RECORDS Complete Operas

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30274, 29 October 1963, Page 8

RECORDS Complete Operas

VERDI: La Traviata. Joan Sutherland (soprano), Carlo Bergonzi (tenor), Robert Merrill (baritone), with John Pritchard conducting the Chorus and Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Florentino. Decca stereo SETM.249/251 (three 12in, 127 s 6d). Mono also available. Only two months after its issue in Britain this “Traviata” comes out in New Zealand, with the records packed in a well-made box instead of the slippery plastic packets used for other recent sets—two very welcome advances by the distributors.

The set too is very welcome, and no-one who has been waiting for a “Traviaita" need wait any longer. Pritchard conducts a fine performance, of what is for once the complete opera. Numerous passages usually cut have been restored, including the cabalettas to the tenor and baritone arias. The former oabaletta is reminiscent of “Di quella pira.” It is a pity this laudable concern for authenticity did not extend to Sutherland's singing of “Ah, tors e lui.” Site does not use Verdi’s far more appropriate endings to either section of it and she introduces some gratuitous embellishments, while omitting the trills Verdi wrote. She shows more involvement with the role than in her recent "Rigoletto,” but she can hardly be counted a complete success as Violetta. Much of her singing is exceedingly fluent, but there is a distressing amount of iaging behind the beat and poor intonation. Her coloratura is always exact, but in many legato passages she seems incapable of hitting a note dead centre without scooping. Nor does she succeed in singing a really straight, firm line in the interview with the elder Genmont, as Melba and GaliiCurci used to do. She really rises to the occasion with a tremendously moving “Arnaimi Alfredo.” but elsewhere she often sounds more preoccupied with voice production than with Violetta’s predicament or Verdi’s music. Bergonzi, whose voice now sounds clearer and less baritonal, is a magnificent Alfredo. His singling is dramatically meaningfully, musically stylish and beautiful to hear. Merrill too is in beautiful voice and sings with fine style, although his manner is sometimes a bit heavy in Giorgio Germont's interviews with Violetta and Alfredo The smaller parts are well done and the chorus is excellent. The stereo recording is not entirely free from distortion in the highs, but is agreeably spacious.

BELLINI: La Sonnambula. Joan Sutherland (soprano), Sylvia Stahlman' (soprano), Margaret Elkins (mezzosoprano), Nicola Monti (tenor), .Fernando Corena (bass), Giovanni Folan) (bass) with Richard Bonynge conducting the Chorus and Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Decca stereo SETM.23O/41 (three 12in, 127 s 6d). Mono also •vailable. Sutherland has been much criticised for her consistent use of covered tone and for her unclear enunciation, but her covered tone is no more tiresome than the unrelieved brightness of many other sopranos, and it is well suited to much of the role of Amina here. Her bad diction seems to be as much a matter of poor Italian and Jack of interest in the words as of vocal placement In the first act her singing does tend to lack brightness and joy, but she is very affecting in the final scene and there is some staggering coloratura singing in “Ah, non giunge.” In some ways Amina is her most impressive recorded role. It is a pity that the leading men are not up to her standard, for they need to be if this delightful opera is to make its full effect Corena was a bed choice for Count Rodolfo. His voice is steadier than in some of his recent appearances, but he simply cannot muster either the smooth legato needed for “Vi ravviso” or the agility needed for its oabaletta, “Tu non sai.” Monti often sings with elegance and style, but his small voice is overtaxed by the role of Elvina. The tenor part is

transposed down, as it was written for the greet Rubini, wtho, like other early nineteenth century tenors using the now lost voce mista technique, used to sing up to high F with ease! But even so the altitude is too great for Monti's comfort, and his wide-open, white sound at the top makes much of his work sound strenuous. In the second soprano role of Lisa, Sylvia Stahlman sometimes provides some fluent coloratura and sometimes sounds curiously tentative. The best of the supporting singers is Elkins, whose fine voice was heard in New Zealand when she came here ’ some years ago with the Australian National Opera Company. Sutherland’s husband. Bonynge, is an impressive conductor, with a fine feeling for the tempi—though he takes "Va rawiso” too fast for its elegaic character. Again the score is given in fuller than usual form. The recording is good and these records also come in a box. LEONCAVALLO: I Pzgliaeci. Victoria de los Angeles (soprano), Jussi Biorling (tenor), Paul Franke (tenor), Leonard Warren (baritone) and Robert Merrill (baritone) with Renato Cellini conducting the Columbus Boy Choir. the Robert Shaw Chorale and the RCA-Victor Orchestra. VERDI: Ernanl—Ernani involami; Otrllo Piangea Cantando . . . Ave Maria. Victoria de los Angeles and Giannelia Bonelli (mezzosoprano) with Giuseppe Morelli conducting the Rome Opera Orchestra. World Record Club mono ZX.5031/2 (two 12in, 575). The sound is lustreless by today’s standards, but this mine-year-old recording has many virtues. First among them is the sheer beauty of Victoria de los Angeles’ singing as Nedda. Jussi Bjorling’s tone was pretty dry by this stage, but he sings musically and ardently without recourse to cheap emotional effects. Franke does a capable job as Beppe and the two baritones are excellent. Warren sings a fine Prologue, with a couple of stunning top notes, and Merrill is a youthfulsounding Silvio. Cellini’s conducting rather lacks tension in the finale. A libretto comes with the records, but the English part is a singing translation which has only marginal relevance to the Italian words. The fourth side is taken up with los Angeles’ superb account of the Willow Song and Ave Maria from “Otello” and a rough version of the “Ernani” aria.