For all its popularity,
"Madama Butterfly" is not
an easy opera to get right. Cio-Cio-San,
to give Madama Butterfly her real name,
is a fragile creature, only sixteen
when the opera starts, and though she
does show a somewhat misguided tenacity
in her insistence that her husband will
come back one day, and fearsome resolution
when the awful truth at last dawns on
her, your average grand opera soprano
is going to swamp the poor girl’s personality.
Yet the nature of the vocal writing
means that attempts to resolve the part
with a much gentler voice are doomed
to be embarrassing failures; Puccini
expects a voice with the heft to soar
over his orchestra, no less here than
in Tosca or Turandot. All the same,
this is not an opera for Callas-treatment;
her supreme Puccini role was Tosca.
Renata Tebaldi had all the heft required,
yet could also scale her voice down
to the most angelic pianissimos. There
is a lot to be said for her first set,
conducted by Erede and available on
Naxos. All the same, she risks sounding
a little bit too regal.
Victoria de los Angeles
had a basically smallish voice – she
was great in lieder – and her best operatic
roles were either ones where a large
voice was not required (Rosina in "Il
barbiere di Siviglia") or ones
where she could make creative use of
her smaller voice to suggest fragility.
In many ways she may be the ideal compromise
in the role of Butterfly between too
much and too little. If you listen to
her principal arias on their own – as
you will do if, instead of the present
set, you buy the Regis compilation entitled
"The Modest Prima Donna",
which I am contemporaneously reviewing
– you may end up dissatisfied. So much
beauty and feeling at the beginning,
not quite the heft to carry it home
at the end. The two fillers from "La
Bohème" tell a similar tale.
But when you hear the entire opera,
it feels different. It is a very detailed
characterization, as you might expect
from a singer who also excelled in lieder,
and somehow you are so convinced that
you are really listening to Cio-Cio-San
herself that the less than ideally full
tone in the big climaxes is all part
if the magic. A moving assumption, then.
The role of Pinkerton
can also be a problem, since a rather
caddish fellow has to sing some very
lovely music. The first Tebaldi recording
ducked the problem by having Giuseppe
Campora who sung well enough without
really trying to create a character
at all (for her stereo remake she was
joined by Bergonzi). Giuseppe Di Stefano
(remember that capital "D"
another time, Regis!) sings with all
the generosity of tone, as Italianate
as the best Chianti, for which the public
loved him. A reliable eye-witness once
related to me how Gianandrea Gavazzeni
was so enraged at a first violinist
who entered far too loud that he seized
the hapless fellow’s instrument and
flung it to the back of the auditorium.
I did occasionally wish he would do
something similar with Di Stefano, but
perhaps this is a deliberate attempt
to characterize Pinkerton as an impulsive,
superficial but not actually unpleasant
person. Certainly, he seems genuinely
sorry when he realizes what he has done
at the end.
It would be worth learning
Italian just to hear how subtly Tito
Gobbi sings it, every word given its
weight both in the musical line and
for its character. This is another role
which can easily pass for nothing; not
here. I have no information about Anna
Maria Canali (and none is offered) but
she makes as much of a mark as a Suzuki
can, as does Maria Huder – a long-term
stalwart in cameo roles – in the even
smaller part of Kate Pinkerton.
Not the least of the
recording’s success lies in the conducting.
In his later years Gavazzeni took a
leisurely, loving view, as did Tullio
Serafin in the second Tebaldi recording.
Here, in his mid-forties, he is urgent,
though without ever driving too hard.
It is an immensely subtle performance
in its pacing. Puccini has fairly plastered
the score with tempo directions, almost
every other bar containing a call for
a "ritenuto" or an "accelerando".
Conductors tend to either ignore them
or get bogged down with them. I can
honestly say that not a single direction
goes ignored and Gavazzeni shows that
by this means the music frees itself
of the tyranny of bar-lines and becomes
fluid, free-spirited. The orchestra
is not always precise but it makes all
the right sounds. This is classic Puccini
from a conductor who learnt his trade
in an Italy still recognizably that
of Puccini.
Victoria de los Angeles
recorded Butterfly again in stereo with
Björling and Sereni, conducted
by Santini. Rather strangely, this seems
to be the only studio recording by Di
Stefano and Gobbi of their respective
roles, and the only one under Gavazzeni
too, for that matter. This in itself
would make it a recording of some importance;
since these four artists combine to
make a thrilling and moving experience
with no weak link, it looks like being
a classic set. When I reviewed the first
Tebaldi version on Naxos I felt it had
much to offer as a cheap way of getting
to know the opera; I would say the present
one is stronger still and the recording
comes up well, with only a slight trace
of distortion at climaxes.
No libretto but good
notes and a synopsis.
Christopher Howell
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