This Naxos re-issue
of Callas’s 1954 recording of ‘Norma’
is part of their enterprising re-packaging
of historic recordings which have come
out of copyright. Issued at budget price,
this Naxos line enables us to acquire
notable historic recordings which we
might otherwise think twice about buying
for the library shelves. It helps, of
course, that Naxos have had these re-mastered
by Mark Obert-Thorn who has done an
excellent job cleaning up the recorded
sound.
This ‘Norma’ was part
of Callas’s first group of recordings
made for Columbia. Previously she had
done recordings for the Italian firm
Cetra. She subsequently went on to make
another version of ‘Norma’ with Franco
Corelli and Christa Ludwig in 1960.
This 1954 studio recording
starts off well with the prelude given
much forward impetus by Tullio Serafin
and the Orchestra of La Scala. But with
the opening scene, things rather go
down hill. Nicola Rossi-Lemeni’s Oroveso
is hollow voiced and recorded alarmingly
closely; the general recorded atmosphere
is horribly boxy. As the recording progresses
Rossi does not really improve, nor does
the boxy feel.
Mario Filippeschi as
Pollione has the great virtue that he
serves to highlight the miracle of Callas’s
singing of Bellini’s music. Filippeschi
is a rather unimaginative tenor, possessed
of a reasonably solid voice; unfortunately
his style in Bellini singing belongs
securely to the past. He presents Pollione
in just the same way as he would a verismo
role like Canio, he constantly disturbs
the music’s line, individual notes are
emphasised, sobs are used for emphasis,
his fioriture are sketchy. This is not
completely his fault; though ‘Norma’
stayed in the repertoire (unlike most
of the other operas from the period),
performance style tended to shoe-horn
the opera into the standard late-Verdi/verismo
school of performance. At best, Filippeschi’s
performance sound’s like lumpen early
Verdi.
So, it is understandable
how much of an impact Callas made; but
it is difficult nowadays to quite appreciate
how significant this impact was, how
different her performance of Bellini
and Donizetti’s music was from the standard
way of doing things in Italy. It is
not just that she had the facility to
enable her large voice to navigate its
way round the fioriture, but she had
the ability and intelligence to use
the fioriture for expressive purposes.
Since Callas we have been used to a
variety of voices singing this type
of music from the coloratura to the
spinto and it is not unknown for dramatic
sopranos to continue to essay ‘Norma’,
so it is easy for us to be a little
blasé. But few people can touch
the searing intensity of Callas on a
good day; she sounds remarkable now
and must have been a revelation when
heard live. Not that everything on this
recording is perfect; it must be admitted
that her voice is not always completely
easy on the ear. She was unable, or
unwilling, to control the rather wide
vibrato on long upper notes, a problem
that would get worse as time went on.
But that must be balanced against what
she does achieve.
She is ably supported
by Ebe Stignani as Adalgisa. Unfortunately
Stignani, in her fifties when the recording
was made, sounds more like Callas’s
older confidante rather than a younger
colleague. Callas convincingly brings
a young sound to the role of Norma,
she never sounds naïve but Callas
has you believing that Norma is at fault
partly because of her youth. Though
Stignani matches Callas beautifully
in the duets, Stignani never sounds
youthful, she sounds rather matronly.
So, in the end, we
have to ask ourselves which Callas recording
we want, 1954 or 1960? To complicate
matters, EMI have issued the first official
imprint of the 1952 live recording from
Covent Garden with Vittorio Gui as conductor,
Stignani as Adalgisa, Mirto Picchi as
Pollione and a young Joan Sutherland
as Clotilde. I have not heard this disc
but it has received high praise in the
Gramophone; Alan Blyth comments that
Callas’s live performance is compelling
and electrifying. And this is the problem,
Callas was at her best live and her
studio recordings do not always do her
justice. Her 1960 recording of ‘Norma’
reveals Callas in rather frailer voice,
but her interpretation is deeper, her
colleagues are stronger than their 1954
rivals and the 1960s stereo recording
is rather better than this relatively
primitive 1954.
So my own counsel would
be to go for the 1952 live recording
from EMI (Ł23.99 from Amazon) and the
1960 stereo recording. But if the budget
runs to it, add this recording as well.
‘Norma’ is rather short
measure for 3 CDs and I did wonder whether
it might not have been fitted onto just
2 discs. But Naxos have filled the last
CD with a variety of historic recordings
of the opera. Ezio Pinza’s account of
the opening scene only goes to emphasise
the poor quality of Rossi-Lemeni’s performance.
More fascinatingly, Naxos include samples
of both Rosa Ponselle and Gina Cigna
in the title role.
Ponselle’s Norma is
lighter voiced than Callas’s, but shares
with Callas a sense of the music’s line
and a concern for accuracy. The liner
notes comment on Ponselle’s accuracy
in a way which implies that they believe
she was less accurate live; it would
be interesting to have confirmation
of this. Ponselle’s Norma was not very
influential in Italy; there Gina Cigna’s
approach was more common. Cigna has
a larger voice, complete with quite
a substantial vibrato; as presented
here, her Norma is not unpleasant, but
stylistically it is far closer to verismo
and late Verdi than Bellini and Donizetti.
This is a fascinating
release; though it is not the ultimate
Callas ‘Norma’, Naxos issue of the recording
at budget price means that we can all
acquire this as a revealing supplement
to Callas’s other recordings.
Robert Hugill
see also review
by Robert Farr
The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus/
Giulio Setti (conductor) (2, 4, 6, 7) 
