This live recording
from the Aix-en-Provence festival in
1954 is a pleasant surprise. The sound
is quite acceptable and the orchestra,
although a bit thin, is far from undernourished.
Woodwind solos get their due without
being in any way highlighted. Stage
noises are of course unavoidable and
the soloists come and go according to
their stage movements but on the whole
it is quite easy to listen to. Only
Belmonte’s third act aria, Ich baue
ganz is omitted and in its place,
at the beginning of the act, his second
act aria Wenn der Freude Tränen
fliessen is inserted. The spoken
dialogue is sometimes foreshortened,
sometimes amended, which is often the
case with Singspiele. The orchestra
play well and Rosbaud conducts a well-paced
performance, lively but not going to
extremes.
There is a fine line-up
of young singers with fresh voices and
a good feeling for Mozartean style.
At the centre of the action is the young
Nicolaï Gedda, here caught less
than two years after his official debut
at the Royal Opera in Stockholm and
already in the midst of a busy international
career. He was an outstanding Mozart
singer and among tenors of broadly his
generation Leopold Simoneau and Fritz
Wunderlich were probably his only serious
competitors. Both Simoneau and Wunderlich
recorded this part. During the 1960s
Gedda tackled it twice: once with Josef
Krips for EMI in Vienna and then for
the same company in English with Yehudi
Menuhin (his only opera recording as
far as I know). The latter was recently
reissued on Chandos in their "Opera
in English" series. Here Gedda
sings a suave Belmonte with ravishing
pianissimos and impressive breath-control.
He acts convincingly with his voice
and is both eager and plaintive in his
second aria Konstanze, dich wiederzusehen
(CD1 track 8). He has of course a ringing
forte when needed. Belmonte needs a
voice with a great deal of intensity,
otherwise he becomes bland.
As his beloved Konstanze
we hear the even younger Teresa Stich-Randall,
who made few recordings. She is probably
best remembered for her lovely Sophie
in Karajan’s Rosenkavalier but
she also recorded Fiordiligi in Così
fan tutte for Philips. A lighter-voiced
Konstanze than most hers was more of
a Blonde-voice. In the quartet (CD2
track 8) it is sometimes hard to know
who is singing, but Stich-Randall’s
is a warm voice bearing similarities
to Lisa Della Casa’s yet her bell-like
top notes are personal and characteristic.
She sings a very good Martern aller
Arten (CD1 track 20) with fluent
coloratura and a fine trill; her pianissimos
are just as ravishing as Gedda’s. Both
singers are superb in their last act
duet (CD2 tracks 15 – 16). It is hard
to imagine better legato singing.
As the boisterous Osmin
we hear the Bulgarian Raffaele Arië,
not normally associated with Mozart.
His name is more associated with Boris
Godunov or Filippo II. However everything
I have heard of him - not so much I’m
afraid - is surpassed by this beautifully
sung performance. Of course beauty of
tone is not a prime requirement for
Osmin but Arië’s evenly produced
bass with its great warmth makes Osmin
a much more human character, even though
he also reveals his real self in startlingly
threatening terms.
The secondary couple
don’t quite measure up to the three
main characters. Even so the very young
Michel Sénéchal is a characterful
Pedrillo and sings the first stanza
of his third act serenade Im Mohrenland
gefangen war (CD2 track 11) sotto
voce, and very beautifully. Elsewhere
he is lively and expressive, not least
in the spoken dialogue. The San Francisco-based
Carmen Prietto, a name hitherto unknown
to me, has a pretty voice but her intonation
is sometimes suspect and she has a tendency
to scoop up to the notes. Welche
Wonne, welche Lust (CD2 track 2)
is lively but a bit anonymous.
For a good studio-made
alternative the contemporaneous Fricsay-version
on DG is recommendable with a gruff
but really menacing Josef Greindl as
Osmin, a fluent and smooth Ernst Haefliger
as Belmonte and Rita Streich the best
Blonde anywhere. However Maria Stader’s
fluttery Konstanze is something of a
drawback. The aforementioned Krips recording
with Gedda, Rothenberger and Gottlob
Frick would also be competitive if it
were available but the top contender
is undoubtedly Karl Böhm, also
on DG, with Arleen Auger, Reri Grist,
Peter Schreier and Kurt Moll – a line-up
that is hard to beat.
This Rosbaud version
impresses on its own terms and does
so despite the sparseness of the documentation:
there is a cast list and a track-list
but no timings, no liner notes, no texts,
not even a synopsis. The set is well
worth the modest outlay allowing us
to hear Gedda, Stich-Randall and Arië
in their early prime.
Göran Forsling
Chorale Elisabeth Brasseur 
