RECORDS Don Pasquale

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30154, 11 June 1963, Page 9

RECORDS Don Pasquale

. DONIZETTI: Don Pasquale. Renato Capecchi (bass), Giuseppe Valdengo (baritone), Petre Munteanu (tenor). Bruna Rizzoli (soprano), with Francesco Molinari-Pradelli conducting the chorus and orchestra of (he Teatro di San Carlo, Naples. Philips mono A.<'0323/41. (two 12in Us).

The elaborate booklet accompanying this set contains a note by Renato Capecchi <n which he declares his intention of purging the role of Don Pasquale of the farcical excesses that so frequently turn the gentleman into a sort of senile Billy Bunter. And he goes a long way to realising his intention, playing the character within the bounds of reason, so that the comedy retains its point, and achieving genuine pathos in Don Pasquale’s moments of discomfiture. A drawback is that the music lies rather low for Capecchi’s fine baritone voice, with the result that his tone tends to sound monotonously plummy and heavy. Rising up the scale we come to Giuseppe Valdengo as Dr . Malatesta. and it is sad to report the fine baritone of Toscanini's lago and Falstaff here is unequal to the technical demands of some of his best music. He is dreadfully inelegant in the romantic aria. “Bella siccome un angelo," and his singing of the colorature in the rehearsal duet is best described as hopeful The Rumanian tenor. Petre Munteanu sings most stylishly as Ernesto He is better in lyrical than dramatic moments and his salty timbre may be thought »mewhat unvaried, but it is hard to think of anyone nowadays who would do better B-una Rizzoli sings with a sense of style and considerable flexibility She has a fine bright voice, but an inclination towards shrillness is apt to make Norina sound like a shrew even before she starts to pretend she is one. Moli-nari-Pradelli’s conducting is somewhat deficient in rhythmic vitality and sparkle, while the recording is clear but lacking in stage atmosphere

The above may seem to make a formidable catalogue of reservations, but neverthe’ess a good deal of the spirit of the opera comes across.

T. S. ELIOT: Murder in ih Cx i h<-dial. Robert Donat (Beckett), John Warner, Luijglas Campoell, Newton Blick, William Squire (Tempters), Paul Rogers. Robin Bailey, Daniel Thorndike, John Philips (Knights) and the Old Vic Company directed by Robert Helpman. Record Society mono RZ.6059-1/2 (two 12in 60s)

“Murder in ’ the Cathedral’ is a play that either appeals or not. and. in spite of its undoubted profundity and sound construction, it does not appeal to this reviewer. It deals with the fundamental problem of avoiding ambition in all its most insidious guises in the most private and dedicated recesses of the soul—with the shedding of even the desire to shed ambition. This Old Vic performance is mixed. As Becket. Robert Donat comes near perfection His diction is very beautiful, and with remarkable clarity he conveys the alliance of physical frailty and inward strength. The Tempters are all excellent—the first seductive. the second academic and scheming, the third solid and bourgeois, and the last horrifying. The Knights resemble the Pirates of Penzance in their first entry, but they later redeem themselves with superbly polished handling of he witty scene in which they give an account of what they view as their reasonable and haroughly English action in murdering the Archbishop All the male actors speak well and for the most part do not overplay. The women, however. vary greatly in standard —from one who speaks beautifully just after Becke’ has been taken to the cathedral to one with a seven lisp. Eliot, with the sort of narcissism common among male writers, relegates the Women of Canterbury to possessors of no more than earthy wisdom, but these female actors do not convey it. The spoken chorus is a theatrical convention that must be brought off flawlessly or it seems ridiculous that this chorus is a rum-ti-tum affair that mostly seems ridiculous The recording is adequate, although pre-echo is too frequent for comfort