As the fifty-year expiry
of copyright in the UK and Europe moves towards confirmation,
so EMI seeks to eke a little more money out of the Callas
recordings of the 1950s by bringing the prices down to more
realistic levels. Whilst some of the diva’s recordings have
appeared on the EMI mid-price ‘Great Recordings of
the Century’ series
much earlier than this issue, others have not. Now
EMI goes the whole hog with both this mid price GROC, which
is complete with
the usual full libretto and translations into English, French
and German, and also a basic bargain-priced version with
track-related synopsis and no libretto. Both include a 2004
introductory essay by Richard Osborne, Karajan’s biographer.
Many commentators have
questioned the company’s policy of keeping 1950s mono recordings
of the diva at full price for so long. I suggest that the
answer lies in the critical reviews that the original issues
produced. Many contemporary critics had seen the diva in
the theatre. As one of the greatest singing actresses of
the century, her histrionic performances were veritable tours
de force, which could not fail to impress all who saw
them. This carried over into reviews of recordings by the
diva. This was not the case with her 1955 performances of Lucia
di Lamermoor in Berlin with Karajan conducting that was
never recorded, even unofficially. No recording but a mutual
meeting of artistic minds and the performances are written
into the all-time greats of opera. But there is a great difference
in Callas singing florid and lyric coloratura roles from
the bel canto and the Verdi spinto roles that she recorded
for Columbia, now EMI.
Recorded in
1956, Il Trovatore was the fourth of five Verdi roles
she recorded in the studio for the Columbia label. In my
view her Leonora here, like her Aida, her Forza del Destino
Leonora and her Ballo in Maschera Amelia to follow, shows
her voice to be a size too small and vocally inconsistent
in the spinto aspects. That she could and did inflect insights
into the facets and dilemmas of the characters she was portraying
is indisputable and selection of virtues over drawbacks must
be personal. Perhaps the best illustration of the
strengths and drawbacks can be heard in Callas’s singing
of the two main soprano arias, Tacea la notte in placida (CD
1 tr.6) and D’amor sull’ali rosee (CD 2 tr.10). It
can also be heard in the more dramatic outbursts when pressure
is put on the voice above the stave and unsteadiness ensues.
It must be said however, that there is none of the vocal
ugliness that marred so many of her later recordings. What
is lacking despite trills, decorations and good diction is
the sheer beauty of tone, vocal heft and evenness of vocal
emission that we came to appreciate when Leontyne Price recorded
her interpretation in 1969 (RCA 74321
39504-2).
The
matter of size of voice is also an issue in respect of Di
Stefano’s Manrico. Producer Walter Legge had wanted
Richard Tucker for the role. Tucker had missed out when RCA
recorded Il Trovatore in
1952, the role of Manrico being handed to Jussi
Björling. Tucker, a devout Jew, preferred not to be associated
with Karajan whose connections with the Nazi regime in World
War II were, to say the least, questionable and the part
went to Di Stefano. In the lyrical
passages he sings and phrases well, but lacks the vocal heft
that the role really requires. Inevitably this is evident
in Manrico’s big scena in act 3, Ah si, ben mio (CD
2 tr.6) and Di quella pira (CD2 tr.8) when the voice
takes on a bleating character rather than a full-toned attack. Rolando
Panerai’s De Luna is rather monochrome and his Tace la
notte….Il Trovador! Lo tremo (CD1 trs.9-10) and Il
balen (CD 1 tr.24) are much better heard in other performances,
not least in the rival budget-priced Naxos issue of the RCA
1952 where Leonard Warren sings the role. That recording,
recently re-mastered, by Mark Obert-Thorn, features a fine
quartet of singers including Jussi Björling and Zinka Milanov.
The latter portrays a fiercely dramatic Leonora with the
size of voice, if not always the control, to do the role
full justice (see review).
What the RCA recording shares with this EMI issue is the
fine interpretation of Azucena by Fedora Barbieri whose Stride
la vampa (CD 1tr.15) and Ai nostri monte (CD 2
tr.19) are achieved with seemingly effortless sonority and
expressive characterisation. Nicola Zaccaria gives a good
rendering of Ferrando’s music (CD 1 trs.1-50 and (CD 2 trs.1-4).
Where
this recording scores over the 1952 RCA issue is in Karajan’s
conducting and his opening of cuts that were omitted on the
earlier set. The timing gives the clue if not the detail.
There is more than 129 minutes of the opera here compared
with only 116 on the RCA. But it is not merely a question
of the extra music but how the conductor brings the drama
so vividly to life. His pacing and support for his singers
is first rate and with good transfers allowing a wide undistorted
dynamic, not always a strength on some GROCs, Karajan’s contribution
makes full use of Verdi’s inspiration.
Robert J Farr
EMI Great Recordings Of The Century page
Manrico
- Giuseppe Di Stefano (ten); Leonora - Maria Callas (sop);
Di Luna - Rolando Panerai (bar); Azucena - Fedora
Barbieri (mezzo); Ferrando - Nicola Zaccaria (bass); Ines
- Luisa Villa (sop); Ruiz - Renato Ercolani (ten) 
