[Itullian]

Finishing my Wagner day with this wonderful live
Meister by Haitink and the Royal Opera.

 

[SixFootScowl]

 

[Itullian]

 

[Montarsolo]

I Masnadieri might seem a step bakwards after Macbeth, which preceded it, but one should remember that it was planned and prepared earlier. It has a somewhat intransigent libretto and none of the characters really come to life.

That said, there is some glorious music in it and there is much to enjoy, particularly whenit is sung and played as well as it is here. Caballé, in particular, is really exquisite in a role written for the Swedish nightingale, Jenny Lind.

Fantastic music (and recording). The oeverture could have been part of a cello concert. From my memory: the opera was written for London and in the orchestra was a fantastic principal cellist.


I'm still listening to Die Walkure. Way too long opera but what a fantastic (orchestral)music. And I see why Solti's Ring is legendary.

 

[Tsaraslondon]

Oh, if only, if only..... If only Tebaldi had been the Desdemona on this recording, what a performance it would have been. As it is, Vickers, though recording the role before he had stage experience in it, is absolutely superb, and a lot more musically scrupulous than Del Monaco, who sings it on the roughly contemporaeous Karajan recording (with the wonderful Tebaldi). Gobbi, it goes without saying, is just fantastic as Iago, the personifciation of manipuative evil and Serafin, as so often, just gets so much so unobtrusively, but so brilliantly right.

The fly in the ointment, for me at any rate, is Rysanek. This is just the wrong voice for the role. At times she just sounds hoarse and her intonation is occasionally suspect. Nor does she really suggest Desdemona's innocence and purity. Tebaldi is in a different world, but I can think of any amount of recorded Desdemonas I prefer; Rethberg (of course), Freni, Ricciarelli, Scotto, Te Kanawa, Margaret Price and Studer, to mention a few who are on complete audio performances. Fleming is also much to be preferred on video.

Nonetheless this is a great performance. Vickers may have been more inside the role by the time of Karajan's second recording, but there are some weird recording balances on that one and Karajan makes a swingeing and totally unnecessary cut in the big Act III ensemble. By and large, the Serafin has remained my favourite, though I intend to listen to the three Domingo recordings next, and it will be interesting to record my impressions.

 

[Op.123]

If only this absolutely superb performance were in better sound! As it is, this Warner transfer (and the one on Myto, who probably used the same source) is a massive improvement on the old EMI Callas Edition set, which was almost unlistenable in places.

And this is a performance that simply demands to be heard. What a superb conductor De Sabata was and what a shame that he was lured into the recording studio so rarely. His symphonic conception of the score has tremendous power and excitement. Then of course there is Callas and I doubt the role of Lady Macbeth has ever been so brilliantly sung. Not only is she equal to all the considerable demands of the score, but she creates a totally believable character study of vaulting ambition eventually undone by crippling guilt. It always surprises me that this series of performanes at La Scala was the only time she ever sang the role. You certainly would never suspect that this was the first time she was singing it in public, so all encompassing is her performance.

None of the other singers is quite in Callas's league, but Tajo and Penno are both fine as Banquo and Macduff. Unfortunately Mascherini is variable as Macbeth, his performance never quite catching fire. He's not bad, just not particularly interesting. Lady Macbeth emerges as the stronger character, but maybe that's as it should be.

For anyone who loves Verdi, this performance is essential, for the contributions of De Sabata and Callas at least. De Sabata said to Callas at the time, "Maria, you are a monster; you are not an artist nor a woman nor a human being, but a monster." Certainly there are times when she seemed almost superhuman, and she does so here.

I actually find this very listenable. Not studio-quality but pretty good for broadcasts of the time and certainly good enough to be able to lose yourself in the performance fairly quickly. The cast and conducting is great with Callas being the standout performance.

 

[MAS]

Fantastic music (and recording). The oeverture could have been part of a cello concert. From my memory: the opera was written for London and in the orchestra was a fantastic principal cellist.


I'm still listening to Die Walkure. Way too long opera but what a fantastic (orchestral)music. And I see why Solti's Ring is legendary.

Love the minimalist record cover, very animal centric.

 

[SixFootScowl]

This one has been a disappointment from the get go because some presumably overzealous recording engineer put a ton of reverb in it. It irritates fingernails on a chalkboard. I just played it with the equalizer on VLC Media Player set to full bass and it is bearable.

 

[Montarsolo]

Oh, if only, if only..... If only Tebaldi had been the Desdemona on this recording, what a performance it would have been. As it is, Vickers, though recording the role before he had stage experience in it, is absolutely superb, and a lot more musically scrupulous than Del Monaco, who sings it on the roughly contemporaeous Karajan recording (with the wonderful Tebaldi). Gobbi, it goes without saying, is just fantastic as Iago, the personifciation of manipuative evil and Serafin, as so often, just gets so much so unobtrusively, but so brilliantly right.

The fly in the ointment, for me at any rate, is Rysanek. This is just the wrong voice for the role. At times she just sounds hoarse and her intonation is occasionally suspect. Nor does she really suggest Desdemona's innocence and purity. Tebaldi is in a different world, but I can think of any amount of recorded Desdemonas I prefer; Rethberg (of course), Freni, Ricciarelli, Scotto, Te Kanawa, Margaret Price and Studer, to mention a few who are on complete audio performances. Fleming is also much to be preferred on video.

Nonetheless this is a great performance. Vickers may have been more inside the role by the time of Karajan's second recording, but there are some weird recording balances on that one and Karajan makes a swingeing and totally unnecessary cut in the big Act III ensemble. By and large, the Serafin has remained my favourite, though I intend to listen to the three Domingo recordings next, and it will be interesting to record my impressions.

My favorite Otello. What a sound. Vickers and Gobbi are epic. I must say I like Rysanek here. She sounds dignified and charismatic.

 

[Tsaraslondon]

My favorite Otello. What a sound. Vickers and Gobbi are epic. I must say I like Rysanek here. She sounds dignified and charismatic.

She amost ruins it for me, but not quite. Everything else about the recording is so good.

 

[Itullian]

 

[The Conte]

Oh, if only, if only..... If only Tebaldi had been the Desdemona on this recording, what a performance it would have been. As it is, Vickers, though recording the role before he had stage experience in it, is absolutely superb, and a lot more musically scrupulous than Del Monaco, who sings it on the roughly contemporaeous Karajan recording (with the wonderful Tebaldi). Gobbi, it goes without saying, is just fantastic as Iago, the personifciation of manipuative evil and Serafin, as so often, just gets so much so unobtrusively, but so brilliantly right.

The fly in the ointment, for me at any rate, is Rysanek. This is just the wrong voice for the role. At times she just sounds hoarse and her intonation is occasionally suspect. Nor does she really suggest Desdemona's innocence and purity. Tebaldi is in a different world, but I can think of any amount of recorded Desdemonas I prefer; Rethberg (of course), Freni, Ricciarelli, Scotto, Te Kanawa, Margaret Price and Studer, to mention a few who are on complete audio performances. Fleming is also much to be preferred on video.

Nonetheless this is a great performance. Vickers may have been more inside the role by the time of Karajan's second recording, but there are some weird recording balances on that one and Karajan makes a swingeing and totally unnecessary cut in the big Act III ensemble. By and large, the Serafin has remained my favourite, though I intend to listen to the three Domingo recordings next, and it will be interesting to record my impressions.

Much here that I agree with, although I would have wanted De los Angeles instead of Tebaldi as Desdemona had we the choice. Rysanek doesn't annoy me as much as she does you, but I agree she wasn't really suited to the role.

Interestingly my favourite Desdemonas are in live recordings. De los Angeles with Del Monaco (he's surprisingly better than on his studio recording) and Warren from the Met, Freni from La Scala with Domingo (and an uncharacteristically dramatic Cappuccilli) and Scotto on DVD with Vickers.

N.

 

[Tsaraslondon]

Much here that I agree with, although I would have wanted De los Angeles instead of Tebaldi as Desdemona had we the choice. Rysanek doesn't annoy me as much as she does you, but I agree she wasn't really suited to the role.

Interestingly my favourite Desdemonas are in live recordings. De los Angeles with Del Monaco (he's surprisingly better than on his studio recording) and Warren from the Met, Freni from La Scala with Domingo (and an uncharacteristically dramatic Cappuccilli) and Scotto on DVD with Vickers.

N.

I also like De Los Angeles on that live Met recording, She is certainly a tempting prospect.

 

[Itullian]

 

[SanAntone]

One Hundred Years of Great Artists At the Met - The Gatti-Casazza years: 1921-1935

Possibly my first opera recording, and it is a keeper (which I have). And I am in the process of finding the other installments that I don't have. It is amazing how wonderful the singing is. Although I am no expert, these voices sound much better than today's singers.

 

[Tsaraslondon]

I think uniquely among tenors, Domingo has made three studio recordings of Otello, one for each decade from the 70s through to the 90s, which is certainly some achievement in itself.

The generally accepted opinion is that the last one with Chung is the best, but I'm not sure I'd agree, though all three performances have something to commend them, and all are worth hearing.

It might be useful to set Domingo's Otello aside for the moment, and look at the other elements of the recordings. When it comes to the conducting, I like Maazel's the least. As usual he pulls around rhythms too much and draws attention to himself in the wrong way. Chung and Levine are both much to be preferred , though I don't always feel Chung really gets under the skin of the score. Levine, whom I don't always like in Verdi, is both more dramatic and more lyrical, but I still prefer Serafin to both. Incidentally I should mention that the Maazel isn't actually the soundtrack to the Zeffirelli film, which was mercilessly cut, and the recording is note complete.

When it comes to Iago, Diaz isn't as bad as he's sometimes made out to be, but he's a bit anonymous. He doesn't really make much impression. Milnes and Leiferkus are more interesting, but Leiferkus's very un-italianate voice takes some getting used to and Milnes' tone is intrinsically too noble. He still sounds more like a Posa. Both are intelligent singers and both are credible villains, but neither eclipses memories of Gobbi, who just has the sound of evil in his voice.

All three Desdemonas are excellent. If my preference is for Scotto, it is because she makes a little more of the character dramatically. Admittedly the voice can turn a little squally when under pressure at the top, but her soft singing is exquisite and she is the only one of the three sopranos to really use her chest voice. Ricciarelli's voice tends to disappear in the lower register, but elsewhere her singing is very beautiful and she too is a very affecting Desdemona. Studer isn't always a singer I enjoy, but I do like her singing in the Chung, even if ultimately I prefer both Scotto and Ricciarelli. All three are far preferable to Rysanek on the Serafin recording. The supporting roles are best served by Chung, who has Ramon Vargas as Cassio and Denyce Graves as Emilia.

Which leaves us with the small matter of Domingo. I know some question the suitabilty of his voice for the role, but he was the foremost Otello in the world for almost three decades and aside from the three studio recordings, there are numerous live accounts around, both on disc and on video and it is certainly worth seeking out at least one of his video performances, as he was a superb actor. He doesn't have the sheer animal power of Vickers, but his singing throughout these three sets is remarkably consistent. There is some deepening of the interpretation from Levine through to Chung, but there is a bit more ring to the voice in the earlier recording. In all three recordings he shows what an intelligent singer can do with a role for which he is not entirely suited and his is an entirely believable portrayal, but by and large I prefer him in the Levine, which, all round, I find the finest of all these three recordings.

However, if forced to choose but one, I would still go for Serafin, despite the weakest Desdemona, as the two male leads are more important in this opera, and team Vickers/Gobbi take a lot of beating. I also give the conducting palm to Serafin, who, as usual, just gets everything unobtrusively right.

 

[Montarsolo]

Great post! Read with great interest.

I am now listening to the famous Walk-Out Norma for the first time in my life.

 

[SanAntone]

Brazilian composer Antônio Carlos Gomes (1836-1896) filled the gap between Verdi and Puccini and for a time was considered a major operatic voice. Born in Brazil and one of a few "New World" composers to find success in Italy, or Europe in general.

The world premiere of Il Guarany took place at La Scala, Milan, on 19 March 1870 and was a tremendous success, which resulted in immediate international fame for Gomes and numerous performances of the work in opera theaters throughout Europe.

 

[Montarsolo]

A good tip, I did not know this composer/opera.

And on. I have to say it's not easy. The first act is endless, and I don't see the point. Its anti-opera.

 

[Tsaraslondon]

A good tip, I did not know this composer/opera.

And on. I have to say it's not easy. The first act is endless, and I don't see the point. Its anti-opera.

I think Siegfried is only loved by true Wagnerites. I have to confess I find it a tough nut to crack. I only really like the final duet.