Giacomo PUCCINI (1858-1924)
Manon Lescaut - opera in four acts (1893)
Manon Lescaut - Maria Callas (soprano); Lescaut - Manon’s brother and
Sergeant in the Kings Guard - Giulio Fiorvanti (baritone); Chevalier des
Grieux, a student - Giuseppe Di Stefano (tenor); Geronte, wealthy Treasurer-General
- Franco Calabrese (bass); Edmondo, a student - Dino Forichini (tenor)
Chorus and Orchestra of La Scala, Milan/Tullio Serafin
rec. Teatro della Scala. July 1957
Appendix
Giuseppe Di Stefano (tenor) singing Puccini Arias
Tosca, Recondita armonia [3.16]
rec. Abbey Road Studio No 1. December 1947/Alberto Erede
La Fanciulla del West, Ch’ella mi creda libero [2.22]
Gianni Schicchi, Ave torto [3.19]
Turandot, Non piangere, Liu [2.44]
Turandot, Nessun dorma! [3.24]
La Scala Orchestra/Antonio Votto
rec. June 1955
Restoration by Mark Obert-Thorn
NAXOS 8.112031-32 [76.09 + 59.09]
Puccini’s Manon Lescaut had something of a difficult gestation.
The composer had enticed another man’s wife to live with him and it
was make or break time for him after his first two operas, Le villi premiered
on 31 May 1884 and Edgar at La Scala on 21 April 1889, were only modestly
received. He couldn’t settle with the chosen librettists who were changed
to the extent that none put his name to the programme at the premieres. Being
aware of these difficulties, and that shortly after the scheduled premiere
La Scala was to stage Verdi’s last opera, Falstaff, Puccini’s
publisher moved the venue to Turin. Despite these last minute fears the work
was a resounding success. The applause began with the brief tenor aria Tra
voi, belle in act 1 (CD 1 tr.2) and Puccini had to appear on stage to
acknowledge it. At the end of the performance the composer and cast took
thirty curtain calls. Manon Lescaut set Puccini on a secure financial
and artistic future. Whilst not rivalling La Boheme, Tosca or Madama
Butterfly among Puccini’s most popular works, its fraught
emotional story draws from the composer all the hallmarks of his renowned
compositional style.
1957 was a very busy year for Callas as far as recording was concerned. This
was particularly in comparison with her declining appearances at La Scala
as her socialite life-style took over. In 1956 she and Gobbi had had a success
there in Il barbiere di Siviglia (see review)
and Walter Legge was keen to record the duo in the Rossini opera. Legge was
also aware that Decca in particular was leaving his company behind in the
technology of the emerging stereophonic recordings. This emerging technology
was not possible at La Scala and the recording was made in London in February
1957. In that year Callas featured in three productions at La Scala with
Legge choosing only to record La Sonnambula with his star soloist.
He preferred to record her in the eponymous roles in Puccini’s Turandot which
she had not sung for several years, and in Manon Lescaut, a role she
never sang on stage. The two recordings were made in successive weeks in
the La Scala theatre in mono with Tullio Serafin on the rostrum in both.
I do not know how far Serafin prepared her, but Callas’s portrayal
as Manon certainly comes over as one of the best of her Puccini interpretations.
She varies her vocal tone and nuance as Manon evolves from the flighty fickleness
of act 1, (CD 1 trs.1-12) through being Geronte’s rich self-centred
mistress of act 2, (CDs 1 trs. 13-23) to her desperation and desolation in
the final act (CD 2 trs.8-12). It is particularly in the last act, with her
ability to act with the voice, that Callas is able fully to convey Manon’s
fraught emotional state in Sola, perduta, abbandonata (CD 2 tr.11)
and the drama of her desperate situation as she is alone and dying in the
desert. Giuseppe Di Stefano is in good voice as Des Grieux and particularly
ardent in the act two duet Oh saro la piu bella! (CD 1 tr.20). The
Lescaut and Geronte are adequate.
The Di Stefano appendices on CD 2 are not taken from any of the complete
opera sets the tenor made with Callas. The Recondita armonia (tr.13)
is that which appeared on HMV Red Label 78rpm shellac in 1948 with the tenor
singing with fine taste, elegant phrasing and honeyed tone. The sonic quality
of this earlier performance from London has much to commend it as a recording.
The four items conducted by Antonio Votto, and recorded at La Scala, are
the same as on the recently issued EMI Classics Icon 206 0752 (see review).
Di Stefano’s tone is coarser and those earlier honeyed tones so admired
by many, not least by fellow tenors, have gone albeit his elegance of phrase
has not. The high note in Ch’ella mi creda libero from La
Fanciulla del West is a little squeezed (tr.14), the tenor coming more
into his own in the Gianni Schicchi excerpt that follows. Di Stefano
did not feature in the complete Turandot recording that preceded the Manon
Lescaut recording. The role of des Grieux was sung by Eugenio Fernandi,
a more robust voice. Here, Di Stefano’s Non piangere, Liu (tr.16)
is loaded with pathos whilst his Nessun dorma! concludes with a ringing
high note (Tr.17) as a fitting conclusion to the worthwhile appendix.
This performance was at full price as recently as 2006 and comparing this
recording quality with that on the bargain priced Complete Edition of
Callas’s Studio Recordings (see review)
I can only marvel yet again at the sonic excellence that restoration engineer
Mark Obert-Thorn achieves from LP originals now made available at bargain
price. Let us hope that proposals to extend copyright do not come to fruition,
as this quality allied to price advantage would disappear overnight.
Robert J Farr