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Home , Nicola Monti, Rolando Panerai, Tito Gobbi, Tullio Serafin

LEONCAVALLO

IA CAL AR LA M S

1 954 Recording

Maria Callas • • • Chorus and Orchestra of , Great Opera Recordings

Ruggero LEONCAVALLO (1858 – 1919) Pagliacci

Libretto by the composer Canio ...... Giuseppe Di Stefano () Nedda ...... (soprano) Tonio ...... Tito Gobbi () Silvio ...... Rolando Panerai (baritone) Beppe ...... Nicola Monti (tenor)

Chorus and Orchestra of Teatro alla Scala, Mila Vittore Veneziani, Chorus master Tullio Serafin

Recorded 12th – 17th June, 1954 at Teatro alla Scala, Milan First issued on Columbia 33CX 1211 and 1212

Reissue Producer and Audio Restoration Engineer: Mark Obert-Thorn

Producer’s Note

The primary source for the present transfer was a set of original-issue British LP pressings supplemented by a German LP set. The wide frequency range and excellent balance of the original tapes were marred by only a few inherent problems, some of which I was able to correct (like the slight volume jump in the word “lurido” at the end of Nedda’s scene with Tonio) and others which could not be fixed (like the brief dropout in the master tape toward the end of Nedda’s ballatella). Overall, however, this was one of the EMI engineers’ finest studio efforts among the early Callas opera recordings.

Mark Obert-Thorn 8.111024 2 Prologue $ E allor perché, di’, tu m’hai stregato 3:34 1 Si può? Si può? 7:48 (Silvio, Nedda) (Tonio) % Cammina adagio e li sorprenderai 4:43 Act I (Tonio, Silvio, Nedda, Canio, Beppe) 2 Eh! … Son quà! Son quà! 3:12 (Chorus, Canio, Beppe) ^ Recitar! Mentre preso dal delirio 0:46 (Canio) 3 Un grande spettacolo a ventitré ore 2:46 (Canio, Chorus, Tonio, Villagers, Beppe) & Vesti la giubba 2:37 (Canio) 4 Un tal gioco, credetemi 2:48 (Canio, Nedda, Chorus) * Intermezzo 3:17 (Orchestra) 5 I zampognari! I zampognari! 1:28 (Boys, Men, Old People, Women, Canio) Act II ( Ohè! Ohè! Presto 4:09 6 Don, Din, Don, Din 2:30 (Chorus, Tonio) (Chorus) La Commedia 7 Qual fiamma avea nel guardo 2:24 ) Pagliaccio, mio marito 1:52 (Nedda) (Nedda)

8 Stridono lassù, liberamente 2:14 ¡ Ah! Columbina, il tenero 2:13 (Nedda) (Beppe, Nedda)

9 Sei là! Credea che te ne fossi andato 0:53 ™ È dessa! Dei, come è bella! 3:41 (Nedda, Tonio) (Tonio, Chorus, Nedda, Beppe)

0 So ben che lo scemo, contorto son io 4:07 £ Arlecchin! … Colombina! 2:33 (Nedda, Tonio) (Nedda, Beppe, Tonio, Canio)

! Nedda! … Silvio! A quest’ora che imprudenza! ¢ Un uomo era con te 1:55 (Silvio, Nedda) 1:23 (Canio, Nedda, Chorus, Tonio)

@ E fra quest’ansie in eterno vivrai 2:37 ∞ No, Pagliaccio non son 4:14 (Silvio, Nedda) (Canio, Chorus, Silvio, Nedda)

# Non mi tentar! 1:22 § No, per mia madre! Indegna esser poss’io 1:43 (Nedda, Silvio, Tonio) (Nedda, Beppe, Tonio, Canio, Silvio, Chorus)

3 8.111024 (1858 -1919) Pagliacci

This recording of Pagliacci was made by EMI at La needs a soubrette more in the operetta style. Scala, Milan in June 1954, some eight months after It seems appropriate therefore that Callas’s figure , and first published in April 1955 should so radically have changed in the period in Britain by Columbia and in the United States by separating the recordings. In August 1953, at the time Angel. Callas’s Nedda in Pagliacci was the fifth Cavalleria rusticana was made, she was as Biki, the complete recording she took part in under the aegis of Milanese couturier, remembers: ‘fat, clumsy and badly La Scala, although she did not sing it on stage, either dressed: she wore some extraordinary plastic earrings’. there or anywhere else. Made eight months after By the following summer she had lost some sixty Cavalleria rusticana, at the time , EMI’s pounds, becoming chic and svelte - even her hair had record producer, carried away by the sensational become blonde. Just as she had slimmed and her success that January of a new production of Lucia di appearance changed, so inevitably her voice too had Lammermoor directed and conducted by Karajan, with become thinner, less steady, and harder in tone; it had the newly slimmed Callas, determined to secure them to begun to lose the bloom of youth, as if a veneer had record an opera together. Since, unfortunately, Callas been wiped off it. But this may seem not inappropriate had already recorded Lucia, he offered Pagliacci for Nedda, who in duet with Tonio one minute is instead, but Karajan declined. shrewishly chiding him: ‘Eh! Dite maestro Tonio! La Pagliacci, first performed at the Dal Verme, Milan schiena oggi vi prude’ [‘Tell me master Tonio, have in 1892, was conducted by the 24-year-old Arturo you an itching back… ], then the next minute coyly Toscanini; the cast included Fiorello Giraud [Canio], turning to Silvio, ‘a questa’ora che imprudenza’ [‘how Adelina Stehle [Nedda] and Victor Maurel [Tonio]. The rash at this hour’]. In the Act II commedia dell’arte great French baritone Maurel, creator of Iago and scene, she demonstrates her musical skill, not just by , regarded by Verdi as one of the greatest changing the colour of her voice, but so responsive is it singing actors, persuaded Leoncavallo to let Tonio, not it hardly needs any support. We can almost see her Canio, have the last words: ‘la commedia è finita’ [‘the Colombina delicately tripping the measures of the play is over’]. Since the story is a play within a play, minuet; then, in response to Pagliaccio becoming the and Tonio introduces the opera with the prologue, it enraged Canio, and his insistent demand that she seems more fitting to finish it with Tonio. Canio has identify her lover, how vividly she turns into Nedda the been interpreted by many famous since the time termagant; there’s no need to have to understand a word of Caruso [his most popular rôle at the Metropolitan]. of Italian, so effectively does she create the character Not only is it effective vocally but it is also ideal for a through the music. mature seasoned artist; Gigli and Domingo both over No soprano, records suggest, could have been less sixty were still giving memorable impersonations. Both like Callas than Augusta Oltrabella [1897-1981]; a also undertook Turiddu in Cavalleria rusticana in a noted Italian lyric-dramatic soprano of the verismo double bill; Gigli did so at his farewell in 1954 when he school. Although Oltrabella may not have meant it as a was 64. Rarely, however, do famous sopranos sing both compliment, she puts her finger on precisely what Santuzza and Nedda sequentially [although Victoria de makes Callas so exceptional. ‘Verismo was not for her los Angeles did so on once at a Covent Garden gala]; because, despite what everyone says, she was an actress Santuzza calls for a more dramatic voice, while Nedda in the expression of the music … [and] in verismo the 8.111024 4 music is often secondary.’ Indeed, it was Callas’s few years his repertory embraced Germont in La prodigious musical skill that makes her unique, not her traviata, Silvio in Pagliacci, Lescaut, Marcello in La looks, her acting, or Onassis. She was, indeed still is on Bohème, Sharpless in , Ford in records, unique not only because of her voice, which at Falstaff, De Siriex in , Baldassare in Cilea’s its best was a characteristic sounding instrument; but L’Arlesiana and Michonnet in Adriana Lecouvreur, and her musicianship, allied to a consummate singing he also sang Melot in Wagner’s Tristano and Gunther in technique, enabled her to encompass a rich and varied Il crepuscolo degli dei, Jochanaan in Strauss’s repertory. As we can hear on any of her best recordings, and , as well as a sizeable repertory of then which are now coming into the public domain. modern operas. His international career began after Giuseppe Di Stefano, born in 1921 near Catania, World War II at leading theatres throughout the opera Sicily, had a brilliant but short career. His was one of world, undertaking many of what were then famous the most beautiful lyric tenor voices of the last century. impersonations, including , Posa, Iago, He began singing light music then, following a brief Renato, , , , Rance period of study with the baritone Luigi Montesanto, in , Scarpia, Falstaff and Michele made his opera début in 1946 as Des Grieux in in and , both of which he sang Massenet’s at Reggio Emilia, after which his on more than one occasion the same evening. In older rise to fame was rapid. In 1947 he appeared at La Scala, music, as Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia or Don Milan, also as Des Grieux, and in 1948 at the Giovanni, which he appeared in at Salzburg under Metropolitan, New York, as the Duke in Rigoletto. At Furtwängler in 1950, although his stage presence was first his repertory included Fenton in Falstaff, Almaviva imposing, his recordings reveal his singing was not in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi, stylish. Over the years inevitably his voice became less Alfredo in La Traviata and Faust, but it did not take responsive and in the upper range not infrequently he long before he began undertaking heavier rôles, such as sang flat. As more than twenty films he made show, he Cavaradossi, Don José in Carmen, Radames in , was a good-looking man with considerable histrionic Canio in Pagliacci and even Alvaro in La forza del skill. His recording career lasted from 1942 and his first destino. Sadly the great years of his career were soon 78s for HMV, to LP sets for EMI, Enrico in Lucia di over, and by 1961, trying to make more out of his voice Lammermoor, Scarpia, Amonasro, Rigoletto, Renato than nature had put in, he made his last appearance at La and Figaro, with Callas, and Falstaff under Karajan, to Scala. From 1944 for HMV he recorded songs and arias, 1978, when for Decca/London, he sang Chim-Fen in and from 1953 for Angel/Columbia, with Callas, Leoni’s L’oracolo. Edgardo, Arturo, Cavaradossi, Turiddu in Cavalleria The baritone Rolando Panerai [b.1924], born at rusticana, Canio, the Duke, Manrico in , Campi Bisenzio near , had a long and Rodolfo, Riccardo in and Des distinguished career. After completing his studies in Grieux in Puccini’s . Florence and Milan, with Armani and Tess, he made his The career of Tito Gobbi (1913-1984), born at debut at the Comunale, Florence in 1946 as Enrico in Bassano di Grappa in the , lasted more than forty . Thereafter his progress was years. His was a first-class Italian baritone with a rapid and extensive: in 1947 he appeared at the San characteristic timbre in the Titta Ruffo style. He made Carlo, Naples; 1952 at La Scala, Milan; 1957 at the his début in 1935 at Gubbio singing a rôle, Rodolfo ; 1958 at San Francisco and 1960 at in , but this was a one off, and by the Covent Garden, London. He sang elsewhere throughout next year at La Scala, he became a baritone. Within a , and in Austria, Germany and France. His 5 8.111024 substantial repertory included Apollo in Gluck’s career as conductor. Engagements followed in Turin Alceste, the High Priest in Samson e Dalila, Mozart’s and Rome. Through more than half a century he and Rossini’s Figaro, Masetto in , appeared at Covent Garden, London (1907, 1931, 1959- Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, Paolo in Simon 60), La Scala, Milan (1910-1914, 1917, 1918, 1940, Boccanegra, Marcello in La Bohème, di Luna in 1946-7), Colón, (1914, 1919, 1920, 1928, Il trovatore, Silvio, Germont in La Traviata and in 1962 1937, 1938, 1949, 1951), San Carlo, Naples (1922-3, at La Scala he created the title rôle in Turchi’s Il buon 1940-1, 1949-58), Metropolitan, New York (1924-34), soldato Svejk. Later in his career, in traditional fashion, the Rome Opera (1934-43, 1962), Lyric Opera, Chicago he graduated from Ford to Falstaff and undertook Don (1955, 1957-58), and numerous other opera houses in Pasquale and Dulcamara in L’elisir d’amore. In a 1950 Italy and abroad. His repertory was vast. He conducted RAI broadcast he is Amfortas in with Callas’s conventional and unconventional operas as well as Kundry and, nearly half a century later, Germont in a introducing a variety of new works and worked with telecast of Traviata conducted by Mehta. His voice was numerous famous singers, including Battistini, an attractive sounding but lyric instrument. For EMI Chaliapin, Ponselle, Gigli, Callas and Sutherland. His [Columbia/Angel] with Callas, as well as Silvio, he recording career was exhaustive and embraced the recorded Alfio, di Luna and Marcello. HMV (1939) Verdi as well as both Tullio Serafin (1878-1968), born at Rottanova di Angel/Columbia Normas (1954 and 1960) with Callas. Cavarzere, near Venice, was one of the great conductors of Italian opera. After studying at the Milan Conservatory at first he was a violinist in the orchestra Michael Scott at La Scala, Milan, then in 1900 at Ferrara began a is the author of Maria Meneghini Callas

Synopsis Act I

Prologue 2 As the curtain rises, a trumpet call is heard and the sound of a drum. The people of the village, in their best 1 After the orchestral introduction, with its themes of clothes for the Feast of the Assumption, gather to see the clown’s tragedy, of love and of jealousy, Tonio the players arrive. comes forward, seeking the indulgence of the audience. He explains that the coming play is true, not fiction, and 3 Canio, standing on his cart, announces the coming written from the memory of events that still affect the entertainment, promising the sight of Pagliaccio’s writer. It is a story of love, hatred and sorrow. The revenge and of the intrigues and discomfiture of the audience should understand that actors are human, with clown Tonio. Tonio makes to help Nedda down from feelings like those of the audience. He calls on the the cart and is cuffed by Canio, who takes her by the actors to begin. arm. Beppe drags the cart away, while Tonio threatens revenge. A group of villagers invite the players to drink with them, but Tonio alone refuses. The villagers 8.111024 6 suggest that Tonio wants to stay behind to pay court to imprudence. He tells her that Canio and Beppe are in Nedda, which forces a reluctant smile from Canio. the tavern, but she explains what has just happened with Tonio. 4 Canio tells them that it is better not to joke like that, because acting and real life are not the same. On the @ Silvio begs her to stay with him, when the players stage Pagliaccio catches his wife with her lover, a move on the next day. He tries to persuade her, if it is subject for comedy, but if Nedda seriously were to be true that she never loved Canio, to escape with him that caught out like that it would be quite another matter. night. The villagers ask him if he is serious, but Canio tells them he adores his wife, whom he now kisses. # She pleads with him not to disturb her life by such temptation, as he continues to urge her. They are 5 Excitedly the villagers welcome the sound of the observed by Tonio, who slips away to the tavern. bagpipes, but it is time for Vespers. Canio tells those who have invited him to wait for a moment, while he $ Silvio continues, declaring that Nedda has goes behind the stage erected in the village square. bewitched him and recalling the times they have spent together. Nedda gives way, ready to yield completely to 6 To the sound of the bells, the villagers prepare to go his pleas. to the church for Vespers, % Tonio has found Canio, whom he now leads to the 7 Nedda is left alone and thinks that Canio may scene. They hear the lovers plan to elope that night, but discover her secret love. She welcomes the mid-August Silvio, unrecognised by Canio, makes his escape. Canio sunshine and the birds, that her mother understood so chases after him, while Tonio expresses his satisfaction. well. Returning, Canio presses Nedda to reveal the name of her lover, but she refuses to divulge it. He threatens her 8 She delights in the birds, singing and flying through with a dagger, but is restrained by Beppe, who urges the sky, towards the realisation of their desires, Canio to make ready for the play, as the people are whatever may come, as her thoughts do. leaving the church. Tonio tells Canio that it is better to pretend and that he will watch out for Nedda’s lover, 9 She is interrupted by Tonio, who has been listening. who will be in the audience. Beppe urges Canio to make She laughs at him. ready and tells Tonio to bang the drum.

0 Tonio tells her that, although he may be ugly and ^ Canio is distraught and finds his task hard, to play deformed, he has his own dream and is in love with her. the clown in these circumstances. She finds the idea ridiculous and tells him to keep his desires for the play and his simpering for the stage. He & He must don his costume and make-up to amuse the tells her not to laugh and insists that she hear him. He public, whatever his own feelings. tries to kiss her and she strikes him with a whip. He goes, vowing revenge, while she declares that she is not Intermezzo afraid of him, ugly as he is in mind as in body. * In the orchestral interlude themes from the ! Silvio appears, rebuked by Nedda for his Prologue are heard. 7 8.111024 Act II window, telling her to pour a draught from the bottle into Pagliaccio’s drink, before he goes to sleep. She ( Beppe comes forward sounding the trumpet, while promises to join him that night, overheard by Tonio bangs the drum. Beppe then arranges the benches Pagliaccio. for the audience, who now come excitedly in, urged on by Tonio as they take their places. Silvio is among ¢ Pagliaccio reproaches Columbina, who declares them, taking a seat in the front row and then moving to that he is mad or drunk. He sees two places set at the exchange a word with Nedda, who is collecting ticket table, but she tells him the other place was for Taddeo. money. She tells him to be careful but that Canio has Called in, Taddeo pretends to be afraid, assuring not recognised him. The audience is impatient, while Pagliaccio that his wife is pure and chaste, to the Beppe tries to deal with them. Eventually he and Nedda amusement of the audience. Pagliaccio insists on go behind the stage. A bell sounds and the curtain is knowing the man’s name. drawn back. ∞ Unable to restrain himself any longer, Canio La Commedia declares that he is no longer Pagliaccio, now demanding retribution, blood to wipe out disgrace. He reminds ) The scene is a little room with two side-doors and a Nedda how he found her, an orphan, almost dead from window in the background. There is a table and two hunger, and gave her a name and his love. The audience chairs. Nedda, as Columbina, is seated at the table, from comments on the realism of the scene, while Canio time to time looking round impatiently to the door. She continues his reproaches. Nedda coldly tells him to let stands and looks through the window, walking up and her go, if she is unworthy of him. He will have none of down impatiently. Her husband Pagliaccio is late it, but must know the name of her lover, as he seeks, coming back, and why is that idiot Taddeo not there. seemingly, to return to the play again. Nedda tries to continue her part and assures him that it was the timid, ¡ She hears the plucked strings of a guitar from harmless Arlecchino who was with her. Canio, though, outside and with a cry of joy runs to the window, accuses her of infidelity and demands the name of her serenaded by Beppe as Arlecchino. lover or her life, but she refuses to tell him, as the audience begins to realise that the scene is real, not ™ She signals to him that the coast is clear, but Tonio, acting. as Taddeo, comes in and declares his love for her; her husband is away and now they are alone. Ironically he § She refuses to name her lover. Beppe tries to praises her purity, as white as snow. Meanwhile intervene, but is held back by Tonio. Canio seizes a Arlecchino has made his way into the room, carrying a knife from the table, as Nedda tries to escape among the bottle, which he puts on the table. He takes Taddeo by audience. Canio seizes her and strikes her with the the ear and gives him a kick, turning him out. knife. As she falls, she calls on Silvio for help. He cries out and is stabbed to the heart by Canio, who is £ Columbina and Arlecchino embrace. He sits down disarmed by the audience. Tonio declares that the play at the table, while Columbina sets two places and puts a is over – La commedia è finita. chicken on the table. They are interrupted by the return of Taddeo, announcing the arrival of Pagliaccio. Columbina tells Arlecchino to go and he leaps out of the Keith Anderson 8.111024 8 NAXOS Historical LEONCAVALLO: Pagliacci 8.111024 was Time 72:45 Playing Pagliacci .The of the freshness , Rosenthal Harold Opera Pagliacci one of four rôles Callas never sang in rôles Callas never one of four the theatre. 1955 In the November issue of Nedda in Leoncavallo’s in Leoncavallo’s Nedda writes of this 1954 recording, “I think that Serafin has made this set into the definitive music, which after all has become very hackneyed, of the is one of the joys set; of Callas another is the Nedda which is a most convincing characterisation.Tonio Her scene with is one of the most vivid pieces operatic acting I can recall…”. With a Tito from menacing Tonio Gobbi uninhibited and characteristically Serafin,Tullio conducting from the one of to this day remains recording the classics of gramophone. Act IILa Commedia 18:10 4:09 § - ( ) Ruggero (1858 – 1919) Pagliacci LEONCAVALLO Tullio Serafin Tullio at Teatro alla Scala,Teatro Milan at Recorded 12th-17th June,Recorded 1954 Vittore Veneziani,Vittore Chorus Master ADD Chorus and Orchestra of Teatro alla Scala,Teatro Milan of Chorus and Orchestra PrologueAct IIntermezzo 7:48 3:17 39:21 8.111024 & Canio . Giuseppe Di Stefano Nedda . Maria Callas Tonio . Tito Gobbi Silvio . Rolando Panerai Beppe . Nicola Monti Reissue Producer and Restoration Engineer:Reissue Producer Mark Obert-Thorn photo:Cover Maria Callas at home in Milan, 1955 November (Gina Guandalini Collection, used with kind permission) be accessed at www.naxos.com/libretti may A libretto www.naxos.com - 1 2 *

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NAXOS Historical LEONCAVALLO: Pagliacci 8.111024