Fabiana Bravo was born in Argentina, even though the bio in the
booklet doesn’t mention it. Her career has been mainly in the
US with frequent excursions to other parts of the world, including
numerous performances in Italy, where she also gave a recital
for Pope John Paul II. She has been singing at the Met since the
2001/02 season and also appears regularly in Chicago, Washington
DC and San Francisco. Her professional debut was in Philadelphia
in 1996 singing, surprisingly enough, Lucia di Lammermoor opposite
Luciano Pavarotti. This is surprising, having heard this disc,
which presents a voice that certainly belongs at the opposite
pole of soprano repertoire. Hers is in fact that rarity today,
a true Italianate spinto voice, vibrant and thrilling and able
to challenge a full-size symphony or opera orchestra all the way
up to a roaring fortissimo. It is true that she can be a bit unwieldy
at times and her phrasing isn’t as smooth as one could ideally
wish but the very fact that here is a truly grand voice is compensation
enough and she has no problems scaling down and singing beautifully
controlled pianissimos.
The programme is
evenly divided between some of Verdi’s most demanding soprano
roles and a good handful of verismo arias. Most of the arias
are old warhorses that every lyric-dramatic soprano within living
memory has sung and recorded and comparisons with the great
ones can be odious. I have deliberately avoided listening to
others but there are some singers, whose interpretations are
indelibly etched into my memory: Callas, Tebaldi, Scotto, Maria
Chiara for instance. She does not fully measure up to them.
Still she has a thrill of her own and while not as polished
as Tebaldi she sings with comparable involvement and conviction.
Where she falls short, comparatively, is in individuality, in
the ability to chisel out portraits that establish independent
personalities. The twelve roles portrayed here could just as
well be the same character appearing in twelve different operas.
It isn’t easy to create distinguishable characters with vocal
means alone and in the opera house I would probably have reacted
differently. Maybe it is asking too much and the fault lies
probably as much in the recital format. It has been said before
but it is worth repeating: when a ‘recital’ is made up of longer
scenes with other characters besides the heroine the effect
is more often than not much more vivid. There are those who
have been able to shape personalities in isolated arias – Callas
and Scotto certainly. Fabiana Bravo isn’t there yet. Well, in
fact she is, in one case: Maddalena di Coigny in Andrea Chenier.
There, in the aria La mamma morta, she is a different
person from the other one in this recital: the timbre is darker,
the tone defiant, she has a face.
Generally she feels
more at home in the verismo roles than in Verdi. La Wally, Adriana
and Tosca are splendid – in a generalized way. On the other
hand, listening to Tebaldi in a number of complete Puccini roles
lately I must honestly say that the differences of character
were minimal – apart from a hefty Minnie in La fanciulla
del West. I also believe that it is unfair to assess a singer
in too large doses at a time. Listening for pleasure I often
pick one – or two at the most – by a particular singer and then
I choose something quite different. It has happened more than
once that a singer I gave a lukewarm reception to for a full
recital emerged in his/her full glory when sampled. When I return
to this recital – and I will – I’m going to listen discriminatingly.
Then I will admire her lovely La Vergine degli Angeli
from Forza and her sensitive phrasing throughout O
patria mia. I will also savour two comparative rarities:
Medora’s aria from Il Corsaro and the grand climax of
Fidelia’s aria from Edgar with Fabiana Bravo’s vibrant
and powerful voice soaring above the combined orchestral and
choral forces in a shattering fortissimo.
The Russian orchestra
may not be one of the high profile ensembles of the world but
like most radio orchestras they are highly professional. The
experienced Charles Rosekrans is worth great prize for his eloquent
conducting, from the darkly ominous prelude to the Don Carlo
aria and onwards. The recording can’t be faulted and with
72˝ minutes playing time one gets a lot of music for one’s money.
Though not yet up
among the very best, Fabiana Bravo is a thrilling spinto soprano
and this is a worthy calling card.
Göran Forsling
Fabiana Bravo
(soprano) 
