RECORDINGS & REVIEWS
17.12.1966 ADRIANA LECOUVREUR
13.01.1962 TURANDOT
Orchestra e Coro del Teatro di San Carlo di Napoli
Oliviero de Fabritiis
This recording is reviewed in the following publications:
Fanfare - Vol.17 No.3 January-February 1994 p.161
Opéra International - No.183 September 1994 p.70
SCHERZO
12.05.1974 AGNESE DI HOHENSTAUFEN
Aida [Live]
04.08.1963 AIDA
Recordings of Aida by Giuseppe Verdi are surveyed in the following
publications:
16.07.1966 AIDA
FANFARE MUSIC MAGAZINE
VERDI Aida. • Leyla Gencer, soprano (Aida); Fiorenza Cossotto, mezzo-soprano (Amneris); Ambra Vespasiani, soprano (Priestess); Carlo Bergonzi, tenor (Radames); Anselmo Colzani, baritone (Amonasro); Bonaldo Giaiotti, bass (Ramfis); Lino Puglise, bass (King); conducted by Zubin Mehta. • HISTORICAL RECORDING ENTERPRISES HRE V824-3 (three discs, mono; recorded live 1966), $24.00 [distributed by Lyric].
With characteristic reticence, HRE neglects to provide the full provenance of this addition (No. 22) to its Complete Verdi Cycle. Perhaps readers better acquainted with such arcane matters can cast more light on the matter than I can. Yet I can and will, in due course, speculate on the matter.
Four of the participants here—Bergonzi, Cossotto, Giaiotti, and Mehta—have confided to tape and disc their contributions to this opera. Gencer and Colzani have not, at least not in commercial studio form. Under these circumstances, this release at best might be valued as a documentation of their performance in Aida.
Leyla Gencer here shows a voice of limited and uneven range. Its top, especially from the top of the stave to C, has considerable brilliance and thrust. Below that it has a darker mezzo quality that fades into an almost parlando at the bottom of the stave. Colzani's voice is, here at least, a light and flexible baritone, somewhat lacking in the paternal authority required of it in the Third Act. Both singers seem well-routined in their roles. I emphasize the “seem” because the sound and overall performance are among the very worst I have ever heard on records.
To begin, the sound can be best described as “sub-acoustic,” with a distinctly pre-electric quality that makes the given date of 1966 rather incredible. The records are labeled “stereo,” but the cramped sound is completely mono. I strongly suspect an inept amateur member of the audience as the source. Much of the time a highly fragmented orchestra covers the singers, who fade in and out as they move, noisily, about the stage. The orchestra produces no coherent sound, but rather a few prominent instruments in random fashion. Ensemble within the orchestra and between pit and stage is coincidental at best. The cramped sound is badly distorted and surrounded by a great deal of noise.
I find the attribution of this performance to Zubin Mehta completely incredible. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut conducting Aida on 29 December 1965, and remained with it there through January and February of 1966. This is not anything like Mehta's conducting at that time at the Met, where I recall an intense, if anything too fast, performance, as opposed to the tentative lethargy on these records.
Whatever the source or circumstances, these records
are a total disgrace and discredit to their perpetrators. I have discussed them
at this length only to warn our readers of the existence of this kind of
flagrant dishonesty.
09.08.1966 AIDA
16.07.1966 AIDA
Leyla Gencer (Aida); Fiorenza Cossotto (Amneris); Carlo Bergonzi (Radames); Anselmo Colzani (Amonasro); Bonaldo Giaiotti (Ramfis); Franco Pugliese (Il Re); Ottorino Bengali (un messaggero); Adalina Grigolato (una sacerdotessa)
VERDI Aida. • Franco Capuana, conductor; Leyla Gencer, soprano (Aida); Carlo Bergonzi, tenor (nacrâmes); Fiorenza Cossotto, mezzo-soprano (Amneris); Anselmo Colzani, baritone (Amonasrd); Bonaldo Giaiotti, bass (Ramfis); Franco Pugliese, bass (The King); Chorus & Orchestra of the Arena, Verona. • GIUSEPPE DI STEFANO RECORDS GDS 21032 [AAD]; two discs: 72:05, 65:25. (Distributed by Qualiton.)
The Prelude sounds clear as well as outdoorsy, but once the “curtain” goes up, one realizes that it must have been spliced in from some other performance. The voices of Bergonzi and Giaiotti sound gargley, as if the performance had been recorded on a warped transcription disc—there's even a brief skip in “Celeste Aida.” Things gradually improve and, before long, the recording is quite passable. By that time, one may be so immersed in the performance that it won't matter. Franco Capuana may have been an ordinary general, but he commands first-class troops who give the performance its considerable distinction. It could hardly fail, given that Cossotto, Bergonzi, and Giaiotti are in their vocal primes and Gencer and Colzani not far past theirs—and, of course, though hardly immune from nitpicking, they were all good singers.
If laurels must be awarded, they go to Cossotto, who drives her voice to its limits to thrilling effect. At this time (1966), incipient vocal problems were a mere cloud off on the horizon. While not shortchanging the more subtle aspects of the role, she fills its athletic ones in a way one always hopes to hear (for example, in the powerful declamation of the Judgment Scene) but seldom does. Anyone who never heard Bergonzi in person might be fooled into thinking him a dramatic tenor. He would often meet heroic roles on his own terms, sparing his voice (he's still hanging in there) but also disappointing you when it was time to just plant his feet and bang out some forte high notes. Perhaps inspired by Cossotto, he holds little back here (or maybe it was the thought of filling the Verona Arena that did it) but never strays outside of himself; if it's possible to belt out a role tastefully, he manages it. He phrases well; he acknowledges the meaning of text; he's in fine voice. At this time, at the Met, he used to take the final note of “Celeste Aida” softly; not here, probably figuring this was no time for subtlety.
I used to wonder why Giaiotti's career never really took off: the voice was beautiful from top to bottom, and he had the requisite dignified appearance for the sort of roles his kind of voice usually sings, but less well-endowed singers seemed to do better. Someone told me he had trouble learning roles and he was a stolid, unimaginative singer, but the voice remains nearly the personification of a basso cantante and in 1966 it was about as good as it would become. Colzani got his break at the Met when Leonard Warren died, rising to the occasion and doing stalwart service for about a decade, especially when Cornell MacNeil, Warren's logical successor, began to have vocal problems. He's not wonderful here, but he's certainly better than almost anyone who might have been the performance's Amonasro (except, probably, MacNeil): when he declaims “Non sei mia figlia! Dei Faraoni tu sei la schiava!” the Arena crowd bursts into applause. Franco Pugliese doesn't stand out in this company, but he does compare with the average bass who sings the King.
I have saved Leyla Gencer until last, but not because she is least. She's not the star of the performance but the efforts of her colleagues wouldn't count for nearly as much without a good Aida. Some of the beauty of her top notes had faded by 1966, but, though they have an edge here, they're never strident and the unfailing flair for Italian opera that made her a cult figure (but, oddly, never a star) doesn't fail her. Anyone who admires her will have no reason to wince. Like Calks, she didn't have super top notes (I think Gencer's were actually better), but like Callas, she didn't make top notes the point of her performances. When some singers blow a top note, it's the ruination of all that has gone before; with Gencer, it's merely an unfortunate flaw.
As I implied earlier, there are sonic problems. In addition to the truly bad first ten minutes or so after the Prelude, there is occasional (very) light crosstalk and sometimes odd squeaks and thumps whose origin mystifies me. There are thirty-one cues distributed through the performance. The sidebreak occurs just before Radames's “O Re, pei sacri Numi” in act II. Sometimes the orchestra is a shade too loud; sometimes the singers seem to fade off mike, though they're usually quite loud. Franco Capuana's conducting is, well, very competent. With major people in all the principal roles, that's good enough to make this one of the better Aidas on records. The libretto is Italian, only.
OPERADIS
Recordings of Aida by Giuseppe Verdi
are surveyed in the following publications:
High
Fidelity January 1960 Vol.10 No.1 p.98, October 1963 Vol.13 No.10 p.146; HARRIS
p.17; Opera on Record p.304; CELLETTI p.815; MARINELLI p.190; Opera on CD(1)
p.57 (2) p.64 (3) p.72; L'Avant Scène Opéra No.4 p.114; MET p.643; MET(VID)
p.400; PENGUIN p.461; Opera Quarterly Vol.2 No.4 p.68; GIUDICI p.1012 (2)
p.1636; Opéra International No.258 juin 2001 p.22
This recording is reviewed in the following publications:
(The) Gramophone - January 2004 p.85, p.87 [AB]
Opera News - June 1996 p.52 (video); November 2003 p.68 (DVD) [IS]
Fanfare - Vol.14 No.5 May/June 1991 pp.306-307 (audio) [JM]
Orpheus - Januar 1997 S.63; März + April 2004 S.78 (DVD) [IW]
Opéra International - novembre 1996 No.207 p.49 (video)
Diapason - No.506 septembre 2003 p.134 [MP]
Classical Express - Issue No.80 November 1996 p.7 (video)
American Record Guide - November/December 2003 Vol.66 No.6 p.271 (DVD) [CHP]
International Record Review - February 2004 p.92 [MVA]
VERDI DAL VIVO - p.25 (audio)
L'opera (Milano) - Anno X - N.101 - ottobre 1996 p.88 (video)
Musica (Milano) - No.101 Anno 21 - dicembre 1996-gennaio 1997 p.147 (video)
Ópera Actual (Barcelona) - No.23 marzo-mayo 1997 p.71 (video)
Musica (Milano) - N.154 marzo 2004 p.102 (DVD) [SH]
VAI FALL CATALOGUE
19.07.1970 AIDA
Comments: Recording of a performance in the Terme di
Caracalla (July 1970). The CDRs issued by Premiere are listed in «Premiere
Opera New CD Releases 2004». The partial cast listed above is that given «Leyla
Gencer - romanzo vero di una primadonna» by Franca Cella p.505 and in the
online chronology of performances by Leyla Gencer. This differs slightly from
the partial cast announced in OPERA August 1970 p.748. Premiere lists
Guelfi and Raimondi as cast members.
07.07.1973 AIDA
Carlo Franci
Leyla Gencer (Aida); Maria-Luisa Nave (Amneris); Giorgio Lamberti (Radames); Giangiacomo Guelfi (Amanasro); Carlo Cava (Ramfis); Antonio Zerbini (Il Re); Gabriella Onesti (una sacerdotessa); Mario Ferrara (un messaggero)
OPERADIS
Recordings of Albert Herring by Benjamin Britten are surveyed in the
following publications: CELLETTI p.130; GIUDICI p.102 (2) p.160; American Record Guide July/August
1998 Vol.61 No.4 p.67
27.05.1966 ALCESTE
Orchestra e Coro del Maggio Musicale di Fiorentino
07.03.1967 ALCESTE
Recordings of Alceste [Vienna] by Christophe Willibald Gluck are surveyed
in the following publications:
OPERA (GUIA UNIVERSAL DE LA OPERA DISCOGRAFIA)
27.04.1972 ALCESTE
Recordings of Alceste [Vienna] by Christophe Willibald Gluck are surveyed
in the following publications:
11.07.1958 ALCESTE
Leyla Gencer, whose career never took off in the way she deserved, sings beautifully in her recording. Hers is a more traditionally bel canto performance, more classically molded. She is certainly responsive to the drama, and sings with insight and élan. Those as fond of this opera as I am are going to want her recording as well as Callas'.
FANFARE MAGAZINE
DONIZETTI Anna Bolena. • Gianandrea Gavazzeni, conductor; Leyla Gencer, soprano (Anna Bolena); Giulietta Simionato, mezzo-soprano (Giovanna Seymour); Plinio Clabassi, bass (Enrico Vili); Aldo Bertocci, tenor (Lord Riccardo Percy); Anna Maria Rota, mezzo-soprano (Smeton); Chorus of Orchestra of RAI, Milan. • NUOVA ERA 6713-DM [ADD]; two discs: 64:48, 67:28. (Distributed by Qualiton.)
FANFARE MAGAZINE
VERDI La forza del destino • Antonino Votto, cond;
Leyla Gencer (Leonora); Aldo Protti (Don Carlo); Giuseppe di Stefano (Don
Alvaro); Cesare Siepi (Padre Guardiano); Enrico Campi (Fra Melitone); Franco
Calabrese (Marchese); Gabriella Carturan (Preziosilla); Teatro alla Scala Ch
& O • MYTO MCD 001 215 (3 CDs: 212:00)
Recordings of Anna Bolena by Gaetano Donizetti are surveyed in the
following publications:
Opera on Record 3 p.52; CELLETTI p.190; MET p.99; PENGUIN p.72; GIUDICI
p.169 (2) p.275; Opéra International mars 1997 No.211 p.14; International Opera
Collector Summer 1998 No.8 p.18
This recording is reviewed in the following publications:
Opera Now - March 1994 p.52
Fanfare - Vol.24 No.1 September/October 2000 p.300 (highlights) [GJ]
Classical Express - September 1995 p.3
CD COMPACT (Barcelona) - No.84 enero 1996 pp.38-39
OPERA (GUIA UNIVERSAL DE LA OPERA DISCOGRAFIA)
During those performances, a very young primadona succeeded in her debut at La Scala and was casted as a second cast of Callas for the role of the queen. Leyla Gencer worked very hard on the role and by using her intelligence and artistic talents, interpreted a very different version than Callas.
First of all, Leyla Gencer eliminated the Bel Canto embellishments. Not because she couldn’t do them technically, but because she believed that all those artificial elbellishments contradicted Donizetti’s dramatic style. (How could the embellishments help a queen who’s about to be hung?) Therefore, we hear the vocality of a real, noble queen which is pure, simple and most importantly: “proud”…
Maestro Gavazzeni was so impressed by her interpretation that he prefered Gencer as the protagonist for the Anna Bolena concert that would be broadcasted on RAI. And that spectacular interpretation was recorded under the Replica label and it became one of the most precious historical recordings.
DICTIONNAIRE DES DISQUES
Gavazzeni continued to champion the piece after this famous production and the present recording was made live the following year using the Milan RAI forces with Giulietta Simionato as Giovanna, as she had been in Barcelona in 1947 and at La Scala in the Visconti production, but with Leyla Gencer in the title role. Gencer is affectionately known as the ‘Queen of the Pirates’ because she made almost no commercial recordings, and yet countless live performances were captured and have been preserved on disc for her vast legion of admirers. It is difficult to say why Gencer was largely ignored by recording companies during her career, although the fact that she was something of an idiosyncratic interpreter, coupled with the fact that her repertoire overlapped with artists who were more of a safe commercial bet, such as Callas and Caballé and, to a lesser extent, Tebaldi and Sutherland, may have something to do with it. At her best, Gencer was incisive and compelling, in an utterly unique way. Her death in May 2008 has renewed interest in her recorded legacy, and may have prompted this release.
Welcome though further Gencer releases always are, this one presents less cause for excitement than is often the case. Given that the performance at La Scala from 14 April 1957 is widely available on EMI, and that it has Gavazzeni and Simionato in common with the RAI performance, as well as the bass Plino Clabassi albeit in a different role, comparisons are inevitable, and one may as well wade right in with the two Annas. Callas had one of the single greatest triumphs of her whole career at the premiere of the Visconti Anna Bolena, and it is this performance which EMI has issued. There is an often-repeated story about Callas using a situation in the opera to win over the famously merciless La Scala loggionisti with great success, and what comes over on the recording is absolutely white heat. It represents Callas at her very finest from all points of view – pure singing, musicianship, interpretation and dramatic engagement.
Gencer has proven herself to be capable of equally gripping operatic art, for instance in her 1965 La Scala Norma which is so arresting that I am never able to listen to just excerpts from it – one’s attention is seized from the outset and retained for the considerable length of the piece. But this Anna was not one of those occasions for her. The fact that she was in a radio studio and may not have had an audience probably partly explains it, stage animal that she was, as may the fact that she was relatively near the beginning of her career and was still some years off her prime. Gencer gives a well sung, idiomatic account of Donizetti’s heroine and proves herself the match for all of its vocal challenges, but it never quite catches fire. The famous Gencer glottal is not in evidence, and although some may consider it an undesirable mannerism, it always seemed to feature in her singing when she was so involved and she had so much to express that she was almost seeking to get beyond the boundaries of her own voice. There is no such feeling here and the whole lacks excitement as a result.
The effect of Callas on both Gavazzeni and Simionato, or perhaps the effect of the general atmosphere on all three of them, is palpable in the La Scala recording. Everybody appears to rise to the occasion and give about as inspired a performance as it was possible to give. So whilst Gavazzeni and Simionato with Gencer are high quality, displaying intimate knowledge of the style and rock solid commitment, with Callas they raise their games and the result is electrifying, with the audience unable to resist breaking out into tumultuous applause before the music has ended in each act.
There is very little to choose between the orchestral playing and chorus when comparing La Scala in 1957 to RAI in 1958. Similarly, given that Gavazzeni is at the helm on both occasions, the cuts are, if not identical, virtually so. The remaining cast is broadly superior at La Scala. Clabassi was entrusted the small role of Lord Rochefort in the opera house, but was promoted to Enrico VIII in the radio studio. He suffers from comparisons with Nicola Rossi Lemeni who sang Enrico opposite Callas.
All of which leaves the question of sound. The radio performance is, unsurprisingly, superior, but not to a degree that should make a significant difference. I would venture that those who think the live EMI set has intolerable sound would not be satisfied with the RAI set either. It surprises me that the radio recording is as boxed in and opaque as it is, but for those of us who got over the typical sound quality on many of these 1950s releases long ago, it isn’t in the least problematic.
Any Gencer aficionado will not want to be without this recording. And of course, there are many opera lovers who cannot get along with Callas, but who may still wish to own an account of the great Simionato in one of her finest roles, for whom this release will be ideal. But this is not representative of Gencer at her most inspired, and those in the market for a live Anna Bolena who are neutral or positive about Callas would do far better to get the 1957 EMI set. http://www.musicalcriticism.com
Anna Bolena [Live]
11.06.1965 ANNA BOLENA
Neither ease nor expediency prompted me to pair these releases in a single review. I did so because they have so much in common. Both are bel canto operas; both fell out of favor for a time; both owe their modern exhumation to the efforts of prominent conductors (the very ones, in fact, leading the performances at hand); both have the same basic plot (a tyrant, intent on dissolving a once advantageous marriage, ruthlessly attempts to rid himself of a virtuous wife on trumped up charges); and finally (and perhaps most important), both title roles were created by Giuditta Pasta, a description of whose talents seems, at this point, appropriate in light of the roles' vocal and dramatic requirements. Grove describes Pasta's voice as “rebellious,” and goes on to note that though it was not “free from imperfection, the individuality of her impersonations and the peculiar and penetrating expression of her singing made the severest critics forget any faults ... in the sympathy and emotion she irresistibly created.” Further, “the dignity of her face, form and natural gestures fitted her eminently for tragedy, for which she (possessed) the necessary fire and energy.” It is worth noting that before she created Beatrice, Pasta had performed like service for Bellini in La Sonnambula and Norma, an informational tidbit I offer not to titillate trivia enthusiasts but to suggest that the composer really intended his latest heroine to combine the appealing sweet vulnerability of an Amina (a mature one, admittedly) with the ferocity and righteous indignation of his Druid priestess. (Cailas' interpretation of Anna Bolena all but proves that much the same can be said to describe that heroine as well, though the opera preceded all three of the others. A pity she never got around to Beatrice!)
All of which is an unduly roundabout way to explain why, after hearing Gencer's Beatrice, I feel I may have been overly harsh in my criticism of the opera the last time I had occasion to review it in these pages (Fanfare VI:6). Had that recording (and, for that matter, any of the other performances of the work to which I'd been exposed, both “live” and recorded) been sung with the dramatic eloquence Gencer brings to it here, I would surely have been more favorably disposed toward it. In my defense, I did imply that the problem with both Beatrices then under discussion was a too placid and passive interpreter (Sutherland), and I expressed interest in the Beatrice the more theatrically compelling Kabaiwanska, who sings Agnese in one of them, would have provided. Bolena, on the other hand, I have always considered Donizetti's finest tragic opera.
The two are #6 and #8 respectively in Melodram's third series of “interpretazioni liriche indimenticabili,” and both are here expertly sung and acted by Gencer, who for too many years was unfairly dismissed as a “Callas manqué,” but who deserves to be recognized in her own right as a singing actress on the grand scale, and whose name, fortunately, recurs with ever-increasing frequency in these pages. Her voice can, at times, be as hard as Callas', but it is more secure in alt, and though her runs and scales are not as impeccable as Sutherland's, she is capable of exquisite high pianissimi and commands sufficient flexibility to encompass most of the roles' more florid passages. Finally (and again, perhaps most important as respects the works under discussion), she is a most involved participant in the drama: one who delivers the texts intelligently and tellingly.
Would she have had better support in these performances! Neither husband possesses the beauty of tone or flexibility his music requires, but Cava's rough-voiced Henry is, at least, more fearsome than the Visconti of Zanasi, whose light-textured baritone projects a less than formidable adversary to a Beatrice of Gencer's mettle. The same tenor, Oncina, is, coincidentally, the “lover” in both, and, though certainly more than adequate, I admired him more in the lighter tenore di grazia parts he had by this time more or less abandoned. Though his prior experience in such roles stands him in good stead in the second-act Beatrice concertato, one can only guess how (or if!) he might have survived “Vivi tu” in Anna Bolena had Gavazzeni chosen not to cut it, for, from all reports, Rubini, who created the role of Percy, pulled out all vocal stops when he sang it. (This is, I suppose, as good a place as any to deplore the numerous, slashing cuts both conductors inflict on these works. As the operas' prime champions, one would think they might have had greater faith in their integrity as musico-dramatic entities.) Both of the “other women” roles are soprano parts, though Seymour is frequently taken by a mezzo. (Agnese, in fact, doubles Beatrice's vocal line up to a B in the second act quintette, “Al tuo fallo.”) As Agnese, Sgourda tends to wobble until she warms up, while Johnson would be more acceptable a Seymour did she not have to vie with memories of Simionato.
As “true believers,” not only in the works they are conducting but in the theatrical viability of the genre to which they belong, both Gavazzeni and Gui are fully aware of the need to balance dramatic intensity with a free-flowing melodic line. I was, however, surprised that the latter seemed to play down the power and vigour of the Beatrice “Quintette” (which Verdi surely had in mind when he composed the Macbeth concertato following Duncan's murder)—the very power and vigor he brings to so many pages of his recording of Norma, Beatrice's immediate predecessor.
Surfaces are so-so; sound decent enough given its age. No notes in either set; Italian text only in both. Both include sections not sung and omit sections that are! Most curious in this regard is the Beatrice libretto, which at one point and in a glaringly different type-face reproduces the text of a duet for Agnese and Beatrice which Bellini had sketched out, which Gui has scored . . . but which is not included in the recording. Nor is, for the record, the cabaletta with which Sutherland concludes that opera in the London “complete.”
The Bolena to get is the live 1957 La Scala performance with Callas, Simionato, and Rossi-Lemeni conducted by Gavazzeni, a performance that literally sparked the current bel canto revival. I reviewed the Foyer recording (FO 1014, three discs, mono) in Fanfare VII:3, but it is to be found in virtually every pirate's catalog. Beware, however; the Foyer set I received for review contained two copies of Sides 5 and 6, though one was labeled 3 and 4! I can't be as definite as respects my Beatrice of choice. Much as I admire “La Stupenda,” her lack of fervor in either of the only other two recordings of this piece I've heard is a real liability, but on London, at least, she enjoys the support of Cornelius Opthof (Visconti) and Luciano Pavarotti (Orombello), and the sound is a lot better than on any competing version.
DONIZETTI Anna Bolena. • Leyla Gencer, soprano
(Anna Bolena); Patricia Johnson, mezzo-soprano (Giovanna Seymour); Carlo Cava,
bass (Enrico Vili); Juan Oncina, tenor (Percy); Anna Maria Rota, mezzo-soprano
(Orsini); Glyndebourne Festival Chorus & Orchestra, conducted by Gianandrea
Gavazzeni. • HUNT PRODUCTIONS CD 554 (two compact discs [AAD]; 67:08, 68:26). LIVE
performance: Glyndeboume, June 11, 1965.
When it comes to the “big soprano stars” of the Italian bel canto revival, Gencer (with all due apologies to those others who might feel unfairly shunted aside) remains the not-so-distant-fourth after (in alphabetical order) Caballé, Callas, and Sutherland. She could not compete in sheer vocal beauty and technique with either the first or third, and was thoroughly overshadowed by the second though she was a steadier and more secure vocalist and a riveting actress in her own right. The record moguls, unfortunately, concentrated on the “big three” (and, from time to time, inexplicably settled for #5, 6, and 7!) for their bel canto projects, but thanks to the efforts of MRF, HRE, BJR, and EJS among others, Gencer came to be fairly well known to aficionados, and Hunt, a label new to me, has taken it upon itself to issue a number of her performances on CD. These are the first of the company's releases to come my way and both are welcome.
Bolena, composed in 1830, is the earlier of the two operas, and was the one which, when performed at La Scala in 1957 by Callas, Simionato, Gianni Raimondi, and Rossi-Lemeni, sparked the Donizetti (some say the entire bel canto) revival. Gavazzeni, who prepared the much-truncated performing edition and thereby established the practice of a mezzo Seymour rather than the soprano Donizetti intended, was the conductor on that occasion as well. Recordings of that performance have proliferated and 1 am surely not alone in considering it the Bolena of choice, notwithstanding a number of commercial studio and/or more complete recordings which followed . . . and despite its deficiencies. These I cited in my review of Melodram's CD edition last year (Fanfare 11:1): mainly an inordinate number of cuts and the difficulties of the two principal male singers in negotiating their vocal lines.
The issue at hand preserves the Glyndeboume Festival production which served as the opera's rentrée to the British stage after an absence of nearly a century. It's decent enough as performances go, but Gencer apart (her musico-dramatic interpretation of the title role is second only to Callas' in my book), a rather tame affair. Neither the Seymour nor (especially) the Henry comes across as the larger-than-life characters projected by Simionato and Rossi-Lemeni on the older set. Johnson is too placid and, though Cava is vocally steadier than Rossi-Lemeni, he does not convey the king's menace as frighteningly as most I've heard, either on disc or on stage. Oncina sounds marginally more comfortable than Raimondi, but he too has his vocal shortcomings, and a tone which tightens and becomes unattractive in alt. Gavazzeni, the knowledgeable conductor, observes the same cuts as heretofore, which total some 45 minutes of missing music.
Gencer is slightly below her best form in the Lucrezia Borgia performance which followed some seven months later and doesn't quite hit her stride until the opera's first act (which is actually the second since the authors decided to call the first a Prolog!), but from the very beginning, she invests the role with her accustomed skill, both vocal and dramatic. The opera, premiered three years after Bolena and not quite its equal in overall quality and theatrical effect, is a potent one nonetheless, and someone (I don't remember who) aptly called it a “halfway house” between the bel canto era and the more vigorous Verdi operas which followed. Its libretto, like Rigoletto''s, is based on a Hugo play and its parallels are obvious. In both, a parent unwittingly brings about the death of her/his child amidst a venue of licentiousness and blood lust. Musically, too, is it a mere coincidence that the brief interchange between Astolfo and Rustighello, two of the opera's less savory characters, presages musically the Sparafucile-Rigoletto duet?
Aragall, as the son ignorant of his true parentage, is excellent. He was later to sing the role on London OSA 13129 as well (actually, not as well, for he is in far better voice on the discs at hand than he was to be a dozen years later opposite Sutherland under Bonynge). Petri, on the other hand is quite poor. I suspect this was more than a mere case of off-night-itis: he sounds unduly out of vocal sorts (dry and hollow-sounding) and at one point during the lengthy duet with Gencer in the first act, all too audibly clears his throat to prepare for his entrance. The Alfonso-Lucrezia confrontation may not be the equal of the one between Anna and Henry in Bolena, but it is highly dramatic and misses the mark on this recording, principally because of Petri's indisposition. Rota is a rather small-scaled Orsini who does well enough by her first act (whoops . . . Prolog!) solo but lacks the panache for the “Brindisi.” The comprimarii (a quartette of likeable womanizing topers and a trio of spies and cutthroats) are excellent.
Apart from a less than precise rapport between stage and pit during the ensemble of merrymakers in the prolog and the chorus of brigands in the second act, and a few horn bobbles in the intro to “M'odi, ah! m'odi,” Lucrezia's final (at least in this performance) aria, the Naples forces acquit themselves quite well and Franci again demonstrates his expertise in this repertoire. The performance ends with the so-called “Finale Nuovo” which Donizetti prepared for the 1840 La Scala production. Thus, it dispenses with the concluding cabaletta which he was forced to write for Méric-Lalande, who created the title role (and who refused to make her first entrance wearing a mask lest her fans not recognize her and withhold their applause!), but adds an extremely grateful solo for the dying Gennaro. While on the subject, the only commercial recording other than the aforementioned London one (RCA LSC 6176, with Caballé and Alfredo Kraus under Jonel Perlea) uses the original ending. London's includes both Lucrezia's concluding cabaletta and Gennaro's dying solo, as well as a second tenor aria which Donizetti composed for Ivanov, which information may well tip the balance in favor of one or another of the various recordings of Borgia technically available. Personally, I prefer Caballé, vintage '66 to Sutherland '79 (and, vocally at least, even to Gencer in the performance at hand), and either Kraus or Aragall on the discs at hand to the latter on London. I also prefer a basso in Alfonso's music, so RCA's Ezio Flagello (as good as Petri is inadequate) gets the palm over baritone Ingvar Wixell on London. London can, however, boast a better conductor (Perlea is much too limp), and a more complete edition, and a bravura Orsini in Marilyn Horne (though RCA's Shirley Verrett is no slouch). This is, in effect, a classic example of “You pays yer money and takes yer choice,” but if you choose CD I'm afraid you'll have to settle for the recording at hand, for neither the RCA nor the London is available in that format, and considering the way most stores are currently stocked, not readily in any!
Good sound. Booklets for both sets contain notes in Italian, translated into stilted English, and a complete libretto in Italian only. The latter obviously come from stock, for they do not coincide with the text as sung. For example, Bolena's includes the words of Smeaton's second solo, though it is a casualty of Gavazzeni's edition and Lucrezia Borgia's ignores the fact that the performance ends with the Finale Nuovo, for it prints the text of the original one. One side per act for Bolena with an adequate number of access points: 22 and 16 respectively. The length and act division of Lucrezia Borgia make a mid-act break a foregone conclusion and the producer opts for one right after the Lucrezia-Alfonso duet. Had he shifted the last 15 minutes of the first disc to the beginning of the second, the side break would coincide with the set change, a preferable alternative. Again, an adequate number of tracks (eight) per act. In both instances, the tracks are numerically keyed to appropriate places in the libretto. One last not-so-minor cavil: why can't producers leave more (some?) breathing space between scene changes and acts?
OPERADIS
Recordings of Anna Bolena by Gaetano
Donizetti are surveyed in the following publications:
Opera on
Record 3 p.52; CELLETTI p.190; MET p.99; PENGUIN p.72; GIUDICI p.169 (2) p.275;
Opéra International mars 1997 No.211 p.14; International Opera Collector Summer
1998 No.8 p.18
This recording is reviewed in the following publications:
Fanfare - March/April 1986 Vol.9 No.4 pp.127-128 [ADC]
Opera Quarterly - Vol.6 No.3 Spring 1989 pp.135-137 [WA]
OPERA MAGAZINE
07.04.1977 ANNA BOLENA
OPERADIS
Recordings of Anna Bolena by Gaetano
Donizetti are surveyed in the following publications:
Opera on
Record 3 p.52; CELLETTI p.190; MET p.99; PENGUIN p.72; GIUDICI p.169 (2) p.275;
Opéra International mars 1997 No.211 p.14; International Opera Collector Summer
1998 No.8 p.18
This recording is reviewed in the following publications:
Orpheus - Februar 2001 S.60 [SL]
Opéra International - No.263 décembre 2001 pp.69-70 [SS]
Links from OPERA NEWS Archives related with Leyla
Gencer's Performances
AIDA
Video > Opera News > The Met Opera Guild
... Leyla Gencer, tottering
atop platform shoes (but a majestic presence nonetheless),
is more lirico than spinto, pushing her glottal, dark, backwardly placed ...
Reunion: Elinor Ross > Opera News > The Met
Opera Guild
... I had a bis [encore] every
time I opened my mouth. But Leyla Gencer's boyfriend
was running the whole operation, and she and I did the same roles.
Aida > Opera News > The Met Opera Guild
... distinction. Cossotto and
Bergonzi also feature in the 1966 black-and-white
Verona performance opposite Leyla Gencer. The Japanese ...
ANNA BOLENA
Opera News - A Tale of Two Queens
... screen. Maria Callas,
Leyla Gencer and Beverly Sills have sung her at La
Scala, Glyndebourne and New York City Opera. David McVicar's ...
Opera News - Metropolitan Opera Live in HD Broadcast:
Anna Bolena
... Anna Bolena has since
proved irresistible to a number of important sopranos, including
Montserrat Caballé, Leyla Gencer, Joan Sutherland and Beverly Sills ...
Opera News -
Metropolitan Opera Broadcast: Anna Bolena
... half of the twentieth century, Anna Bolena proved
irresistible to a number of important
sopranos, including Montserrat Caballé, Leyla Gencer, Joan Sutherland ...
Abbreviations of operadis
(STU),
"STUDIO" Recording
(SE), "STUDIO" Recording of Excerpts
(STC), Composite "STUDIO" Recording made up from more than one source
(SCE), Composite "STUDIO" Recording of Excerpts from more than one
source
(LI), "LIVE" Recording
(LE), "LIVE" Recording of Excerpts
(LC), "LIVE" Composite Recording from more than one performance
(LCE), Excerpts from more than one "LIVE" Performance
(RA), A Radio Performance
(RE), Excerpts from a Radio Performance
(RC), Composite Radio Performance from more than one broadcast
(RCE), Excerpts from more than one broadcast performance
(FI), Film or/and sound track of a film
(FE), Excerpts of an opera from a film or/and the sound track of a film
CELLETTI, Il Teatro d'Opera in Disco by Rodolfo Celletti - Rizzoli - 1988
EJS Discography, EJS: Discography of the Edward J. Smith Recordings - The
Golden Age of Opera, 1956-71 by William Shaman, William J. Collins, and Calvin
M. Goodwin - GreenwoodPress - 1994
GIUDICI, L'Opera in CD e Video by Elvio Giudici - il Saggiatore Milano - 1995.
Second Edition - 1999 - is indicated by (2)
HARRIS, Opera Recordings - A Critical Guide by Kenn Harris - David and Charles
- 1973
MARINELLI, Opere in Disco by Carlo Marinelli - Discanto Edizione - 1982
MET, The Metropolitan Opera Guide to Recorded Opera - edited by Paul Gruber -
Thames and Hudson - 1993
MET(VID), The Metropolitan Guide to Opera on Video - edited by Paul Gruber -
W.W. Norton & Co. Ltd. - 1997
More EJS, More EJS: Discography of the Edward J. Smith Recordings by William
Shaman - William J. Collins - Calvin M. Goodwin - Greenwood Press 1999
NEWTON (Verdi), Verdi - Tutti i libretti d'opera edited by Piero Mioli
PENGUIN, The Penguin Guide to Opera on Compact Discs by Edwin Greenfield -
Robert Layton - Ivan March - Penguin Books 1993
Discos Gramófono (Barcelona), Compañía del Gramófono Sociedad Anónima Española
Gramófono (Barcelona), Compañía del Gramófono Sociedad Anónima Española
