Favorite vocal recitals on CD or DVD

Started by bhodges, April 24, 2007, 11:04:11 AM

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Tsaraslondon

#680


Recorded in 1967 and 1969, these two discs are a conflation of three superb LPs of Rarities made by Montserrat Caballé, when her voice was at its absolute peak. When she was singing like this, she was unbeatable in this repertoire and, though she may not illuminate a phrase the way Callas was apt to do, she is nonetheless a dramatically involved singer, or at least she was at this stage of her career. If anyone ever doubts what all the fuss was about when Caballé first burst onto the scene, they should listen to this. There is nobody singing this repertoire today with such beauty and technical proficiency. I have a feeling these three LPs might just be the best thing Caballé ever did.

Original covers below.

\"A beautiful voice is not enough.\" Maria Callas

Tsaraslondon

#681


The last of my Caballé recitals is a two disc complilation, taken from EMI's catalogue, all recorded in the 1970s. Thus we have excerpts from her complete recordings of Il Pirata, Mefistofele (Margherita this time), Turandot (the title role), Guillaume Tell, Giovanna d'Arco and I Puritani, plus a few arias from her Puccini Arias disc with Mackeras, Verdi arias with Guadagno, the Meyerbeer from a disc of duets she made with her husband, Bernabé Martí and a couple of songs from a recital with Alexis Weissenberg.

I'm beginning to think that some of these compilation discs work better thanthe usual operatic recital discs. The Puccini items certainly benefit from being peppered throughout the disc, as a string of Puccini soprano arias, one after another, can start to sound a bit samey and I really enjoyed listening to these two discs at a single sitting. It is good to be reminded how good a singer Caballé was throughout the 1970s. Very occasionally, she can sound a little affected, a little too self conscious, but at her best, she can compare with the greats of the pre-LP era.

Though this recital listening project is an exercise in whittling down my recital section, much of which I rarely listen to, it is interesting that I ended up deciding to keep all my Caballé discs.
\"A beautiful voice is not enough.\" Maria Callas

Pohjolas Daughter

Quote from: Tsaraslondon on March 24, 2023, 12:58:33 AM

The last of my Caballé recitals is a two disc complilation, taken from EMI's catalogue, all recorded in the 1970s. Thus we have excerpts from her complete recordings of Il Pirata, Mefistofele (Margherita this time), Turandot (the title role), Guillaume Tell, Giovanna d'Arco and I Puritani, plus a few arias from her Puccini Arias disc with Mackeras, Verdi arias with Guadagno, the Meyerbeer from a disc of duets she made with her husband, Bernabé Martí and a couple of songs from a recital with Alexis Weissenberg.

I'm beginning to think that some of these compilation discs work better thanthe usual operatic recital discs. The Puccini items certainly benefit from being peppered throughout the disc, as a string of Puccini soprano arias, one after another, can start to sound a bit samey and I really enjoyed listening to these two discs at a single sitting. It is good to be reminded how good a singer Caballé was throughout the 1970s. Very occasionally, she can sound a little affected, a little too self conscious, but at her best, she can compare with the greats of the pre-LP era.

Though this recital listening project is an exerices in whittling down my recital section, much of which I rarely listen to, it is interesting that I ended up deciding to keep all my Caballé discs.
I have many of those Great Opera discs (I think possibly all of them?) and have greatly enjoyed them.  A great way to explore various opera singers' recordings.  :)

PD
Pohjolas Daughter

Tsaraslondon



No complaints about the voices or the singing itself, but this recital has a peculiarly lifleless and somewhat studio-bound feel about it. We are given duets from Semiramide, Anna Bolena, Norma, Les contes d'Hoffmann, Aida, Madama Butterfly and La Gioconda, which should give us a fairly vaired programme, but, whether it's the fault of the rather soggy conducting of Anton Guadagano, nothing really catches fire and the temperature is tepid throughout. Consequently the best items that are the least dramatic, like the Barcarolle from Les contes d'Hoffman and the Flower Duet from Madama Butterfly.

Verrett is one of my favourite singers and she is not that well represented on disc, but I have a feeling this is making for the jettsion pile.

This was the original cover.


\"A beautiful voice is not enough.\" Maria Callas

Tsaraslondon



The EMI discs reproduce most of the items that appear on the Gala CDs I was listening to a couple of days ago, but, contrary to some, I found the sound on the EMI better and not so harsh. Some of the RAI stuff is missing, but we get here the whole of an Amsterdam concert from 1959, where she seems in pretty good voice and the Liebestod (sung in Italian again) from a concert in Athens in 1957. She takes it a little faster than she did in 1949, but it still seems within her capabilities. After all, it doesn't go very high. The discs come with notes, texts and translations; something sadly lacking in more recent issues.

The two Divina CDs are up to their usual standard of documentation and are a mixture of arias and interviews. Recording quality is variable. The first disc includes some formerly unavailable recordings of her 1951 RAI concert in Turin and the second has all the vocal parts of a concert from the Royal Festival Hall in 1958, where she is in much better voice than most other material recorded around this time. The sound is not great, but she is more distantly recorded, which gives a much better impression of what she must have sounded like in the hall. Also of interest is a snippet of her singing, in German, Schumann's Im wunderschönen Monat Mai at a private concert before friends in her flat in 1976. Aside from a few bars of her singing Abscheulicher! at the Masterclasses, it is the only example of her singing in German.
\"A beautiful voice is not enough.\" Maria Callas

Tsaraslondon



CD 2, which is a document of Callas rehearsing for the concert which inaugurated the Dallas opera in November 1957. This is a fascinating document, giving us a glimpse of Callas at work. The programme consisted of the Act I arias from La Traviata, the Mad Scene from I Puritani, Vieni t'affreta from Macbeth, Tutte le torture from Il Ratto del Saraglio and the whole of the final scene (with chorus) from Anna Bolena, which she had sung at La Scala for the first time a few months earlier. She obviously arrived in Dallas in good voice, and though she marks some high phrases, she sings out at the end of the Puritani, her scale passages as supple as ever, and sings a free and ringing top Eb at the end, which inspires the orchestra to a spontaneous round of applause.

The most interesting segment is the Anna Bolena section, which the orchestra was presumably seeing for the first time. The players have difficulty with the rubato on the rising set of trills in Coppia iniqua and Rescigno gets Callas to demonstrate for them. There is much discussion, which Callas enters into like any other working musician. I often think she would have made a superb conductor.

I also listened to part of CD 3, which has duets from some of her Mexcio performances, but stopped the CD before the final items, which are of duets with Di Stefano from their final concert tour, which I prefer not to listen to.
\"A beautiful voice is not enough.\" Maria Callas

Tsaraslondon



Why, oh why did VAI take the ridiculous decision to cut out all the applause, particularly given that the bronchial audience is a palpable presence throughout? This is live. We know it's live, and except from at the end of the Barbiere aria, when the applause breaks in before the orchestra has finished the final chords, the sound at the end of each aria is abruptly cut off, even at the very end of the concert. It robs the concert of its life.

Aside from that gripe, this is an important document. Considering it was recorded from a portable device in the concert hall, the sound isn't bad at all and the first impression is of the sheer size of the voice, even in 1958, right down to those thrillingly massive chest tones. There are a few acrid moments up top, but generally the voice is in pretty good shape, as she exploits her gifts for characterisation in a diverse gallery of heroines. The most surprising aria here is no doubt Musetta's Waltz Song, which is charmingly sung, even if she doesn't exactly convince us she would have made a Musetta. Definitely worth hearing.
\"A beautiful voice is not enough.\" Maria Callas

Tsaraslondon



The first recital record I ever owned, and it still packs a punch. No doubt others have sung some of this music with greater beauty of tone. None have created such a gallery of diverse characters. Manon, Butterfly, Mimi, Angelica, Lauretta, Liu and Turandot all emerge as contrasting characters, as Callas takes us on an emotional journey unusual in a Puccini recital.
 
\"A beautiful voice is not enough.\" Maria Callas

Tsaraslondon

#688


Callas's second recital for EMI was a demonstration of her versatility, with one side of lyric-dramatic arias and one associated with light coloraturas. This obviously makes for more variety than the all Puccini disc, and there are some classic performances here, including La mamma morta, which became an unexpected hit when it was used at a key moment in the movie Philaldelphia. I have a fuller review on my website.

Maria Menghini Callas sings Operatic Arias
\"A beautiful voice is not enough.\" Maria Callas

Tsaraslondon



Recorded in 1955, this album was supposed to be a memento of operas Callas was singing at La Scala around that time (Medea in 1953, La Vestale in 1954 and La Sonnambula in 1955). However Callas never approved the Sonnambula arias and release was delayed until 1958, with EMI adding arias from her complete recordings of I Puritani and La Sonnambula. Apparently Serafin objected to the intricate ornamentation Bernstein had added for the La Scala performances and the result, in the cabalettas at least, is a little studio bound and lacking in excitement, which might be why Callas refused to allow their release. The Medea aria is likewise a little stiff, compared to performances in some of her live recordings, though it is beautifully shaped. The best performances on the disc are the arias from La Vestale; Tu che invoco brims with drama and significance, and the other arias benefit from her supple line and deep legato. Perhaps not one of the most essential Callas recital discs, but valuable for the Spontini arias at least.

Callas at La Scala
\"A beautiful voice is not enough.\" Maria Callas

Tsaraslondon



I seem to remember one reviewer stating that if he could think of one record that distilled the genius of Maria Callas, then this would be it, and I'm inclined to agree. In music that in other hands can sound formulaic or, worse, plain dull, Callas illuminates every phrase, almost as if she is experiencing the music as it happens. This truly is the art that conceals art. By this time the voice can glare on full voice top notes, but her spinning out of long Bellini and Donizetti cantalenas is mesmerisingly beautiful, and, in the scene from Thomas's Hamlet, which is more a series of recitative and arioso than an aria, she binds together its disparate elements to create a wonderfully cohesive whole.

After the huge success of the opera at La Scala, Callas had wanted to record Anna Bolena complete, but Legge and her recording company were not prepared to take on the huge financial risk that unknown bel canto operas were considered at that time, even with Callas at the helm. At least he allowed her to record the final scene in its entirity, complete with soloists, and the Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus in splendid form.

Callas Mad Scenes
 
\"A beautiful voice is not enough.\" Maria Callas

Tsaraslondon

\"A beautiful voice is not enough.\" Maria Callas

Papy Oli

oops. Callas must have distracted me  ;D
Olivier

Tsaraslondon

#693


Two years separates these recitals, and it is a little alarming to hear how much the voice has deteriorated in such a short time. Already showing signs of strain in 1961, when the first one was recorded, by 1963 the voice is even more unsure and notes above the stave tend to be frail or unsteady. That said, her genius still burns brightly and I would still rather hear her in most of these items than almost anyone else I can think of. Only Je suis Titania, la blonde from the first recital, and Manon's Je marche sur tous les chemins gave me limited pleasure, and, even so, her passagework in the Thomas aria is wonderfully fleet and supple.

The main cause for regret, as one character follows another, is that, apart from Alceste and Iphigénie in Italian translation, Callas never sang any of these roles on stage. What a gallery it is! We have Gluck's Orphée (in the Berlioz/Viardot arrangement), Alceste and Iphigénie, Bizet's Carmen and Leïla, Saint-Saêns's Dalila, Berlioz's Marguerite, Gounod's Juliette and Marguerite, Thomas's Philine, and Massenet's Chimène, Manon and Charlotte, each one clearly differentiated, with each scene or aria vividly brought to life.

Despite the state of the voice by this time, I find these two recitals two of her most absorbing discs. Fuller review here.
\"A beautiful voice is not enough.\" Maria Callas

Tsaraslondon



Not repertoire one would associate with Callas, and not, it has to be admitted, one of her most successful recitals. The most succesful items are Beethoven's Ah! perfido! whch teems with drama, as does Ocean, though mighty monster from Weber's Oberon (sung in English). Of the Mozart items, she is most comfortable in Elvira's Mi tradi. Maybe not essential Callas, but she is never dull.
 
\"A beautiful voice is not enough.\" Maria Callas

Pohjolas Daughter

Quote from: Tsaraslondon on April 03, 2023, 03:37:16 PM

Not repertoire one would associate with Callas, and not, it has to be admitted, one of her most successful recitals. The most succesful items are Beethoven's Ah! perfido! whch teems with drama, as does Ocean, though mighty monster from Weber's Oberon (sung in English). Of the Mozart items, she is most comfortable in Elvira's Mi tradi. Maybe not essential Callas, but she is never dull.
 
You have certainly been on quite the Callas jaunt lately!  ;)  8)

PD
Pohjolas Daughter

Tsaraslondon

Quote from: Pohjolas Daughter on April 04, 2023, 08:29:29 AMYou have certainly been on quite the Callas jaunt lately!  ;)  8)

PD

And thoroughly enjoying it. What an extraorinary and fascinating artist she was.
\"A beautiful voice is not enough.\" Maria Callas

Tsaraslondon



It's odd how my reactions to these late Callas recitals can vary. Sometimes I find the parlous state of the voice hard to take, whilst others I hardly notice it as the musical imagination draws me in. This was one of those occasions. No doubt people could draw my attention to more technically secure renditions of these arias, to plenty of sopranos and mezzos with securer and prettier top notes. I doubt any of them sing with as much undertsanding of the idiom, nor with such musicality. Everything she expresses comes from within the music, never from the addition of aspirates, gulps, sobs or other extraneous devices. Yes, I might wish she'd recorded this material even a few years earlier, but I'd still feel poorer without it.
\"A beautiful voice is not enough.\" Maria Callas

Tsaraslondon



There are only a couple of items on here that Callas approved for release, the mono version of the Sleepwalking Scene from Macbeth, in which you can hear her walking off into the distance, as per the stage directions, and Imogene's opening scene from Il Pirata, and it is probably wise to remember that whilst listening. Most of the material is of late recording sessions, quite a lot of them from 1960 and 1961, when she was working on her voice. Many of them duplicate the ones that were eventually released, and, in most cases, I prefer the later versions that were released when she was alive. She may not sound any more comfortable vocally, but she does sound more committed.

Also included are the two test recordings she made of Donna Anna's Non mi dir, prior to making her first recording of Lucia di Lammermoor for EMI in 1953. We should remember that these were just in the nature of a run-through, in order for the engineers to get a feel for her voice, but Callas is incapable of being dull and she sails through th music as if it is the easiest thing in the world, her legato as wonderful as ever and her breath control prodigious. The second take is slightly more relaxed than the first and this would be the prize I would take away from these two discs.
\"A beautiful voice is not enough.\" Maria Callas

Tsaraslondon



This was Calleja's first recital, recorded twenty years ago when he was just 25. The voice is attractive and I rather like his quick flicker vibrato, but he doesn't yet really stamp his personality on the music. He is most successful in Nemorino's Quanto e bella and Macduff's Ah, la paterna mano, and Alfredo's Act II arias suit him well too, but he is a somewhat diffident Duke of Mantua, and I don't get much suffering from his Edgardo. I don't think the verismo items would have suited him at this stage. They rather cry out for a more beefy sound.

When I started this exercise of listening to all my various recital discs, I had decided to jettison any that I thought I probably wouldn't listen to again. I'm afraid this is one of the ones that's going. I notice I was a deal more impressed when I reviewed this disc for my blog a few years ago, and I still think it's not at all bad as a debut recital from a budding young artist. It's good to know he went on to become one of the finest tenors around. This recital showed considerable promise, which he would appear to have fulfilled.
 
\"A beautiful voice is not enough.\" Maria Callas