mattinata [1:56]
Francesco Cilea (1866-1950)
No, più nobile (Adrianna Lecouvreur) [2:52]
Jules Massenet (1842-1912)
Chiudo gli occhi (Manon) [2:51]
Ernesto De Curtis (1875-1937)
Tu ca nun chiange [2:25]
