What Opera Are You Listening to Now?

[Tsaraslondon]

Incredibly skimpy documentation for this bargain release, but it's an excellent performance.

Conducted with élan and verve by Michel Plasson, it's strongly cast with Mady Mesplé and Michel Sénéchal superb as Eurydice and Orpheus. Great performances too from Jane Rhodes as Public Opinion, Michel Trempont as Jupiter and Charles Burles as Pluto/Aristaeus, plus some very well filled cameos, though, not for the first time, I found Jane Berbié tends to sing under the note.

My father loved Offenbach operettas and there's no doubt they have a way of lifting the spirits.

[Wendell_E]

I'm halfway through this Ring, which I got just last week. Loving it so far.

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I did take a break for something completely different.

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I wasn't really in the market for a new version of Adriana, but I saw it used in a store in New Orleans for just $4.00. Worth every penny.

[Tsaraslondon]

I wasn't really in the market for a new version of Adriana, but I saw it used in a store in New Orleans for just $4.00. Worth every penny.

I have the Scotto recording, which is very good, but I don't have much patience with the piece itself. It's an opera I rarely listen to. In fact I hardly ever listen to verismo these days, even Puccini.

[André]

Incredibly skimpy documentation for this bargain release, but it's an excellent performance.

Conducted with élan and verve by Michel Plasson, it's strongly cast with Mady Mesplé and Michel Sénéchal superb as Eurydice and Orpheus. Great performances too from Jane Rhodes as Public Opinion, Michel Trempont as Jupiter and Charles Burles as Pluto/Aristaeus, plus some very well filled cameos, though, not for the first time, I found Jane Berbié tends to sing under the note.

My father loved Offenbach operettas and there's no doubt they have a way of lifting the spirits.

Talk about intelligent programming: EMI had in their vaults a recital by Jane Rhodes recorded in Bordeaux with her husband, conductor Roberto Benzi. They also had recordings of the overtures to the same operettas set down in the studio in the seventies by Frémaux and Plasson. This reissue neatly offers the vocal numbers and the overtures from these different sources. 80 minutes of sheer pleasure:




Jane Rhodes has a voluminous voice, absolutely spot-on intonation and perfect diction. Very much like Crespin, but with a more telling lower mid-range. She is billed as a mezzo, but the upper range is absolutely free of any limitation.

[Tsaraslondon]

This was Callas's come back after a hiatus of almost two years. She was in better voice than anyone had dared hope and the Zeffirelli production was a huge success. Indeed the Royal Opera only replaced the production a few years ago, and many famous sopranos and baritones have filled the roles of Tosca and Scarpia since, though none accorded the legendary status these performances achieved.

The sound of these live performances is remarkably good, better than on any of the other live sets in the Callas Live Remastered box set, so few allowances need to be made in that respect and the performance is thrilling. It does not of course replace the irreplaceable De Sabata studio set, but I prefer it to the later studio recording under Prêtre. Caught live and on the wing Callas and Gobbi the connection between the two great singing actors is palpable, so vivid their responses that you feel you can see the performance as well as just hear it.

Fuller review on my blog https://tsaraslondon.wordpress.com/2018/12/13/tosca-royal-opera-house-covent-garden-1964/

[Tsaraslondon]

Talk about intelligent programming: EMI had in their vaults a recital by Jane Rhodes recorded in Bordeaux with her husband, conductor Roberto Benzi. They also had recordings of the overtures to the same operettas set down in the studio in the seventies by Frémaux and Plasson. This reissue neatly offers the vocal numbers and the overtures from these different sources. 80 minutes of sheer pleasure:




Jane Rhodes has a voluminous voice, absolutely spot-on intonation and perfect diction. Very much like Crespin, but with a more telling lower mid-range. She is billed as a mezzo, but the upper range is absolutely free of any limitation.

Looks tempting.

[david johnson]

I just finished La Traviata/RCA/Anna Moffo

[Tsaraslondon]

La Vie Parisienne might just be my favourite of all Offenbach's operettas, a piece I've known since I was a teenager, when my father conducted a production (I was one of the dancers in the show).

Plasson and his superb cast of French singers capture its effervescent high spirits brilliantly. Pure joy from beginning to end.

[Jaakko Keskinen]

This is my first time listening to this magnificent Strauss opera.

[mc ukrneal]

La Vie Parisienne might just be my favourite of all Offenbach's operettas, a piece I've know since I was a teenager, when my father conducted a production (I was one of the dancers in the show).

Plasson and his superb cast of French singers capture its effervescent high spirits brilliantly. Pure joy from beginning to end.

I quite agree!

[Tsaraslondon]

Back in the late 1990s, and then in 2002, Puccini's quasi operetta had a surge in popularity, largely due to this recording and the production at Covent Garden that followed it with then golden couple Alagna and Gheorghiu in the leading roles.

Although there had been two previous recordings, both excellent in their own way, this one swept the board and won the prestigious Gramophone Record of the Year award, along with a plethora of others. What prinicapally sets it apart from the others is the superb conducting of Antonio Pappano and the playing of the London Symphony Orchestra at the tope of their form.

It also has both Gheorghiu and Alagna in ideal roles for them, at the height of their game, much more specific in their responses to the text and drama than the somewhat generalised Domingo and Te Kanawa, more vocally glamorous than Moffo and Baroni. We also have a nicely contrasted secondatu couple in Inva Mula and Wiliam Mateuzzi.

The recording adds a new entrance aria for Ruggero, based on a song by Puccini (Morire?), which is included as an appendix. The opera being rather short, EMI also included excerpts from Puccini's first opera Le Villi.

[Tsaraslondon]

Piazzolla's Tango Operita Maria de Buenos Aires, though seldom performed for many years, has been gaining currency since this Gidon Kremer recording, made in 1998.

It's a somewhat surrealist piece, blending music, song and dance and anyone who likes tango should enjoy it, especially in this fine performance.

[Tsaraslondon]

Manon Lescaut is far from being ny favourite Puccini opera, and I much prefer Massenet's setting of the L'Abbé Prévost novel, but I do dig it out from time to time.

Callas was far from being in her best voice when the opera was recorded, and, to my ears, she sounds far less secure on high than she did in Turandot, which she finished recording only a couple of days before. Callas and Legge must have had their doubts too, because EMI withheld release until 1960, three years after the recording was made.

That said her performance is full of little details glossed over by other more fulgent voices, and the often anticlimactic final act is harrowingly moving. This must be the reason that the set is often cited by commentators as a first choice for the opera, despite the rather flat mono sound. Di Stefano is perfectly cast as Des Grieux, youthfully charming in the first act, driven to destraction with despair in Act III, and the rest of the cast is more than adequate, with the young Cossotto especially lovely as the Madrigal Singer.

[Tsaraslondon]

Really excellent recording of Bizet's once forgotten, but now quite popular opera, which goes as far as possible to recontruct what Bizet actually wrote.

Wonderfully cast as well. Cyrille Dubois has a lovely lyric high-lying tenor, which does full justice to the role of Nadir, if without quite erasing memories of the great Léopold Simoneau. A marvelous Zurga from Florian Sempey, and a rich voiced, but occasionally unsteady, Leïla from Julie Fuchs, and here my preference would be for Cotrubas on the Prêtre recording, which was the first to restore the original version of the famous duet Au fond du temple saint. Superb contributions from the L'Orchestre National de Lisle and Les Cris de Paris put this recording at the very top of the list.

[André]

Here's what I wrote about this set:

Bizet's 'other' opera. He wrote a few more of course, but none has really entered the standard repertoire. Pearlfishers is shorter than Carmen, a mere 105-110 minutes. It is still in the repertoire, esp in smaller houses. Its vocal requirements are not demanding in terms of size and it contains plenty of purple patches for the enjoyment of the « average » listener, as well as  benefiting from an exotic setting. Of late, another factor has contributed to the work's popularity. Bare chested barihunks and tenors are much in demand in the two main male parts, as shown for example in this Chicago Lyric Opera production from last year:


This pic below is from a Seattle production, with the article's title giving away part of the explanation for its enduring appeal: « Going to the Opera with Grandma ». The Chicago Opera aptly describes it as escapist entertainment.


It is a little-known fact that the librettists had originally planned the opera to be set in Mexico. Maybe the french houses didn't have sombreros at hand ? That is only one of the numerous changes that took place, as was common at the time. A few years later the librettists stated that, had they known the music was of such quality, they would have worked a little bit harder. Bizet himself was no stranger to working under pressure (the delay was 4 months only) and facing mishaps and contingencies. Consequently, Pêcheurs de perles is larded with quotes and borrowings from other works of his. That, too, was quite common. Composers were expected to deal with every kind of circumstances.

The end result was not a huge success. Critics panned the new opera. The single laudatory review came from Hector Berlioz (Journal des débats, 1863). French audiences didn't buy this particular LaLaLand fantasy until after the composer's death a dozen years later.

To make the picture even muddier, the original score is « lost » (apparently it is in private hands and its owner will not make it public), so there is no way to know exactly what Bizet wrote in it. What's available is Bizet's piano reduction and a short score for the conductor. Moreover, following Bizet's death his editor Paul Choudens wanted to cash in on the success of Carmen and published a heavily edited version. New productions in Milan and other places fostered a mini industry of changes, alterations, with numbers added or substracted at will. All productions and recordings before 1965 derive from one of the corrupt editions. A new edition was published in 1975 and in 2002 a critical edition of Bizet's score was put together, followed in 2014 by the edition on which this recording is based.

............................

The disc at hand derives from a 2015 french concert, with no attempt at staging - no 6-pack pics here, everybody was fully dressed. Two things that should be taken for granted in this work have been conspicuously missing for decades - over 50 years as a matter of fact: first, it is a delicate bird that is very sensitive to that common virus, the wrong vocal technique and voice projection. And, secondly, unintelligible french pronunciation. Despite its exotic setting, Pêcheurs de perles is as french as baguette and croissants. The dearth of the appropriate type of voice in France since the 1960s has led to the opera being staged mostly on foreign ground, hence the second problem.

So, this all-french production has great assets in the credit column: a more faithful text, exempt from any non-Bizet alterations; young voices trained for the classical and baroque repertoire, where verbal acuity and musical sophistication are the name of the game; a dedicated team of musicians acutely aware of the importance of the enterprise. That being said, there are a couple of checks to be scored on the debit side of the ledger. The initial chorus is taken too fast, and the words become unintelligible. So much for authentic French if the singers can't enunciate properly. That initial misstep apart, things go very well with the orchestral and choral contributions.

The two bass voices are cardboard characters to be sure, but they have nice melodies to sing, and the voices are fine. Soprano Julie Fuchs was predicted to be a great asset in the role of LeÏla. She does have some delightful moments, but this is a live production, and there is a smidgen of insecurity and/or flutter to her voice in the first act. Later on in the opera the voice is perilously close to developing a wobble on the high notes. Even so, I count hers as a successful portrayal. I found her wanting only in comparison with Pierrette Alarie (Fournet, 1953), who endows her priestess with crystal clear diction and pure voice even in the highest reaches.

The revelation and real star of the recording is tenor Cyrille Dubois as Nadir. 30 years old at the time of the recording, he has been singing since the age of 7, as a boy soprano in the Maîtrise de Caen. He entered the Paris Opera Atelier lyrique at 20. His is a fully developed voice, free ranging up to the topmost notes. Despite a hint of a tight vibrato in the middle register, his high notes display a mesmerizing plangent quality that left me speechless. His vocal emission is very peculiar, reminding me of the squeezed toothpaste technique of czech sopranos, but without any edginess. He is also a poet with the words. In that respect another singer comes to mind: Ian Bostridge. To sum up, Dubois' vocal style has a slightly androgynous quality, and he displays all the qualities a true ténor lyrique.

Executive Summary:

- The version of choice remains the first one, with Simoneau and Alarie giving affecting portrayals as well as object lessons in great vocalism allied to perfect french diction - straight, clear, unaffected. It has been said that this recording is like a Vogue catalogue on glazed paper, with the implied criticism of over refinement. Despite its age the sound is clear as a bell - no fuzziness, no peaking, with a good sense of space.

- The 1959 Rosenthal, in very good but a bit crude sound, has the benefit of Alain Vanzo's amazing portrayal of Nadir. Manly yet delicately shaded singing, alternately cooing and stentorian - a curious combination, but it works superbly. The two low voices are excellent. Janine Michaud though is not entirely up to snuff as Leïla, lacking purity and innocence.

- In 1977 EMI issued the first recording based on the new edition. It is very good, but alas not perfect. Cotrubas is lovely as the love object of the pearl fishers. The two bass voices are adequate, but no more - and Mexican baritone Guillermo Sarabia's imperfect French is no match for that of his colleagues. Vanzo sings beautifully, but there is a slight feeling that this was another day at the office for him.

- The 2015 version benefits from great sound, a splendid orchestra and lively conducting - plus the nicety of a better text. Dubois is outstanding, not as perfect vocally as Simoneau or commanding as Vanzo, but I have a feeling that his portrayal will become some sort of landmark in the role. Zurga and Nourabad are very well sung and portrayed, among the best from the lot. Fuchs is uneven. The flutter on the high notes is irritating, but her tones are often beautiful. This is something that would have been put right in the recording studio.

[André]

A very good version of this magnificent score. Björling may lack stentorian power as Calaf, but to his credit he never cheapens the basic fabric of his vocal armoury. Nilsson is better here than under Stokowski, Gavazzeni or Molinari-Pradelli (if memory serves - have to relisten to that one), the voice not just gleaming, but secure in pitch. The glory of this cast is Tebaldi's Liù, perfect in characterization as well as vocalism. Listen to the utterly secure way she intones « pietà »  at the end of Signore ascolta. Most sopranos insert an extra e (« pie-e-ta ») to facilitate the ascent to the high B flat. Tebaldi's previous take as the slave girl, under Erede (1955), was less successful, the singing harder and unimaginative. Timur is sung by Mario Sereni. Dependable but unmemorable. The rest of the cast is fine, the important choir parts very well characterized.

I liked Leisdorf's conducting. He makes sure the important wind lines are clearly audible, from soft bassoon/contrabassoon notes to oboe or clarinet gurglings. Mind you, the orchestra is not of the top flight and lacks the power and beauty of the WP or LPO under Karajan and Mehta. I did not detect the presence of an organ. Curiously, Leinsdorf (or the producer?) adds an extra « il nome » in the torture acene, but skip the final « gloria » from the chorus.

The recording itself, from 1959 is not bad at all. It was produced and engineered by the experienced team of Richard Mohr and Lewis Layton. For the two ladies then, and for the assertive, attentive conducting of Leinsdorf this is an excellent version.

[Tsaraslondon]

I agree with most of what you say regarding the Bloch Pecheurs de Perles. Many of the crits have raved about Julie Fuchs, but I find the vibrato and the unsteadiness gets in the way (not so long ago people were admonishing Callas for much less). Is that an indication that standards have fallen?

One only has to listen to the Turandot  that you were listening to to hear full, firm voices in the shape of Nilsson, Tebaldi and Bjørling.

[Ciaccona]

Recent Listening:

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It will take me a long time to get the most out of this work but I am really enjoying it so far.

[Tsaraslondon]

Recent Listening:

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It will take me a long time to get the most out of this work but I am really enjoying it so far.

One of my favourite operas, though I still tend to prefer Davis's earlier recording, mostly for the cast. Only Petra Lang, on the second recording, is an improvement on Lindholm in the first. For the rest, I prefer the earlier cast.

[Tsaraslondon]

You might read somewhere that Callas was in poor voice when she recorded this set in 1959, and that it is therefore not a patch on her Cetra recording of 1952.

Not true. She is actually in pretty secure voice, even managing a secure top C in the final act. True, the singing doesn't quite have the sheer force and abandon of the earlier one, but her portrayal here is more subtle and I find it hard to choose between the two of them.

Orchestral playing and sound is much better on this second recording, though the rest of the cast is marginally better on the earlier one. Cappuccilli and Cossotto, both near the beginning of their careers, are a little dull, set next to Silveri and Barbieri on the earlier set. On the other hand, Ferraro, though he hardly has the personality of a Di Stefano or Corelli, is an improvement on the ghastly Poggi on the earlier set.

But Callas is thrilling, and it is for that reason the set remains a top recommendation for this opera.

Interesting footnote. When Tebaldi was studying the role for her recording, her record producer advised her to listen to the Milanov recording, but, when he visited her, he found her listening to Callas. "But why didn't you tell me Maria's was best?" she asked him.