Rl:(:ORDS building your record library number four JAMES HINTON, JR., SUGGESTS TEN BASIC OPERAS The prospect of making out a personal list of ten basic opera re- Having limited Verdi to a single opera I can do no more for cordings seems pleasant enough at first blush, but the pleasure Wagner. The new RCA Victor - courtesy of HMV - Tristan fades with contemplation. Some of the very best recorded perform- und Isolde (LM 6700: five 12 -in.) has its shortcomings, but it also ances can be heard only with the handicap of obsolete engineering has Kirsten Flagstad, Wilhelm Furtwängler and Dietrich Fischer - (like the Gigli- Caniglia Tosca, which is excellent, but not for audio- Dieskau, working well in the interests of what is perhaps Wagner's philes); some of the most potent characterizations are offered by greatest opera. If the scales are weighted too heavily in favor of singers whose days of sounding well have passed (many examples tragedy at this point, substitute the Columbia version of Die Meis- could be offered); and some works that might well be included in tersinger (sL 117: five r2-in.) as a memento of Bayreuth - and a basic library are either badly recorded, badly performed in some fall in love with Elisabeth Schwartzkopf. crucial respect, or not recorded in full at all. As an example, Norma Six selections down and no French opera yet; we should have can be heard on records, but with a shaky, though style -wise, a good recording of Bizei s Carmen. It is not an altogether typical soprano and an abominable tenor. The moral of this would appeal work, but it is a great one. Besides, I am feeling anti -Faust at the to Heraclitus: should Angel Records come through with a Maria moment, and good recorded performances of French operas are not Callas Norma, my present list might change in a gash. too plentiful. Pellfas et Mflisande I leave out on the theory that it is Given these inescapable problems of repertoire, performance too special for a basic ten; the same for Ravel's operas. The London and reproduction, what I have tried to do is compile a list of operas Carmen (an 6: three 12 -in.) with Suzanne Juyol and Libero de that are either recognized masterpieces or good representatives of Luca, may not be definitive, but it is quite reputable musically, an important genre, well enough sung and recorded so that even if very well recorded, and (as a healthy antidote to Metropolitan per- they are matched in excellence they seem unlikely to be absolutely formances of recent date) legitimately French. As a matter of fact, superseded in the near future. So, kibitz at will. some of the most polished French style on records is to be heard First, since Monteverdi is a special taste and since none of the from the low- voiced men of the Opéra Comique in the Columbia important Handel or Gluck operas seems to me to have been issue of Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann, but the fi is not inordin- recorded in completely satisfactory fashion, let me name the Colum- ately hi. bia recording (st. 114: three 12 -in.) of Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro To make one departure from the criteria of relative completeness as one that offers continuing rewards. It lacks the recitatives, to and engineering modernity, I recommend without any hesitation be sure, but Elisabeth Schwartzkopf, Irmgard Seefried, Erich Kunz, the RCA Victor reissue of a severely cut version of Strauss' Der and George London sing with such style under Herbert von Kara - Rosenkavalier (LCr 6005: two 12 -in.). If Lotte Lehmann, jan s direction that I, for one, am able to overcome my pique at Elisabeth Schumann, Maria Olszewska, and Richard Mayr are not the man who cut the tapes. My failure to name either or both ver- excuse enough for this defection I will hang my head cheerfully sions of Die Zauberßote instead may be set down as sheer Figaro- and creep away inside my old hand -wound Brunswick talking box. prejudice, for both are very fine, with the engineering advantage in For our Puccini (he must not be left out) let us choose the Lon- favor of Columbia. don La Bohème (Lt 462/3: two 12 -in.). It is his finest score, and Then, snubbing Rossini and Donizetti (how I wish there were high -fidelity reproduction has seldom served a worthier cause entirely satisfactory recordings of 11 Barbiere di Siviglia and L'Elisir than the preservation of Renata Tebaldi's beautifully sung Mimi. d' Amore to recommend!), let us take Bellini's La Sonnambula And for a Russian opera there is the HMV Boris Godunoff (LHMv (Cetra 1240: three 12 -in.), a pre -Verdi work of immense melodic 6400: four 12-in.), a real tour de force for Boris Christoff, Issay Dobro - charm, very well sung by Lina Pagliughi, Cesare Siepi, and Ferruccio wen, and the HMV engineers - and for Mussorgsky, and for Tagliavini. Rimsky- Korsakoff. To represent Verdi I would choose the RCA Victor Rigoletto To round out our ten there is Alban Berg's Wozzeck, a work (LM 6tot: three 12 -in.), because of the superb singing of Leonard that becomes tremendously vital theatre once the listener learns to Warren, Erna Berger, and Jan Peerce and because it is one of the forget about dissonance and listens to the words as the composer supreme examples of engineering skill as applied to recorded opera. sets them forth with almost frightening sensitivity. The Columbia Then, too, by naming this opera I relieve myself of the necessity recording (st. 118: two 12 -in., no libretto) is by the New York for getting out the crystal ball to choose between Toscanini's Philharmonic-Symphony and extra forces assembled by Dimitri Otello and the one that Victor de Sabata has yet to conduct for Mitropoulos for concert performances three seasons ago. Lulu London. is interesting, too, and more scatalogical, but it has not the unified Mascagnï s Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci should be included effect of Wozzeck. as a single evening's entertainment, not because they are great works So, alternatives and random digressions aside, we (or I) have musically but because they are the body and heart of verismo opera. our ten basic opera recordings. The choice is necessarily arbitrary, My personal preference for the RCA Victor Cavalleria Rusticana and many interesting works, important composers, and superb has as much to do with the fact that Zinka Milanov is the Santuzza technical productions have been passed by, not to mention the fas- as with the fact that the sound is very superior, and since her per- cinating byways of the repertoire that have had to remain unexplored. formance is inextricably boxed (in LM 61o6: three- 12in.) with the And Cetra, which has done as much for opera -on- records as any com- same company's Pagliacci I will make only passing note of the pany, and has maintained a high general standard of quality, has fact that I think Maria del Monaco is the finest Canio on records. been slighted. If you like late Verdi, try the Cetra Falstaff. 68 HIGH FIDELITY MAGAZINE www.americanradiohistory.com.