CHAN 3100 Book Cover.qxd 6/4/07 11:49 am Page 1 GREAT OPERATIC ARIAS GREAT OPERATIC ARIAS CHAN 3100 CHANDOS O PERA IN ENGLISH BRUCE FORD 2 PETER MOORES FOUNDATION CHAN 3100 BOOK.qxd 6/4/07 11:53 am Page 2 Bruce Ford as Antenore in Rossini’s Zelmira at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro Great Operatic Arias with Bruce Ford © Amati-Bacciardi 3 CHAN 3100 BOOK.qxd 6/4/07 11:53 am Page 4 Time Page Time Page George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) Giaochino Rossini (1792–1868) from Messiah from Armida Recitative and Aria Trio of Rinaldo, Carlo and Ubaldo (In quale aspetto imbelle) 1 ‘Comfort ye my people’ – 3:24 [p. 50] 7 ‘I lost the will to action’ 3:21 [p. 51] 2 ‘Ev’ry valley shall be exalted’ 3:31 [p. 50] with Barry Banks and Dennis O’Neil tenors from The Barber of Seville Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) Count’s Canzone (Se il mio nome) from Così fan tutte (All women are like that) 8 ‘My poor heart is so full of emotion’ 2:47 [p. 51] Ferrando’s Aria (Un’aura amorosa) 3 ‘Her beauty’s a wonder’ 4:34 [p. 50] from Petite Messe solennelle Aria (Domine Deus) from The Clemency of Titus 9 ‘Lord God almighty’ 5:21 [p. 52] Titus’s Aria (Se al impero) 4 ‘If this empire’ 4:57 [p. 50] from Otello Otello and Iago’s Duet (Non m’inganno) from Così fan tutte 10 ‘It is certain. She wrote this letter’ 7:19 [p. 52] Ferrando’s Recitative and Cavatina (Tradito, schernito) with Paul Nilon tenor 5 ‘All my thoughts are in turmoil’ – ‘Betrayed me… Abused me…’ 3:51 [p. 50] Hector Berlioz (1803–1869) from Benvenuto Cellini from The Clemency of Titus Cellini’s Romance (La gloire était ma seule idole) Titus’s Aria (Del più sublime soglio) 11 ‘One hour to wait now’ – 6 ‘The true sublime enjoyment’ 2:46 [p. 51] ‘My life to art I dedicated’ 5:33 [p. 54] 4 5 CHAN 3100 BOOK.qxd 6/4/07 11:53 am Page 6 Time Page Time Page Giaochino Rossini Richard Tauber (1891–1948) from Zelmira from Old Chelsea Antenore’s Aria (Che vidi amici) ‘My heart and I’ 12 6:38 [p. 54] ‘What is this, companions?’ 15 ‘We are in love with you’ 3:53 [p. 56] with Toby Stafford-Allen baritone and Geoffrey Mitchell Choir Richard Rodgers (1902–1979) Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791–1864) from Oklahoma! from The Crusader in Egypt 16 2:43 [p. 56] Adrian’s Prayer (Suono funerea) ‘Oh, what a beautiful mornin’’ TT 72:53 13 ‘Death’s unrelenting call’ 6:48 [p. 55] with Geoffrey Mitchell Choir Bruce Ford tenor London Philharmonic Orchestra George Frideric Handel (arr. Mozart) Gareth Hancock assistant conductor from Messiah David Parry 14 Aria: ‘Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion’ 4:13 [p. 55] 6 7 CHAN 3100 BOOK.qxd 6/4/07 11:53 am Page 8 Bruce Ford in the title Bruce Ford as Ferrando in role of The Royal Opera’s The Royal Opera’s production production of Mozart’s Cooper © Bill of Mozart’s Così fan tutte The Clemency of Titus © Catherine Ashmore 8 9 CHAN 3100 BOOK.qxd 6/4/07 11:53 am Page 10 Among the Rossini operas sampled here is have specialised in Rossini than hitherto), the Great Operatic Arias his Otello, the title-role of which calls for a tenor most likely to come to mind is probably tenor who, while having the flexibility and Nicolai Gedda. In his prime he had the Each issue in this series of solo recitals presents, It is no disparagement of the three upward range of his Count Almaviva in traditional lyric tenor’s sweetness and, in his in the first place, an individual artist, a singer distinguished lyric tenors mentioned just The Barber, also requires a darker, weightier early days especially, a winning lightness of who has been selected on merit and whose now, nor of Bruce Ford himself, to say that tone in reserve, something closer to the touch. His voice was wide in its range and qualities can be more fully appreciated when anyone who knows his art well might hesitate modern heroic tenor. The part was written for well-practised in fluency, and his thorough they are shown in sequence over a wide to place him side-by-side with them. For one Manuel Garcia, first sung by Andreas Nozzari, musicianship and linguistic skills helped him repertory rather than merely as one part in the thing, he belongs to this later age which has then becoming a favourite with Gilbert master an extensive repertory. Otherwise it context of a whole opera. But the intention goes developed a special expertise in florid music Duprez. Nozzari had a powerful voice with a might be necessary to look further afield, to a little further. The singers represent, in turn, a such as not so long ago was widely held to two-and-a-half octave range, from the bass the Russian virtuoso tenor Ivan Kozlovsky or particular type of voice, the ‘coloratura’ soprano have been un-singable since the days of the A to a top D. Duprez is said to have go further back to some of the earlier French for instance, the lyric baritone or the dramatic virtuosi for whom it was written. The tenor revolutionised the public expectations of an school and the endlessly fascinating Fernando bass. With each type goes its appropriate parts in Rossini’s operas are an example. Mr operatic tenor, astonishing his audiences with De Lucia. At all events, it would be no more repertory, and another part of the scheme is to Ford’s previous recital ended with the aria high notes from the chest, up to the top C. than justice to suggest that today’s listener explore and illustrate this. The present disc is the ‘Finish this futile argument’ (‘Cessa di più He was also famous for the voix sombrée, the should realise that the singer who can second in which Bruce Ford sings operatic arias resistere’) almost invariably omitted from darkened tone; also for impassioned encompass this particular field in vocal music (he has also recorded a recital of Viennese performances and recordings of The Barber declamation and, as one observer put it, a is historically something of a rarity. This is a operetta [CHAN 3088]). The first arias disc of Seville until recent times. That pointed voice of ‘molten ore’. Among his many world- voice-type of which very few can be called (CHAN 3006) presented the lyric tenor in a ahead to the present disc, putting him premieres was Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini, typical. ‘central’ programme, with well-known arias such historically within a different category, for whose love song is another item in this A gentle irony, then, for British readers at as Handel’s ‘Where’er you walk’, Donizetti’s ‘I nothing we know from records or reports of programme, introducing the lyric tenor to a least, may attach itself to the realisation that, saw the tear’ (‘Una furtiva lagrima’), the the earlier tenors mentioned, as representatives style of singing which will stand up to the laid out chronologically, the recital opens with Serenade from Bizet’s The Fair Maid of Perth of their times, suggests that their exercise of more robust role assigned to the orchestra. a solo from Handel’s Messiah. For two and the Hindu song from Rimsky-Korsakov’s the florid technique extended to encompass When we talk of a ‘voice-type’, the very centuries and more, Messiah in Britain has Sadko. This is the fare of the tenore di grazia, the this particular kind of brilliance. There is term presupposes the existence, over the years, been musical bread-and-butter, the very Tito Schipa, Heddle Nash or Léopold Simoneau more of it in this second programme, but of a number of singers who fall within the definition-by-example of what is ‘typical’, with of a generation or two ago. In this second disc, also an extension of scope which goes still category. Here it is not so easy. Leaving aside nothing exotic about it. The more interesting the type is less easily defined. further. the present generation (many more of whom point is that in a wider context this itself is 10 11 CHAN 3100 BOOK.qxd 6/4/07 11:53 am Page 12 atypical, almost a national eccentricity. For, where speed and agility meet with the associated with Mozart as a mature composer, angry with the conviction of betrayal, develops despite what has been seen as its ‘wholesome additional challenges of a long-jump and Anton Raaf, made his debut as early as 1736, a different vocal style, more akin to the plainness’, Messiah is also a masterwork by the syncopated step-change. Comparable in style six years before Handel wrote his Messiah. It passion of Verdi’s tenors in a declamatory line master of baroque. For the elements of the is the aria ‘Rejoice greatly’ (track 14 ), which was for Raaf, then sixty-seven, that Mozart which culminates in his Otello. plain-and-simple (which the Victorians tended follows the chorus of angels heard by the wrote the title-role of Idomeneo, something of But before Verdi’s Otello came Rossini’s. to equate with sincerity) there is almost as shepherds at the time of Christ’s death. The whose musical and moral identity survives also The passage heard now (‘It is certain: she much in which the vocal line, for choir as well aria appears here in Mozart’s arrangement, in the magnanimous hero of The Clemency of wrote this letter’, track 10 ) corresponds to the as soloists, breaks up into sequences of florid sung by a tenor rather than Handel’s soprano.