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Graziella Sciutti - The Studio Recitals
1953, 1955, 1956 Wolfgang Amadeus
MOZART (1756–1791) Le nozze di Figaro(1786)
1. Cinque … dieci … Se a caso Madama [10:21]
2. Bravo! … Venite, inginocchiatevi [3:46]
3. Giunse alfin il momento … Deh, vieni [5:02] Così fan tutte (1789) 4. In uomini, in soldati [2:55] 5. Una donna a quindici anni [4:06] Don Giovanni (1787) 6. Là ci darem la mano [3:03]
7. Batti, batti, o bel Masetto [3:38]
8. Vedrai, carino [3:31] Vincenzo BELLINI (1801–1835) La Sonnambula(1831)
9. Come per me sereno [7:10] I Puritani (1835)
10. Qui la voce sua soave [6:42] Gaetano DONIZETTI (1797–1848) Don Pasquale(1843)
11. So anch’io la virtù magica [5:12] Linda di Chamounix (1842)
12. O luce di quest’ anima [5:12] Gioacchino ROSSINI (1792–1868) Semiramide (1823)
13. Bel raggio lusinghier [5:46]
Graziella
Sciutti (soprano);
Sesto Bruscantini (bass) (1); Sena Jurinac (soprano), Risë Stevens
(mezzo) (2); George London (bass) (6); Glyndebourne Festival
Orchestra/Vittorio Gui (1-3); Wiener Symphoniker/Rudolf
Moralt (4-8); Orchestre des Concerts Lamoureux/Pierre Dervaux
(9-13)
rec. London, July 1955 (1-3); Vienna, May 1955 (6-8); November
1956 (4, 5); Paris, December 1953 (9-13) ARCHIPEL
RECORDS ARPCD 0372 [66:31]
“The Callas of the Piccola Scala” was a soubriquet sometimes attached
to Graziella Sciutti (1932-2001). Voicewise
she bore hardly any resemblance to Callas but was renowned
for her acting
and lively stage presence. Her voice was smallish and rather
thin but she had a fluent technique. She mainly kept within
the confines of her type, singing the soubrette roles, especially
Mozart, well represented on this disc. Being in a pernickety
mood I would state that the title of the disc, “The Studio
Recitals” is a misnomer, since the Mozart excerpts are from
three complete sets, recorded with the 1956 Mozart celebrations
in mind. I am not certain if the remaining five titles, recorded
even earlier, are culled from a longer recital or were issued
on a 10 inch LP, which was quite common in the early years
of the microgroove record. Everything here is the young,
even very young Graziella Sciutti – she was only 21 when
she recorded the five concluding arias.
Her light, fresh and agile voice is well suited to the Mozart roles and
we first meet her in Le nozze di Figaro, where she
is a lively and pert Susanna. We get the whole sequence from
the beginning of the opera with the two duets for Figaro
and Susanna, the secco recitative connecting them and even
the following recitative, which means that we stop short
before Figaro’s first aria. Through an error by the producer
of this reissue the first duet is reprised, complete with
orchestral introduction and Susanna’s little giggle at the
end. A little slipshod, especially since Bruscantini’s initially
uncharacteristically low-key Figaro isn’t the best calling-card
for him to play twice. He soon warms, however, and in the
first recitative he is his usual lively self. The next excerpt
comes from act two and the scene where Susanna and the Countess
dress up the Page as a girl. The aria, which shows Graziella
Sciutti at her best, lively and eager, is preceded by the
recitative. There we get some glimpses of Sena Jurinac’s
noble Countess and a little of Risë Stevens’ nondescript
Cherubino. Susanna’s Deh vieni from act 4, one of
the loveliest arias Mozart ever wrote, is less of an asset.
The reading is inward and nuanced but too small-scale, hampered
by a sluggish tempo, but the final phrases are lovely.
Sciutti is better suited to Despina in the two arias from Così fan
tutte, where she is especially
secure and involved in Una donna a quindici anni.
She sounds more mature – Despina is of course no fledgling – and
also vocally more secure. This is also the latest of the
recordings, from November 1956, when she was still no more
than 24.
Going directly back a year-and-a-half to the Don Giovanni sessions
one can detect a slightly uneven tone and occasionally suspect
intonation. She is a lovely Zerlina, however, and the two
arias are well characterised – and she is charming.
This is the best that can be said of George London’s coarse
and blustery Don Giovanni. It’s a wonder that this Zerlina
should even contemplate following him to his casinetta. Towards
the end of the decade she recorded the role again in worthier
company. This was the legendary Giulini recording with Schwarzkopf,
Sutherland and Eberhard Wächter as a Don who could live up
to his reputation for having seduced 1003 women in Spain
alone – according to Leporello’s catalogue.
Some of the Italian arias from the 1953 sessions raise a few question-marks,
mainly the lack of volume. Her technique is never in question,
her coloratura is light and accurate and she has a good legato
in the Sonnambula aria. Qui la voce from I
Puritani is an even greater challenge but apart from
the voice being a bit under-sized this is one of the best
arias on the disc. Norina in Don Pasquale is another
success, a role that fitted her like a glove. Maybe she isn’t
enough of a bitch when compared with Alda Noni in the roughly
contemporaneous complete recording on Cetra, with Bruscantini
as the Pasquale of one’s dreams. Nevertheless Sciutti has
the better voice. More than a decade later she recorded this
opera complete for Decca with the hilarious Fernando Corena
as the old bachelor.
Like Annina in La sonnambula, Linda di Chamounix is another
ill-fated heroine in an opera that eventually ends well. O
luce di quest’anima has long been a favourite vehicle
for coloratura sopranos and Graziella Sciutti has the technique
and the nimbleness but lacks the heft for the climactic notes.
But this is an attractive reading, as is the Semiramide aria,
recorded by most great sopranos in this Fach. One
of the first was contralto (!) Guerrina Fabbri in 1903. Of
the old ones Luisa Tetrazzini has always been one of my favourites
and Ms Sciutti can’t quite compete with her crystalline clarity
but is good nevertheless.
In spite of some reservations, lovers of lyrical soprano
voices in this repertoire will find a great deal to admire.
It is good
to have a disc specially devoted to Sciutti, who knew her
limitations and “niched” in the roles she knew were within
her scope. The orchestras are good, led by expert conductors,
of whom especially Vittorio Gui, sadly under-recorded, gives
vivacious support in the Figaro excerpts. The mono
recordings are more than acceptable even to today’s ears
and the French recording from 1953 has surprisingly impressive
fortes. The inlay has a track-list, names of participants
and recording dates – nothing else.
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