Guild’s accompanying
documentation points to the remarkable
fact that, despite contracts with both
RCA and Columbia, Ezio Pinza did not
actually record a complete opera. However,
Guild reassures us that 19 of his roles
in 38 complete recordings are preserved
as broadcasts, and that it will be issuing
many of these in due course.
This set has already
enjoyed fair coverage from MusicWeb
– see reviews by Christopher
Howell and Robert
J. Farr . But a cast list such as
this always deserves further comment,
as indeed does Paul Breisach’s conducting
(CH’s review also includes a brief but
very useful entry on this conductor
as a postscriptum). For sonic reasons
and, it has to be said, interpretative
ones to be discussed below, there is
no way this could ever be recommended
as a library version, interesting though
the light it sheds on various singers’
careers may be.
As always, Guild provide
a detailed and fascinating accompanying
essay. Perhaps it is sometimes selling
the product a little, as when Richard
Caniell, the author, refers to the Don’s
Champagne aria as ‘dashing’. I think
he means ‘dashing’ in the male attractive
sense, yet the double meaning is unfortunate
for that is exactly what happens – ‘Finch’
han dal vino’ is here uncomfortably
breathless. There is no denying that
it does (pardon the pun) fizz along,
yet voice and orchestra do part company
more than is comfortable and the playing
is scrappy (and this is not the only
example of approximate orchestral playing,
either, although in the case of the
Overture this more invokes the smell
of grease-paint than anything else).
Yet Pinza’s Act Two ‘Deh vieni alla
finestra’ is a model of smooth legato
and a dream to encounter.
Salvatore Baccaloni
is the Leporello caught up in the madness.
The recitative exchanges these two men
enjoy are some of the highlights of
the set ( they have even more life than
in the recently
reviewed Arte Nova set, but Baccaloni’s
‘Catalogue Aria’ is marred by bad ensemble
with the orchestra. The orchestra is
light and fast here, but the singer
struggles to keep up. Again, voice and
orchestra part company along the way.
His ‘O statua gentilissima’ includes
some delightful vocal phrasings and
great vocal acting.
Bidù Sayão
as Zerlina is bewitching. Her duet with
Pinza in Act One, the famous ‘Là
ci darem la mano’, is simply lovely,
her scalic work sounding easy and natural.
Their final ‘Andiam’s are commendably
unsyrupy. Alas the same cannot be said
for ‘Vedrai, carino, se sei buonino’.
Sayão does her best, but she
has to emerge out of orchestral soup
and wade her way over and through it.
The Czech soprano Jarmila
Novotna is a strong and expressive Donna
Elvira (try ‘Ah, fuggi il traditor!’
or ‘Ah taci, ingiusto core!’), but Zinka
Milanov’s Donna Anna overshadows her
somewhat. Not technically perfect, certainly,
but she carries with her a steely determination,
as in ‘Or sai chi l’onore’ (a pity this
is a little distanced in perspective
terms) and she shows her ability to
float a note in the ‘Calmatevi, idol
mio!’ exchange with Ottavio in Act 2.
James Melton’s assumption
of Don Ottavio is stretched by Breisach’s
positively funereal pace for ‘Dalla
sua pace’. It is achingly slow and played
blind to a musical novice it would not
sound like Mozart. Caniell is plain-speaking
about Melton – ‘There is not an iota
of difference in nuance, tone or the
shaping of phrases to distinguish his
Don Ottavio from his Pinkerton or Wilhelm
Meister’. Well, we are examining him
purely in Don Giovanni and it
must be admitted that his ‘Il mio tesoro’
(Act 2) is delivered in the most lovely
of fashions, ardent in its understatement.
The arrival of the
statue is interestingly accompanied
by some whistling noises that make it
sound like this Giovanni is set
on Guy Fawkes day. Alas this scene lacks
the drama it so requires (Breisach rather
carves his way through it) and there
are some pitch fluctuations (sometimes
severe) later on..
It takes Caniell full
two pages of small type to explain the
various patchings involved in making
this opera play through as one continuous
experience. By the time you get here
in this review you may well have decided
whether you want to hear this set and
if you do, the relevant pages are 17
and 18.
Colin Clarke
Ezio Pinza (bass-baritone) Don Giovanni; Salvatore
Baccaloni (bass) Leporello; James Melton (tenor)
Don Ottavio; Mack Harrell (baritone) Masetto;
Zinka Milanov (soprano) Donna Anna; Jarmila Novotna
(soprano) Donna Elvira; Bidú Sayão
(soprano) Zerlina; Norman Cordon (bass-baritone)
Commendatore; Orchestra and Chorus of the Metropolitan
Opera, New York/Paul Breisach 