In May 1830 the Duke
of Litta and two rich associates formed
a society to sponsor opera at La Scala.
They were concerned to raise the musical
standards that had seen Rossini, Meyerbeer
and others decamp to Paris. They engaged
most of the famous singers of the time
including Giuditta Pasta and the tenor
Giovanni Battista Rubini. Donizetti
and Bellini, as the two best active
Italian composers, were each contracted
to write an opera for the season to
a libretto set by the renowned Felice
Romani. Litta and his associates failed
to secure La Scala for their plans,
which were realised at the Teatro Carcano.
The machinations of Litta in releasing
Bellini from his existing contract,
but failing to secure La Scala for his
enterprise, as well as insights into
the hectic life of composers whose works
were not protected by copyright, are
graphically described by Stelios Galatopoulos
in his recent Bellini, Life, Times,
Music (Sanctuary, 2002).
The rapid composition
of I Capuletti e i Montecchi,
completed in only 26 days, left the
often-ailing Bellini in poor health.
It was only later in 1830, after he
had completed the libretto for Donizetti’s
great success Anna Bolena that
Romani commenced on a subject for Bellini.
The chosen subject was Ernani, an adaptation
of Victor Hugo’s sensational Hernani
produced in Paris the previous February.
Bellini set music for at least five
scenes before it became apparent that
with recent uprisings in France, Belgium
and Poland that the Milan police censors
would not allow it. The outcome was
a total change to the politically innocuous
subject of La Sonnambula based on Scribe’s
ballet-pantomime. The plot concerns
the young and innocent Amina who is
about to be married to Elvino. Amina
sleepwalks and ends up in the room of
the local Count who recently returned
to the village incognito. Elvino finds
Amina in this compromised location and
denounces her. Eventually he is convinced
of her innocence when he sees her sleepwalking
along a very narrow plank over a dangerous
mill wheel.
The change of subject
meant that Bellini did not start to
compose La Sonnambula until January
2nd 1831 and the scheduled
premiere was put back to March 6th.
The opera was a resounding success with
the composer’s maturing musical style
being much admired. The work established
Bellini firmly on the international
stage much as had Anna Bolena for Donizetti;
two outstanding successes for the Duke
of Litta and his associates. Both successes
owed much to the presence of Pasta and
Rubini who had created the main roles
in the two operas. Pasta had a most
unusual voice. Stendahl
in his ‘Vie
de Rossini’ (1824) described it as extending
from as low as bottom A and rising as
high as C sharp or a slightly sharpened
D. It was her dramatic interpretations
as much as her range from contralto
to high soprano that appealed to audiences.
In our own time, only Callas has shown
anything near the variety of vocal colour
and dramatic gifts that were Pasta’s
stock in trade. Callas’s early 1950s
performances of Amina, Norma and Lucia,
roles created by Pasta, contributed
significantly to the re-emergence into
the repertory of those, and other bel
canto operas, which had lain neglected
for many years.
Apart from Callas’s
1957 (EMI) recording, Amina has become
the domain of light acrobatic voices.
On record an early example was the light
girlish sounding and limpid toned Lina
Pagliughi in 1952 (Cetra). These sopranos
have included Joan Sutherland on two
recordings (Decca) and more recently
Luba Organasova (Naxos) and Edita Gruberova
(Nightingale). In this Arts recording,
Eva Lind who has a very light and flexible
voice with a slightly fluttery emission,
sings Amina. She trills well and her
coloratura is secure, but she does not
have the variety of expression or vocal
colour necessary to convey the varying
emotions of the role and involve me
in the unfolding drama.
Bellini is reputed
to have been moved to tears by Pasta’s
Ah! Non giunge (CD 2 tr. 12),
Lind does not convey the agonies of
Amina and fails to move me at all. The
role of Elvino lies in the upper range
of the light lyric, or leggiero, tenor
voice and it has been suggested that
Rubini, and certainly others who followed
in that period, used a falsetto voice.
Here the American William Matteuzzi
sings the role. He is best known as
a Rossini singer. In that fach, with
its high flying fioritura, his dry tone
is less obvious. Whilst as Elvino he
has to scale the vocal heights via smooth
transition through the passaggio into
a clear head voice he also needs a steady
legato and graceful phrasing to illuminate
the flowing Bellinian cantilena. In
the Cetra issue Tagliavini caresses
many lines and phrases of the role in
a sensitive and light head voice that
I find particularly appealing. Matteuzzi
moves from his slightly throaty and
dry-toned chest voice into a smooth
head voice in Prendi l’anel ti dono
(CD 1 tr. 7). Elsewhere, but his tone
does tend to spread when he puts pressure
on the voice in its upper register.
Nor are his scales smooth in the duet
Elvino! E me tu lasci (CD 1 tr
12). As the returned incognito Count,
Petteri Salamaa’s lean but well tuned
bass voice is heard to good effect in
the famous solo Vi ravviso (CD
1 tr. 9). His tone has a pleasing roundness
even if he lacks the sonority of Siepi
(Cetra) or the gravitas of Ghiaurov
in Sutherlands second recording (Decca
1980 at full price). That being said
I prefer Salamaa to the woolly toned
bass on the Naxos recording. Of the
minor parts it is a regret that the
thin toned, not altogether steady, Lisa,
is the first solo voice we hear (CD
1 tr. 2) rather than the fuller toned
Sonia Ganassi as Teresa.
The recording is clear,
airy and well balanced between orchestra
and soloists. Gabrielle Bellini sometimes
lingers over the lovely cantilena of
his namesake and is also inclined to
over indulge his soloists, failing to
move the drama along. The opera is after
all designated a melodrama. The booklet
has a brief essay on the opera, a synopsis,
regrettably not track related, and a
full libretto in Italian but without
any translation. At this price level
it is a choice between the all-Italian
cast on the Cetra issue in mono sound,
this infinitely better modern stereo
recording or the equally well recorded
Naxos that also has weaknesses in singing
and conducting. Neither of those two
bargain priced modern recordings erases
Callas or Sutherland from the memory.
But then neither of those formidable
divas was like Giuditta Pasta, who so
inspired Bellini in his composition
and moved him with her interpretation.
Despite its limitations,
and particularly for those who do not
know this work, or the other operas
of Bellini, this issue could open the
door on a highly enjoyable and fulfilling
road of discovery.
Robert J Farr
Chorus of the Nationale Reisopera, East Netherlands.
