Horn of Plenty

JOHN ARDOIN Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/oq/article/4/1/43/1552286 by guest on 29 September 2021

ALMo ST as soon as there were commercial recordings, there were com- AT\* plete operas on disc captured by the acoustical horn. At first the term "complete" was used loosely. A 1906 // Trovatore recording by Victor, for example, was heavily cut and issued on a mixture of fourteen single-sided ten- and twelve-inch discs selling for $16.20, then a considerable investment. These were recorded in Milan and utilized four different Leonoras, three Azucenas, four Manricos, three Count di Lunas, and two Ferrandos. Apparently Viaor combined arias and concerted pieces that had been previously recorded and issued as singles between 1904 and 1906 and added to them whatever was needed to bridge the gaps in the music. The one unifying force in the "perfor- mance" was conductor Carlo Sabajno, a longtime figure on La Scala's music staff, who would preside over complete sets for Victor well into the electrical era of recording. Trovatore was followed in 1907 with an Aida from the Zonophone label on twenty-three single-sided discs with a more homogeneous cast, though none of the names have any significance today even to the most knowledgeable collector. As the records in both of these sets were issued singly, they could not have been easy to acquire, and no known complete set of either exists. One of the earliest attempts to present a complete opera with a cohesive cast and issued as a single set was a performance of Vagliacd made in June 1906 by the Gramophone Company. Again, Sabajno was on the podium, and the opera's composer, Ruggero Leoncavallo, was at his side, approving tempi and performance practices. Its twenty-one sides were the first composer- supervised set in the history of the phonograph. Only one intact set is known to exist. It is in the Yale University sound archives, and a transfer to tape of this historic set was made by the school for Pearl Records in England; it was issued on LP in 1985. Gramophone's Pagliacci made use of the chorus and orchestra of La Scala and a number of leading singers of the time. In Berlin the German branch of the Gramophone Company began a series of "complete" recordings with a Fledermaus including dialogue (1907), fol- lowed by Carmen and Faust sung in German (1908), all conducted by Bruno Seidler-Winkler, the Teutonic Sabajno. Carmen and Faust were built around 44 JOHN ARDO IN the artistry of Emmy Destinn. In 1909 came the ambitious step of recording an entire act of a Wagner opera—Tannhauser. Anything else Wagnerian would have to wait for the electrical era. In 1910 Victor offered an Emani for $20.10, but nothing more seems to have been done with complete opera recordings until the remarkable series of French Pathe sets in 1912. These were adventur- ous in repertory and completeness. The works chosen included, predictably, Carmen and Romeo et Juliette. But there was also the only recording to date of Donizetti's La Favorite in its original French, as well as three Verdi works: La Traviata, Rigoletto, and Le Trouvere. To these standard pieces were added a pair of French specialties: Victor Masse's Galathee and Jean Nougues's Les freres 1 Danilo. Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/oq/article/4/1/43/1552286 by guest on 29 September 2021 In all, I have been able to document nearly forty complete sets from at least a half-dozen labels made by the end of the acoustical era in 192s. This list does not include HMVs first Gilbert and Sullivan sets, three of which (The Mi- kado, H.M.S. Pinafore, and The Yeomen of the Guard) came as early as 1908 in unauthorized recordings that did not make use of the still-copyrighted origi- nal versions. It was not until 1918, when HMVentered into an agreement with Rupert D'Oyly Carte, that official Gilbert and Sullivan sets would be made. There were nine of them at first, complete but without dialogue, and in authentic versions. Although these fetal efforts are enticing, they are depressing when one thinks of what casts could have been assembled then (a Caruso Pagliacci, a Ruffo Rigoletto). Either no one in power saw the potential or cared, or it was financially prohibitive. Perhaps the companies involved felt that a complete operatic recording of a popular work was justification enough to sell a set and went no further. Yet the Berlin and the Pathe albums had pointed the way in their use of prominent German and French stars of the day. Aside from Pathe's ground-breaking efforts, the serious era of complete recordings began in 1916, spearheaded by the Gramophone Company and its subsidiaries, with a series of sets made at La Scala: Cavalleria rusticana con- ducted by Mascagni (1916), two Rigolettos in 1916 and 1917 (one for Italian HMV and one for Italian Columbia), another Pagliacci (1917), Traviata (1918), La Boheme (1918), II barbiere di Siviglia (1919), Aida (1920), Faust and Carmen in Italian (1920), and Tosca (1920). There were also a few surprises: Leonca- vallo's Chatterton and Mascagni's Parisina and Isabeau, all three recorded complete. From Phonotype this period brought as well two significant com- plete recordings, whose raison d'etre was the bel canto giant Fernando de Lucia appearing as Almaviva in Barbiere and the Duke in Rigoletto. Pathe was again active after World War I with a complete Manon, featuring Fanny Heldy, and Masse's Les noces de Jeannette, with Ninon Vallin. In England HMV produced Ralph Vaughan Williams's Hugh the Drover, Edward Ger- man's Merrie England, Frederic Austin's version of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, and Madame Butterfly in English. Out of the bounty that poured from the acoustical horn of plenty, not quite HORN OF PLENTY 45 a third of the sets have been issued on LP. These are in various states of completeness, and there are great disparities in the care taken in editing joins and in pitching discs properly. Listening to these recordings is of endless fascination, not only for a sense of what was once a performing criterion, but also in terms of phonographic history. Probably most important of all are those instances (Destinn's Marguerite, Giuseppe Danise's Rigoletto, and de Lucia's Barbiere) where we are able to experience an influential artist in a complete role, instead of a three- to four-minute extract. The following is a survey often of these vintage recordings currently avail- able on LP. The record information refers to the label of the current reissue. Die Fledermaus (1907): Robert Philipp (Eisenstein), Emilie Herzog Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/oq/article/4/1/43/1552286 by guest on 29 September 2021 (Rosalinde), Marie Dietrich (Adele), Elisabeth Dommel (Ida), Julius Lieban (Alfred), Alfred Arnold (Frank), Max Begemann (Falke), Ida von Scheele-Muller (Orlofsky), Adalbert Lieban (Blind), Hermann Vallentin (Frosch). Chorus of the Royal Opera, Berlin, and the Gram- mophon Orchestra; Bruno Seidler-Winkler, conductor. Court Opera Classics co 417/18. The matrix numbers of these early sets make it clear that the music was recorded out of order, a practice that continues today with studio sets. Fleder- maus required twenty-eight sides, of which five were exclusively devoted to dialogue and a sixth covered Frank's melodrama in act 3. This recording came only thirty-three years after the operetta's premiere and eight after the death of its composer, Johann Strauss, Jr. We are hardly into the music before the first cuts come; these were neces- sary to compress the overture to a single side. There are none of the interpola- tions in Alfred's offstage part that are commonly heard today ("La donna e mobile" is one that comes to mind); in fact, additives of any kind are com- paratively rare in this set. The dialogue, which imparts a needed sense of continuity to the performance, is delivered in a very stagy style. In act 1 the Falke/Eisenstein duet (no. 3) is cut by more than half, and large cuts are also sustained in the trio (no. 4) and the finale (no. 5). It would be instructive to discover if all of these excisions were made because of recording limitations or whether some were standard practice at the turn of the century. In art 2, following a small cut in the opening chorus (no. 6), dialogue is interpolated between the verses of Orlofsky's "Chacun a son gout," and more cuts follow in the Rosalinde/Eisenstein duet (no. 9), the "Czardas" (no. 10), and the finale (no. 11), with the ballet music also omitted. After the entr'acte before act 3 Alfred recaps part of his "Taubchen" serenade from act 1, and during Frank's scene there are spoken lines in addition to those in the score. There are a few cuts in the trio (no. 15), but they are not as extensive as in numbers of the previous acts. The sound is tubby and restricted, especially that of the orchestra. There has been much rescoring of the orchestral parts to add winds and brass to 46 JOHN ARDOIN support the strings, which did not record as well acoustically. But Court Opera Classics has taken care with the transfers, pitches are accurate, the performance is lively, and much of the singing is creditable. There are some odd, elongated ritards here, as well as in the Carmen and Faust, that sound willful and old-fashioned today but that were obviously part of Seidler- Winkler's training and (in this stage of his career) his musical disposition. At least three of the principals were well-known figures both in the opera houses of the day and in the recording studio. Robert Philipp (1852—1933), the husband of Marie Dietrich, made his name first in operetta before turning to opera, and his successes in Berlin were matched in seasons in Russia. Emilie

Herzog (1859—1923) was Swiss and sang in Bayreuth as well as in London, Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/oq/article/4/1/43/1552286 by guest on 29 September 2021 Paris, Vienna, Moscow, and Brussels; after retirement she taught at the Zurich Conservatory. She is featured in miscellaneous arias and duets on the fourth side of this LP reissue of Fledermaus. Marie Dietrich (1867-1940), a pupil in Paris of Pauline Viardot-Garcia, was a member of the Bayreuth en- semble and the opera companies of Berlin and Vienna. Carmen (1908): Emmy Destinn (Carmen), Minnie Nast (Micaela), Karl Jorn (Don Jose), Hermann Bachmann (Escamillo), Felix Dahn (Zuniga and Morales), Julius Lieban (Le Dancaire), Rudolf Krasa (Le Remen- dado), Marie Dietrich (Frasquita), Grete Parbs (Mercedes). Bruno Seid- ler-Winkler, conductor. Discophilia KS-1/3. This set originally took thirty-six sides and offers more of Bizet's opera than we are given of Strauss's operetta. The standard score was used with Guiraud's sung recitatives (first heard at the Vienna Opera in 1875, where Carmen had its second lease on life after its disastrous premiere earlier the same year). Though this recording came only thirty-three years after the pre- miere, it tells us nothing of performance practices in France at the time, of course. But it certainly is a measure of how German-language theaters, where Carmen's first successes were won, approached the work. Furthermore, it focuses attention on the changes forced on the score by sopranos undertaking its mezzo-soprano title role. The major drawback of the Discophilia edition—and it is a grave one here and in the Faust as well—is the lack of care in pitching. Pitches fluctuate throughout with sudden drops or rises of a half-step. These were caused, no doubt, by the lack of a uniform playing speed for the records in the set. But it is something that could and should have been corrected when transferring the original 78-rpm discs to tape. In act 1 the performance is without the recapitulation of the opening theme of the overture, the first part of the "Soldiers5 Chorus," and orchestral spots in the "Street Boys' Chorus," the entrance of the cigarette girls, and elsewhere. Even the "Habanera" sustains a peculiar cut during its second verse, and we lose the introduction to the "Gypsy Song" in act 2 as well as its coda. Also gone is the second verse of the "Toreador's Song," a passage from the middle HORN OF PLENTY 47

of the quintet, and part of the Carmen/Jose scene. Cuts are fewer and minor in act 3, and they come chiefly in the Jose/Escamillo duet and the finale. The opening chorus of act 4 is missing, and part of the final duet is excised. But again, as with Fledermaus, some of these cuts may have been traditional at the time. The glory of this Carmen is Emmy Destinn (1878-1930), one of the princi- pal singers of the pre-World War I period, the original Minnie in Puccini's La fanciuUa del West and Bayreuth's first Senta. Hers was one of the most opulent and gripping sopranos on acoustic discs, and there should be no surprise to encounter her spinto voice in Carmen's music. There were wide-ranging

precedents from the heroics of Lilli Lehmann and Lillian Nordica to the Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/oq/article/4/1/43/1552286 by guest on 29 September 2021 lighter sounds of Adelina Patti. Destinn sings the part with authority and includes some startling interpolations. Some of these were Germanic practices of the day; others were of her own design and desire. The upper notes she frequently opts for in the "Seguidilla" or the "Gypsy Song" were not taken because she was uncomfortable with what was written: this set, and dozens of her aria recordings, prove she had a ripe, lusty low voice and that these alternates were a matter of taste and style. Karl Jorn (1873-1947), an exquisite singer of immense suavity and security, was born in Latvia and ended his life in Denver, Colorado, after losing a fortune in mining speculations. He was a member of the Met from 1908 to 1914 (Destinn's heyday with the company), and his records are some of the most attractive of the acoustical era. His Don Jose shows just how well lyri- cism can be blended with heroism. The Micaela, Minnie Nast (1874-1956), was the first Sophie in Der Rosen- kavalier and long a shining part of the firmament of the Dresden Opera—a lovely singer. Hermann Bachmann (1864-1937) was Wotan at Bayreuth's sec- ond Ring production in 1896 and a baritone of power and resonance. Finally, two members of the Fledermaus cast turn up in this Carmen: Marie Dietrich and Julius Lieban. Faust (1908): Karl Jorn (Faust), Paul Kniipfer (Mephistopheles), Emmy Destinn (Marguerite), Ida von Scheele-Muller (Marthe), Desider Zador (Valentin), Marie Gotze (Siebel), Arthur Neudahm (Wagner). Bruno Seidler-Winkler, conductor. Discophilia KS-4/6 Although Faust has long been a favorite opera in German-speaking coun- tries (where it is known by its heroine's name, not that of its hero), it survives less well in German than does the gustier Carmen. At least this is the case with this recording. It was squeezed onto thirty-four single-sided discs and only by some heavy cutting. Much recitative and connective material is gone, as well as a good portion of the garden scene duet, the church scene, and all the Walpurgisnacht music. It is as if a German efficiency expert had been turned loose on the score. There is a great amount of slurring in the orchestral playing and singing that leaves one feeling vaguely seasick, and as in Carmen 48 JOHN ARDOIN the chorus is of a level so inept and amateurish that "dreadful" barely begins to characterize the massed singing. In both sets there are many alterations in the vocal lines, and not all of these are simply to accommodate the wordier German text. Many of them were matters of the style of the period. Destinn is rather too stentorian a Marguerite, though quite marvelous in what is left of the church scene and all of the prison scene. Jorn is in every way elegant. Paul Kniipfer (1866—1920) is an impressive Devil; he was Berlin's and Covent Garden's first Baron Ochs and was active in Bayreuth for a dozen seasons after the turn of the century. Excellent, too, is Desider Zador (1873— 1931), a Hungarian more famous for Alberich than for Valentin and often heard outside Germany in seasons in London, Paris, Milan, and Chicago. Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/oq/article/4/1/43/1552286 by guest on 29 September 2021 Tannhauser (act 2) (1909): Leon Rains (Landgrave), Fritz Vogelstrom (Tannhauser), Hermann Weil (Wolfram), Walter Kirchhoff (Walther), Karl Armster (Biterolf), Josef Schoeffel (Heinrich), Arthur Neudahm (Reinmar), Annie Krull (Elisabeth), Charlotte Lindemann, Margarethe Thiilecke, Gertrud Kopsch, and Margarethe Lepell (Pages). Chorus of the Royal Opera, Berlin, and the Odeon Orchestra; Eduard Kiinneke, conductor. Court Opera Classics co 340. Though this LP does not properly belong in a discussion of complete acoustical opera sets, its historical importance makes it difficult to ignore. It was not only the first attempt to record Wagner in any sort of extended form, but it also preserves the voice of Annie Krull (1876-1947), who made few discs and who created the title role of Strauss's Elektra the same year this recording was made. There are two large cuts taken—in the Elisabeth/Tannhauser duet and in the final chorus. The orchestral playing may provoke a smile, depend- ing on the charity of the listener, for there are more winds than strings, a piano substitutes for the harp, slurring is again rampant, and many fermatas go breathlessly by the boards in order to cram the music onto twenty sides. The conductor, incidentally, was best known as an operetta composer. Lyricism is not Krull's strongest suit, but she does possess intensity, which lends her singing a stirring presence. Fritz Vogelstrom (1882—1963) is a tenor who stays this difficult course with strength and fervor; how we could use him today! Once Bayreuth's Parsifal and Lohengrin, he was long a fixturea t the Dresden Opera. Eduard Kiinneke takes Wagner's alternative at "Zum Heil den Siindigen zu fuhren," giving this section to Tannhauser alone. Another important figure in this recording is Hermann Weil (1876—1949). He was considered a major Wagnerian in his day and was particularly admired as Amfortas at Bayreuth. He was with the Met from 1911 to 1917. Also valued at Bayreuth and the Met, as well as at Covent Garden and in Paris, was Walter KirchhofF (1879-1951), who made a specialty of Walther in Die Meistersinger. Pagliacci (1907): Antonio Paoli (Canio), Gaetano Pini-Corsi (Beppe), Ernesto Badini (Silvio), Francesco Cigada (Tonio), Giuseppe Rosti (A HORN OF PLENTY 49

Villager), Josefina Huguet (Nedda). Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala; Carlo Sabajno, conductor. Recording supervised by the composer. Opal 826/7. This landmark Pagliacci was the work of recording pioneer Fred Gaisberg. In his memoirs, The Music Goes Round, he writes: As long ago as 1903 [sic], I recorded in Milan Pagliacd, Leoncavallo him- self conducting. [This was said at the time to help sell the album.] At that early date this was no small achievement, but Leoncavallo was al- ways hard pressed for money and could not afford to be standoffish. He

was a great, good-natured hulk of a man and a lot of his money went in Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/oq/article/4/1/43/1552286 by guest on 29 September 2021 entertaining friends in his attractive villa on Lake Maggiore. Mascagni, who followed a few years later as conductor of his Cavalleria, was not so accessible and had a better business manager who made more favorable bargains for him. ... Both conductors accepted under protest the compromises in the or- chestra made necessary by the acoustic process.2 The set took twenty-one discs and was made only fifteen years after the opera's premiere. Opal presents the records in order but banded separately, instead of splicing them into a cohesive whole, because "mechanical problems inherent in the original 1907 recording equipment have caused pitch fluctua- tions between the beginnings and ends of the sides." But this could have been artfully avoided by gradually adjusting the pitch during a side to match the beginning pitch of the next side. This fudging would have been preferable to the way the set has been issued. As it stands, the performance often needlessly loses steam, sometimes at crucial moments such as "No, Pagliaccio non son!" Choral singing in Italy was no better than in Germany at the time, although the Latin orchestra has more poise (Toscanini, after all, had begun to clean up the lax standards of the nineteenth century, and Sabajno had been Toscanini's assistant in Turin). The tempi and the performance in general hew fairly closely to Pagltacci as we know it and hear it today. Tonio sings rather than speaks the line "Poiche in scena ancora" during the prologue, bypasses the top A-flat, and adds a G at the end. Canio's lines are missing in the opening chorus, but it was probably recorded on a day when the soloists were not on call. During their duet Nedda and Tonio both take alternate printed notes in the score that are never encountered today, and Leoncavallo allowed the standard cut in the middle of the Nedda/Silvio scene. Antonio Paoli (1870-1946), from Puerto Rico, may be crude at times but is also impressive in his animal magnetism and vivid style of singing. Josefina Huguet (1871-1951), of Spanish birth, was well known for her coloratura parts but manages Nedda's more sinewy music with equal verve. Francesco Cigada (1878-1966) was in the cast of the premiere of Francesco, da Rimini and is a solid, admirable Tonio. Ernesto Badini (1876-1937), an ardent Silvio, was an 5O JOHN ARD O IN

artist who was versatile enough to make a name with both buffo (Don Pa- squale) and dramatic (Rigoletto) parts. Rigoletto (1917): Ayres Borghi-Zerni and Olga Simzis (Gilda), Giuseppe Danise and Ernesto Badini (Rigoletto), Carlo Broccardi (The Duke of Mantua), Vincenzo Bettoni (Sparafucile/Monterone), Renata Pezzati (Maddalena), Giuseppe Sala (Borsa), Nelda Garrone (Giovanna/Count- ess Ceprano), Napoleone Limonta (other roles). Carlo Sabajno, con- ductor. Edizioni Bongiovanni GB 1024. The Rigoletto Sabajno conducted for the Gramophone Company in 1917 has been issued only in excerpt form, concentrating on the acclaimed performance Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/oq/article/4/1/43/1552286 by guest on 29 September 2021 of the title role by Giuseppe Danise. Actually, three Rigolettos were used in the set (the third is unidentified), and considering the provincial level of the singing, Bongiovanni's decision makes sense. The only singer of any impor- tance other than Danise and Badini (who is heard here only in the quartet) is Vincenzo Bettoni (1881-1954), remembered for his Rossini collaborations with Conchita Supervia between the two world wars. In general this is a clean performance with few textual additions. The level of choral singing has risen perceptibly since the Pajjliacci recording (I presume this again to be the Scala chorus, though the jacket notes do not specify). As for Giuseppe Danise (1883-1963), the husband of Bidu Sayao, he is superb. He has a big, booming top voice and a dark, telling sense of word coloring and dramatic timing. After two seasons at La Scala he joined the Met in 1920 and remained there for a dozen years. Bongiovanni gives us Danise's principal scenes: all of act 1, scene 1, minus the prelude; "Pari siamo"; "Veglia, o donna"; the end of act 1, scene 2; "Cortigiani," "Piangi, fanciulla," and "Si, vendetta"; and act 3 from the opening through "La tempesta e vicina." II barbiere di Siviglia (1918—1920): Fernando de Lucia (Almaviva), Francesco Novelli (Figaro), Maria Resemba (Rosina), Giorgio Schottler (Bartolo), Stefano Valentino (Basilio), Angelo di Tommaso (Fiorello), Nina Sabatano (Berta). Chorus and Orchestra of the Teatro San Carlo, Naples; Salvatore Sassano, conductor. Rubini Records SJG 121. The most significant of the early Italian complete operas, and perhaps of all the early acoustic operas, is this Barbiere, even though the level of singing, aside from the wonder of Fernando de Lucia (1860-1925), is negligible. An entire set could not be located for the reissue—no grave loss—so only de Lucia's parts were transferred in the Rubini Records release. The reissue and the accompanying notes are models of their kinds, and scrupulous care has been given to pitching the records. This is of special importance, for de Lucia was fifty-eight when the recording was begun, and he made many transposi- tions in the music to accommodate his waning top voice. The sessions for this Barbiere were held between 8 April 1918 and 11 April 1920. The Rubini reissue opens with Fiorello's "Piano, pianissimo," and with HORN OF PLENTY 51 the exception of "Largo al factotum," act i, scene i, is complete. Act i, scene 2, picks up just before Almaviva's entrance ("Finora in questa camera") and continues complete to the end of die act. In art 2 the only losses are the Proch variations (interpolated into the lesson scene), Berta's aria, and the temporale. De Lucia's singing is magical in its suppleness, finesse, and agility, and in the velvet warmth of his sound. There has been no one to equal him in this music since this recording was made. With it we come as close as we shall ever come to pulling back the curtain on nineteenth-century bel canto style in its fullest flower. In de Lucia it blooms in his absolute freedom of phrase, made possible by a complete technique and sovereign convictions. Whatever its failings, this remains an indispensable album. Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/oq/article/4/1/43/1552286 by guest on 29 September 2021 La Favorite (1912): Ketty Lapeyrette (Leonor), Henri Albers (Alphonse), Robert Lassalle (Fernand), Marvini (Balthazar), De Poumayrac (Don Gaspard), Mile Ganteri (Ines). Chorus and Orchestra of the Paris Opera; Francois Ruhlmann, conductor. Bourg Records BG 4001-2-3. The cover of this sole recorded edition of Donizetti's La Favorite in French is misleading. It proclaims "Arrangee par Richard Wagner," causing us to expert something on the order of Wagner's performing edition of Gluck's Iphigenie enAulide. But nothing of the sort is involved. Herbert Weinstock, in his biography of Donizetti, clears up the matter: "By 1841, La Favorite had become so popular throughout France that Schlesinger paid a young German musician named Richard Wagner an advance of five hundred francs against a total promised fee of eleven hundred to make no less than six different tran- scriptions from its score. What the nearly starving Wagner had to do to La Favorite in this attempt to fend off complete indigence was to arrange it for voice and piano; for piano solo; for piano four hands; for flute quartet (with violin, viola, and cello); for two violins; and—incredibly—for cornet."3 Favorite was commissioned by the Paris Opera and premiered there on 2 December 1840. Its subsequent popularity was obviously the reason behind so seemingly esoteric an opera being recorded complete by Pathe in 1912; in other words, fifty-two years after its premiere it still had drawing power in France. This set, like Romeo et Juliette the same year, was made on out- size, fourteen-inch discs using the hill-and-dale method in which the needle moved vertically rather than laterally in the grooves and the records turned at speeds that varied from 80- to 100-rpm. Favorite required forty-two such single sides. The performance is an exciting one, and the cuts are, in the main, minor. The largest comes in the ballet music, where the pas de six and the finale are omitted. The French score and this recording include Fernand's aria "Oui, ta voix m'inspire," which concludes art 1 and which is not heard in any other recording (Pathe, however, made a hefty cut in it). Ketty Lapeyrette (1884-1960) was a major contralto of the day, and her voice is ripe and regal and used with enormous authority and elan. She also 52 JOHN ARDO IN

took part in Pathe's complete Rigoktto and Le Trouvere. Robert Lassalle (I could find no dates for him) is not as finished an artist, but he is tasteful and well schooled. Henri Albers (1866—1925) has a voice more full and ringing than one expects from a French baritone; but then, he was an acclaimed Mdphistopheles as well. Though the French text (by A. Royer and G. Vaez) is often more sopho- moric than the Italian, Favorite in French has a unique flavor and sound all its own, just as Les vepres siciliennes or Don Carlos do. Now that a commercial Don Curbs has at last been made in French, why not a Favorite, to have the second side of this same coin? Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/oq/article/4/1/43/1552286 by guest on 29 September 2021 Romeo et Juliette (1912): Agustarello Affre (Romeo), Edmond Tirmont (Tybalt), Alexis Boyer (Mercutio), Pierre Dupre (Paris), Hippolyte Belhomme (Gregorio), Henri Albers (Capulet), Marcel Journet (Frere Laurent), Valermont (Le Due), Yvonne Gall (Juliette), Mme Champell (Stephano), Jeanne Goulancourt (Gertrude). Chorus and Orchestra of the Paris Opera-Comique; Franc, ois Ruhlmann, conductor. Rococo 1002. This set was issued on twenty-seven hill-and-dale discs, including six sides of ballet music. Rococo chose to excise the ballet in its LP edition (along with the nuptial processional and the "Epithalamium"). But beyond this, there are only slight cuts in the standard performing version (which, of course, omits Juliette's poison aria). It, too, is a compelling performance, centering on the youthful splendors of Yvonne Gall's Juliette. This exemplary artist (1885-1972) was in her late twenties when the recording was made. Eventually she would be heard on most of the leading stages of Europe, and in America she was for several years a prized member of the Chicago Opera. If you want to experi- ence the cool beauties of French singing at its loveliest, she or Fanny Heldy provide ideal models. By the way, Heldy's Manon has recently been reissued by Bourg Records, and soon to come is the 1912 Pathe Carmen. Agustarello Afire" (1858-1931) was nearing the end of his career when he recorded Romeo, and though his voice has thickened and he is no longer a paragon of lyricism, he remains an admirable, secure stylist. The recording is given further stature by the presence of the imposing Marcel Journet (1867- 1933), one of France's major basses and for seven years an adornment to the Met's roster. He would go on to record Mephistopheles in the first complete electrical recording of Faust in French, made by HMV-France in 1931, when Journet was sixty-four. The chief blemish here is the poor quality of Rococo's transfers (as compared to the Bourg Favorite) and the dull quality of the pressings. Madame Butterfly (1922): Rosina Buckman (Cio-Cio-San), Tudor Davies (Pinkerton), Frederick Ranalow (Sharpless), Nellie Walker and Bessie Jones (Suzuki), Sydney Coltham (Goro), Edward Halland (The Bonze/ HORN OF PLENTY 53

Yamadori), Bessie Jones (Kate Pinkerton). Eugene Goossens, conduc- tor. Claremont Records SY2 501. What strikes one immediately in listening to this first-ever recording of Butterfly is how plausible and singable the English translation is and how well it is enunciated by the cast. If this was typical of the times, no wonder there has been such a longtime ground swell in Britain for opera in English (I had a similar experience with a broadcast performance of Manon featuring Maggie Teyte and Heddle Nash). The score is complete, though the music occasionally sounds hard pressed,

especially in the orchestral passages. Still there is spirit here and some full- Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/oq/article/4/1/43/1552286 by guest on 29 September 2021 throated, engaging singing. Rosina Buckman (1880—1948) was a mainstay in London for many years, singing a wide range of roles from Mimi and Cio- Cio-San to Elisabeth and Isolde. There is weight and luster to her voice (there was evidently a great deal of weight to her person as well), and she rides Puccini's lines with ease. Buckman is partnered by one of the most ingratiating tenors of the day. Tudor Davies (1892-1958) was a member of the British National Opera Com- pany and the Sadler's Wells Opera, and he created the title role in Hugh the Drover (available on Pearl GEMM 128, a set that is among the few extant recordings by the American soprano Mary Lewis). Davies is an exuberant, exciting artist who lavishes a wealth of burnished sound on Pinkerton's music. The balance of the cast is nowhere as noteworthy as the two protagonists, but all are sturdy and supportive.

NOTES

1. Although the Rococo Records album (New York: Macmillan Company, 1942), notes list this opera by Nougues as having p. 165. been recorded complete in 1912,1 have been 3. Herbert Weinstock, Donizetti and the unable to find a Nougues work by this title World of Opera in Italy, Paris and Vienna in in any reference book. Can any reader help? the First Half of the Nineteenth Century (New 2. Fred Gaisberg, The Music Goes Round York: Pantheon Books, 1963), p. 160.