The Age of Bel Canto
Joan Sutherland (soprano), Marilyn Horne (mezzo-soprano), Richard Conrad (tenor)
New Symphony Orchestra of London (CD1), London Symphony Orchestra (CD 2)/Richard Bonynge
rec. 1963
ELOQUENCE 484 4328 [2 CDs: 109]
The Age of Bel Canto is a reissue by Eloquence Australia, combing two programmes originally issued on LP, recorded by Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge, accompanied by Marilyn Horne and tenor Richard Conrad, nearly sixty years ago when, as Bonynge remarks in his brief note, such music was virtually unknown. Even today, several of the composers here such as Piccinni, Lampugnani, Bononcini, Shield and Arditi, are little more than names to most opera-lovers, whereas some of the more obscure florid, coloratura works here by such as Handel, Rossini and Bellini have become, if not commonplace, at least familiar. Other pieces like the Mozart and Donizetti works, have always been in the repertoire, so the compilation is still a pleasant mix of the well-known and the not-so-familiar. Whereas the two ladies here became (opera) household names, American tenor Richard Conrad was known to British audiences mainly through these recordings – although having sung widely in Europe in the 60s and 70s, from 1980 onwards he was a prominent musical figure in Boston, Mass. I consider myself something of an opera buff but had never heard him or even of him, so I was curious.
Sutherland had already made a splash with The Art of the Prima Donna, also released as two LPs, so this followed up on that success – and of course by this time she could demand that her husband conduct her. The very first number is a kind of paradigm for everything that is said about the young Sutherland’s singing: astonishing power, purity and agility rather compromised by her mushy diction which is not enhanced by a somewhat glaring, reverberant acoustic. Sutherland’s singing of her second number from Handel’s Semele prompts another possible objection in addition to the cloudy enunciation: a certain “droopiness” or “swooning manner” which irks some listeners – and I can understand why. Her Queen of the Night certainly isn’t droopy and the German seems to elicit harder consonants on her part; it makes a change to hear this pyrotechnic showpiece sung with such penetrative power. Similarly, the aria from Der Freischütz benefits from Sutherland’s amplitude of tone (but there is a strange and obtrusive episode of background banging in the recording which begins at 3:10 and recurs throughout the track). The fiery aria from Verdi’s Attila is despatched with ease and formidable security in alt, even if it needs more lower register heft. For me, these three solos from Sutherland are the best things here
We next hear Conrad and frankly I find his voice to be a silly, mixed-falsetto parody of what a lyric tenor should sound like; he has a “caprino” tremolo and an affected manner which is most unmusical; to hear how this could and should be sung by a tenor, turn to the young Pavarotti singing this same number, “Care selve” on his Decca recital album with delicacy, power and control – and no bleating. Even better, hear John McCormack in his 1924 recording in English “Come, my beloved”; the difference is night and day. Conrad’s contribution to eleven of the twenty-three numbers here severely limits my own ability to derive much pleasure from this album.
The third singer is Marilyn Horne, who sounds as she always did: stentorian, remarkably flexible and somewhat throaty of timbre; it is a voice which has always divided opinion. She does many things well, such as trill and “spinning” pianissimi. Another of the highlights she provides is Orsini’s “il segreto” from Lucrezia Borgia – but she and Sutherland recorded the whole opera in 1978, in any case. The “Bolero” by Arditi she sings to conclude the recital is musically negligible but great fun.
Indeed, I must question whether all of the revived items here are really deserving of the epithet “unjustly neglected”; they certainly provide opportunities for vocal display but that is not necessarily the same thing as being of great musical quality. Apart from those by Handel, the baroque arias are hardly memorable and things like the Boieldieu trio strike me as banal.
The second CD begins with a celebrated duet for soprano and mezzo-soprano from Rossini’s Semiramide – but again, a few years later Sutherland and Horne recorded the whole opera just as well. Sutherland is lovely in the duets from Don Pasquale and La straniera but Conrad croons.
This is by no means the vocal feast it should have been and I was hoping for.
Ralph Moore
Contents
1.1 NICCOLÒ PICCINNI (1728–1800) - Furia di donna irata (La buona figliuola)
1.2 GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL (1685–1759) - Care selve (Atalanta)
1.3 GIOVANNI BATTISTA LAMPUGNANI (1706–1786) - Superbo di me stesso (Meraspe)
1.4 GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL (1685–1759) - With plaintive note (Samson)
1.5 GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL (1685–1759) - Hence, Iris, hence away (Semele)
1.6 GIOVANNI BONONCINI (1670–1747) - Mio caro ben (Astarto)
1.7 THOMAS ARNE (1710–1778) - Oh! too lovely (Artaxerxes)
1.8 WILLIAM SHIELD (1748–1829) - Light as thistledown (Rosina)
1.9 WILLIAM SHIELD (1748–1829) - When William at eve (Rosina)
1.10 WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756–1791) - Voi che fausti ognor donate (Il re pastore)
1.11 WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756–1791) - O zittre nicht, mein Lieber Sohn! … Zum Leiden bin ich auserkoren (Die Zauberflöte)
1.12 WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756–1791) - Ich baue ganz auf deine Stärke (Die Entführung aus dem Serail)
1.13 FRANÇOIS-ADRIEN BOIELDIEU (1775–1834) - Ma Fanchette est charmante (Angéla)
2.1 GIOACHINO ROSSINI (1792–1868) - Serbami ognor sì fido (Semiramide)
2.2 DANIEL-FRANÇOIS-ESPRIT AUBER (1782–1871) - Ferme tes yeux (La Muette de Portici)
2.3 CARL MARIA VON WEBER (1786–1826) - Und ob die Wolke sie verhülle (Der Freischütz)
2.4 VINCENZO BELLINI (1801–1835) - Angiol di pace (Beatrice di Tenda)
2.5 GAETANO DONIZETTI (1797–1848) - Tornami a dir che m’ami (Don Pasquale)
2.6 GAETANO DONIZETTI (1797–1848) - Il segreto per esser felici (Lucrezia Borgia)
2.7 GIUSEPPE VERDI (1813–1901) - Santo di patria … Allor che i forti corrono … Da te questo or m’è concesso (Attila)
2.8 VINCENZO BELLINI (1801–1835) - Un ritratto? … Sventurato il cor che fida (La straniera)
2.9 GIOACHINO ROSSINI (1792–1868) - Cavatina: Ecco, ridente in cielo (Il barbiere di Siviglia)
2.10 LUIGI ARDITI (1822–1903) - Bolero
