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In May 1830 the Duke of Litta and two rich associates formed a Society to sponsor opera at La Scala, Milan. 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, whom they considered to be the best active Italian composers, were each contracted to write an opera for the season. This was to be to a libretto set by the renowned Felice Romani. However, Litta and his associates failed to secure La Scala for their plans, which were instead 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 are graphically described by Stelios Galatopoulos in his 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 Bellini project. 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, with political unrest 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 has 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 2 January 1831 and the scheduled premiere was put back to 6 March. The opera was a resounding success with the composer’s evolving musical style being much admired. It 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. Pasta had a most unusual voice. Stendhal 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, perhaps only Callas has shown anything near the variety of vocal colour and dramatic gifts that were Pasta’s stock in trade.

Apart from Callas’s 1957 (EMI) recording of the role, Amina has become the domain of light acrobatic voices. An early example on record was the naturally light and girlish sounding Lina Pagliughi in 1952 (Warner Fonit 8573 87475-2). These sopranos have also included Joan Sutherland on two recordings (Decca 448 966-2 and 417 424-2) and more recently Luba Orgonasova (Naxos 8.660042-43), Edita Gruberova (Nightingale) and the fluttery Eva Lind on Arts (review). Of these sopranos Orgonasova and Sutherland have the richest tone and like Gruberova are secure in the coloratura.

This recording differs from those mentioned in using a new Critical Edition by Alessandro Roccataglia and Luca Zappelli and published by Ricordi in collaboration with the Teatro Massimo Bellini in Catania. It lowers the key in several numbers compared with more traditional performing edition, particularly in Elvino’s cavatina Prendi, l’anel ti dono (CD 1 tr.8) and the duet for the two lovers Vedi o madre (CD 2 tr.4). Although longer, by some ten minutes, than the standard performing edition of the time on the Warner Fonit recording, it is also shorter than Sutherland’s second recording by a similar amount.

On this recording the French coloratura soprano Natalie Dessay is easy on the ear with her light, rather white, limpid tone. She phrases the Bellinian line with some grace and her diction is good. Her most expressive moments come at the very end in Ah! Non giunge (CD 2 tr.13) as Amina is filled with joy and where Dessay finds more tonal colour. Overall there is a greater range of colour in the lower part of her voice whilst she exhibits a slight tendency to thinning at the top in the highest tessitura. In general she is better seen on-stage as a committed singing actress rather than as a voice on a recording.

Previously the role of Elvino lay in the upper range of the light lyric, or leggiero, tenor voice. It has been suggested that Rubini, and certainly others who followed in that period and later, used a falsetto voice. Tagliavini on Warner Fonit uses head voice to the point of a croon. Like Gimenez on the Naxos and William Matteuzzi on Arts, Francesco Meli has been known as a Rossini singer. He appears in the composer’s Bianca e Falliero from Pesaro in 2005, on CD and DVD, in Torvaldo e Dorliska from the 2006 festival and also recorded on CD and DVD; both operas recorded by the Italian label Dynamic.

In a profile and interview for France’s Opéra magazine between those two years, Meli indicated his wish to move towards the lyric tenor fach. I felt this to be wise as he lacks the free top of voice required for the ideal Rossini tenor. There are a couple of occasions on this recording where that tightness shows. What he had at that time, and exhibits here, is a pleasing light tenor tone with a touch of metal. He adds to this a capacity for sensitive phrasing, good legato and willingness to use the mezza voce. All these skills, allied with a capacity for expression and characterisation, combine to bring the role to life.

As the returned incognito Count, Carlo Columbara is sonorous but not lugubrious. His well tuned bass voice is heard to good effect in the famous solo Vi ravviso (CD 1 tr.11). The minor parts are more than adequately sung, the chorus are vibrant and idiomatic and Evelino Pido brings a nice touch to both rhythmic pointing and Bellinian cantilena. The recording is clear, airy and well balanced between orchestra and soloists. 

Robert J Farr

 

 

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