Than Picked up from the Master Tape Itself. RCA's I Barbiere Di
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synopsis, banding scheme, libretto only. than picked up from the master tape itself. effective conducting the RCA Italiana Op- RCA's II barbiere di Siviglia has al- era Orchestra and Chorus. The Lucia at How nice it would have been to have a ways been talked about with respect and least manages to suggest a performance, word or two as to why the set is either his- admiration. Curiously, this was my first and the principals are all in representative toric or of interest. There are numerous spelling errors on various covers. encounter with the set, and it struck me as form. Once again, Bergonzi is a glorious Then, too, there is the matter of band- a remarkable document of the Metropoli- asset as Edgardo, Sereni is really not so tan Opera's style of performance, sharing bad as Enrico, and Flagello is an accept- ing, which remains the major bugaboo of with the Macbeth the éclat of a stage per- able Raimondo. all the record companies today. In all these sets the banding is rather erratic, formance with the sonic advantages of stu- Finally, if Moffo's Lucia is not the stuff with some unexpected gaffs. In Macbeth, dio recording technique. Leinsdorf is truly of legends, she at least never stints on for example, there is no band for the begin- in his musicological element here, trying beautiful tones, shimmering and rounded to make the Met orchestra sound more pe- high notes, and an all-pervasive sense of ning of Act II, Scene 2; in Boheme, Mimi's riod than modern at a time when such vulnerability. In other words, she is no third-act aria is banded halfway through (at the wrong "Addio,"it would seem); in things were just beginning to be bruited hardship on the ears, and in the role of Lu- about. The performance is uncut, and the cia, that's more than could be said for Cal- Tosca we get a band at Cavaradossi's "Dammi i colon" but not at "Recondita singing is often splendid, always com- las in either of her commercial recordings. armonia"; the Cavalleria "Inneggiamo" mitted. The uncut performance includes the Tow- Merrill's is a very American but very er Scene confrontation between Edgardo chorus is banded many bars too early; in Zauberflote, it seems we should be able to engaging Figaro, and the voice is especial- and Enrico. Georges Pretre keeps things program out the dialogue, except that the ly impressive. Cesare Valletti, heard here moving at a constant clip, giving the entire banding does not always offset that dia- as Count Almaviva, was the Met's house performance an impressively theatrical Rossini/Mozart tenor, and though the vitality. timbre of his voice is, at best, controver- On paper, the RCA Norma looks good. sial, his phrasing and breath control are In reality, it's quite a mess. Caballe is in beyond cavil. Roberta Peters was still in poor voice and doesn't really come into peak form for this Rosina, and while the her own until the final scene—by which upper extension always tended to thin- time it is far too late. Domingo might just ness, there is a feisty brio that reminds us as well have taped his contributions in the why she was such a favorite at the house. various dressing rooms of the world's And then there are the antics of Fernando opera houses, so uninvolved and tired- Corena (Bartolo) and Giorgio Tozzi (Basi- sounding is his Pollione. Fiorenza Cos- lio) that leap out from the speakers. sotto is a formidable Adalgisa, and on this The Rigoletto gets off to a dazzling occasion that becomes both compliment start under Georg Solti's baton—clearly and complaint. And though I am no fan of this is a conductor's performance. But be- Ruggero Raimondi, I must say that I can cause this conductor has such an impres- think of no recording on which he sounds sive cast, he does not become the sole mo- worse than here, as Oroveso. The London tivating force in the performance but Philharmonic Orchestra is under the ba- rather a noble and forceful partner. Mer- ton of the faceless Carlo Felice Cillario. rill, in his second recording of the title The CD transfer casts a hard aura on all role, lacks the dramatic bite to bring the the voices, but the original LPs were not jester emphatically to life, but he sings the especially impressive either. music very well indeed. Moffo's Gilda is The Zauberflote is an earnest, Central captured at virtually peak form, with only European account of the work. It is distin- occasional touches of that croony manner- guished by Helen Donath's ravishing Pa- Giorgio Tozzi (left) and Jussi Bjorling ism that was eventually to dominate her mina and Peter Schreier's musicianly Ta- logue, and, because of a printing error in singing onstage and in the studio. Alfredo mino. Theo Adam's artistically noble, but Kraus had made the Duke his calling card vocally woolly, Sarastro and Sylvia Gesz- the libretto, italics meant to indicate dia- in the 1960s, and his performance here is ty's accurate though rather squeaky logue spill over into the musical indica- predictably fine in terms of range (the high Queen of the Night do not lend the set any tions as well. I mention these only because they are D at the end of the cabaletta to "Parmi particular distinction. And the Three La- veder le lagrime" is no problem) and styl- dies—Hannelore Kuhse, Gisela Schriiter, slight blemishes on an otherwise laudable ish interpretation. (It is remarkable to note and Annelies Burmeister—are rather series and ought to be corrected in future how fundamentally unchanged the voice long-in-the-tooth vocally. The Dresden projects. In every case, the RCA engineers have done a good-to-handsome job giving is today, some 25 years later.) Rosalind Staatskapelle is under the able direction of these often-valuable performances a new Elias is a competent Maddalena, Ezio Fla- Otmar Suitner. Though this Zauberflote is lease on life—and at an affordable price. gello a not-so-good Sparafucile. not competitive with the various illustri- Flagello is the common denominator in ous sets on full-price CDs, it may have its [And there's more to come: By this fall, both the Lucia di Lammermoor and the temptations at midprice. Ernani and, sad to say, he is no asset. In The packaging for the RCA Victor Op- there will be ten new RCA Victor Opera Series reissues in the stores. They will in- fact, with the exception of Bergonzi's ex- era Series features the standard two- to emplary portrayal of the title role, the Er- four-CD jewel box in clear and blue plas- clude the Moffo/Bergonzi/MacNeil Lui- sa Miller, the Price/Corelli/Freni/Merrill nani has little to recommend it. Leontyne tic, with a handsome tailored-looking lo- Carmen (Karajan conducting), and the Price, as Elvira, is considerably off-form, go, good artwork, and a flimsy outer box Mario Sereni is a disastrous Carlo, and that tends to come unglued on the third or Vickers/Rysanek/Gobbi Otello (under Tullio Serafin).—Ed.] Thomas Schippers is only intermittently fourth use. The booklets are bare bones: O C T O B E R 1 9 8 8 71 .