RECORDING OF THE MONTH
Gioachino ROSSINI (1792-1868)
Il Barbiere di Sivilglia - Commedia in two Acts (1816)
[129:06]
Figaro – Rolando Panerai (baritone); Rosina – Teresa Berganza (mezzo); Il
Conte d’Almaviva – Luigi Alva (tenor); Bartolo – Fernando Corena (bass); Don
Basilio – Ivo Vinco (bass); Fiorello – Ronald Lewis (baritone); Berta – Josephine
Veasey (mezzo); Un ufficiale – Robert Bowman (baritone)
The Covent Garden Chorus and Orchestra/Carlo Maria Giulini
rec. live, 21 May 1960, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
no libretto included
ICA ICAC 5046 [66:42 + 62:24] 
The collector of “historic” live opera recordings needs to be equipped with
almost inexhaustible optimism. The chances are that to poor recording quality,
noises from on-and off-stage, and variable casts must be added the inevitable
slips and inaccuracies that even the best artists are prone to in live performance,
as well as the inevitable “off” nights. When you are listening live these
may be of little importance, but they can add up to a major irritant on repetition.
All too often the result is at best routine and at worst a deeply disappointing
experience.
For the keen collector however there is always the chance that even the most
unpromising recording will turn out to be pure gold; a performance that takes
wing and which captures the listener in its spell whatever its sonic or other
limitations. The present discs offer just such a recording. Over fifty years
old but with sound that, as restored by Paul Baily, is certainly tolerable
if little more, it recalls what was obviously an immensely enjoyable evening.
The audience at the time certainly enjoyed it – their applause and laughter
is very obvious – and the performers clearly had them in the palm of their
hands. Teresa Berganza and Luigi Alva made studio recordings of the work but
here sound much freer and more communicative. The two basses were both experienced
and justly praised performers in their roles and the young Josephine Veasey
makes the most of Berta’s little aria. The only disappointing soloist is Rolando
Panerai whose exaggerated and excessively free performance seems somewhat
coarse in this company, but I have heard many worse and he is never less than
lively and involved. What matters above all is the way in which the singers
interact together and with the orchestra, and I suspect that this is largely
due to the eloquent and sparkling conducting of Giulini. The deliciously pointed
phrasing of the opening of the Overture alerts us to this and thereafter we
are never disappointed.
There must be serious regret at the edition used, or rather, at the amount
of the opera that is simply missing from the performance. The usual extensive
theatre cuts made at that time are observed but they are added to. This would
be disappointing at any time but even more so when the performance is so good.
This is unlikely to be anyone’s first choice for a recording of the opera,
so that the lack of a libretto or even a synopsis is not as serious as it
would be otherwise. My personal favourites remain the versions conducted by
Galliera with Callas and Gobbi and that conducted by Gui with de los Angeles
and Bruscantini. They share the use of Luigi Alva, as does the present version,
but above all each of them manages to bring out the very special character
of the opera. I would not be without any of them, but I suspect that from
now on it will be the present recording that I will play when I want to experience
that thrill that comes from being present at an evening at this most delightful
opera when almost everything goes right.
John Sheppard
Pure gold; a performance that takes wing and which captures the listener in
its spell whatever its sonic or other limitations.