Gaetano DONIZETTI
La
Favorite
Vesselina Kasarova (Léonor),
Abbie Furmansky (Inès), Ramòn Vargas (Fernand), Anthony
Michaels-Moore (Alphonse XI), Carlo Colombara (Balthazar), Bavarian Radio
Choir and Orchestra/Marcello
Viotti
BMG Classics 74321 66229
2 [2 CDs, 147' 59"]
http://www.click2classics.co.uk
Crotchet
La Favorite, or more often its Italian version La Favorita,
was one of Donizetti's more popular operas during the 19th Century
but rather fell out of view in the 20th. Perhaps this recording
will lead to more performances in the new century, for it contains plenty
of fine music, a plot of some interest and main characters with whom it is
possible to identify. Of course, Donizetti will be Donizetti, which means
that he sometimes falls back on just a good tune when the situation demands
something more complex. This is signally so in Alphonse's aria Pour tant
d'amour where the bitterness and sadness which the librettist prescribes
are not to be found in the agreeably flowing melody (and I think Anthony
Michaels-Moore is right not to try to inject them into it). Yet this is a
key moment, for the plot hinges on Alphonse's misunderstanding of Léonor's
motives and his sarcastic denunciation of her. Only a little later, on the
other hand, comes Léonor's magnificent scena L'ai-je bien
entendu? (to which Kasarova rises superbly), and the finales to both
Acts 2 and 3 have splendid sweep. That to Act 2 also has some extremely
impressive, almost Berliozian, writing for the brass. I shall programme out
the ballet music next time I listen, but on the whole I side with the
19th Century rather than the 20th in my estimation
of the work.
The first recording (made in 1912!) used the French version; the Italian
one has been used more often since. There is a Pavarotti recording, and an
earlier Decca with Giulietta Simionato which might bear revival. But the
Italian revision was much mauled about to meet the needs of the Italian censors
of the day and the present recording, based as it is on the new critical
edition by Rebecca Harris-Warwick (published by Ricordi) of the original
French version, starts in pole position for this fact alone. Any French readers
who have surfed in are warned that the French pronunciation tends to be of
the international variety, but this is not really noticeable enough to worry
the rest of us.
The cast is mostly very effective. Slight reservations centre around Ramòn
Vargas's Fernand. In the lower and middle range he has an attractive, sappy
sound, but a beat starts to appear around F sharp which then becomes
uncomfortable by the time he reaches A. And he needs a dose of falsetto when
the note is to be taken quietly. Beyond this, his Bs and Cs (not many of
them, fortunately) sound distinctly forced. Still, given the current world
tenor situation, we can be thankful that he is a musical singer and seems
genuinely involved by Fernand's plight.
The American soprano Abbie Furmansky has a slightly shrill, soubrettish upper
register with a tight vibrato which makes her scene with the Spanish girls
rather less suavely mellifluous than it could have been. (She might have
been recorded less closely, too; generally the balance is excellent throughout
the opera). In the later ensembles she is expected to be more strenuous and
is completely convincing.
Anthony Michaels-Moore is an excellent Alphonse. Yet Donizetti, even when
writing in French, is a thoroughly Italian composer, and Carlo Colombara,
as Balthazar, has that pingingly focused sound which we recognise as the
real thing. Here is a splendid singer who is surely set to inherit Piero
Cappuccilli's mantle as a specialist in operatic priests.
Vesselina Kasarova has received little but praise since she appeared on the
recording scene. This is a voice with real personality in the middle range
and thrillingly secure upper notes, right up to the high C. But is she really
a mezzo? Her lower octave is not especially strong, and below middle C she
uses a chest voice, which any soprano can do. Still, no doubt she'll sort
this out in time. What is more to the point is that she throws herself
wholeheartedly into the role. This is a real star performance.
Chorus and orchestra are splendid and the conductor's tempi are so natural
that one stops noticing them and concentrates on the music instead. When
an opera is conducted like this the whole is usually greater than the sum
of its parts, and so it is here.
With the one reservation noted above the recording is excellent. The performance
is said to be live but the public must have been doped at the door for there's
not a cough nor a whisper from start to finish. Did no one really burst into
applause at the end of Kasarova's great scene?
The booklet notes are by the leading Donizetti scholar Philip Gossett, there
is a synopsis and libretto, all in English, French and German. In short,
this seems to me an example of the modern record industry at its best. A
genuine gap has been filled with a performance which will not be quickly
bettered.
Christopher Howell.
