lt Cc f)I(DL, initial appearance on microgroove. Re- DANZI Roux (b), Golaud; Xavier Depraz (bs), splendent orchestral coloring has been Q ' tets for flute, Oboe. Clarinet, Bas - Arkël; Elizabeth Brasseur Choir and Or- lavished on them by their respective com- soon, and Horn, Op. 56: No. r, in chestre des Concerts Lamoureux, Jean posers, as this brilliantly conducted and B -flat; No. 2, in G minor Fournet, cond. recorded disk well attests. P. A. Jean-Pierre Rampal, Pierre Pierlot, Jacques EPic se 6003. Three 12 -in. $11.94. Lancelot, Paul Hongne, Gilbert Coursier. Debussy's first and only opera has been CHUECA I.'OISEAU -LYRE DI. 53005. to -in. $2.95. eulogized and censured ever since its first Ague, Az,caril/as, y Aguardiente performances more than fifty years ago, Routine music of the late eighteenth cen- Torty Rosado, Ana Maria Iriarte, Maria when the Opéra -Comique reverberated to tury, animated clarity, the kind of thing the fervent cheering and booing of partisans Teresa Berganza, Maria Angeles Carchena, that Haydn, Mozart, and Boccherini trans- Antonio Pérez, Juan Encabo, Manuel Or- and detractors. Today the fever has sub- figured. Nevertheless, each of the four - Orquesta de sided, but Bellies remains controversial. tega; Cantores de Madrid, movement works has one movement truly Camara de Madrid, Ataúlfo Argenta, cond. Many people would agree with Louis inventive, while the others are lisrenable it is LONDON W 91016 io-in. $z.9S. Untermeyer that "a long and lugubri- if one does not listen hard. The French ous bore"; others become transfigured ar Bright tunes and sharp rhythms combine players are by now familiar to most disco- the mere mention of its name and hold the with a very clever libretto to give us this philes, and their casual skill in this pair of opera as an article of aesthetic faith. I find delightful little gem that has been tickling quintets seems right for the music. The myself teetering between the rwo camps. instruments have been recorded accurately audiences since it was first produced almost If 1 hear it in a properly crepuscular mood, but an effect five playing in sixty years ago. The plot itself is of the enough, of men I surrender completely to its mezzotinted slightest; it is more like a series of candid an empty room emanates from the disk, a magic and recognize it for the creative shots of Spanish life, and the results are little chilling to the beguilement expected masterpiece that it is; but 1er me hear it in from such a combination. C. G. B. irresistible. I did not have the opportunity another -more impatient- humor, and Pelléas can seem just as tiresome as un- to make a side-by -side comparison with the DEBUSSY recording which appeared some friendly critics depict ir. Montilla Pelléas et. Mélisande time ago, but if memory serves me correct- Pelléas has been recorded in its entirety ly, neither is noticeably superior to the Janine Micheal' (s), Mélisande; Rira Gorr three times. The eldest version-made in other - they are both better than just (s), Geneviève; Annik Simon (s), Yniold; Paris in 1942 under Roger Desormière's good. G. S., Jr. Camille Maurane (t), Pelléas; Michel direction -is superior interpretatively to ... to Illustrate a Half-Century of Operatic Singing omissions, and a correspondingly very full Fermi; Lauritz Melchior's Siegmund -and style and abominable French by Feodor dose of Sembrich and Enrico Caruso and so on down the years, the crop of great Chaliapin, when he made better recordings Melba, Pol Plançon and Antonio Scotti. names thinning out, still what seem some by far. Sigrid Onegin's "O don fatale" is Mattia Battistini - the fabulous Gloria odd omissions, yet the best no less good from a cold climate; Kirsten Flagstad was d'Italia, who did not sing here because the for being more familiar. hardly known here as a Weber specialist, sea made him sick - is represented by the Relative to this best, there are some nor Helen Traube! as a Gluck stylist. And Act I aria of Renato from Verdi's Un Bello disappointments, some matters of taste on where are Boni and De Luca? Where is Maschera; Adelina Patri by her sixtyish which it is not necessary to agree. Farrar's Friedrich Schorr? It is explained that Lotte Zerlina; Maurice Renaud by his Hérodiade Mann aria is not her best singing, and Lehmann is best represented elsewhere; but dream aria; Geraldine Farrar by her Emma Calvé's Carmen "Habanera" nor her so are others who are are here, and how Manor, "Gavotte," and so on. Bur no Vic- best performance of it. Surely Margarete can a survey of great singing afford to leave tor Maurel or Fernando de Lucia; no Marzenauer deserved better than a snippet - her out, especially when criteria are set Schumann- Heink; no Louise Homer; no in-duet from the same opera, and the main aside for a Nina Koshetz and a Tiana Gerville- Réache. The list could be ex- claim to inclusion of a very immature Lemnitz? tended, but the point is clear: This, like (19t t ) Claudia Muzio recording is that it The final disk, 1940.50, scrapes almost and wide in the RCA any other anthology at all, is inescapably a was made before she was signed by Colum- embarrassingly deep very personal choice, and some collectors bia. The historic Mary Garden Carmen barrel, with over half the performances for will not find their favorites represented. "Card Scene' only just balances Senta sung the microphone alone, so far as this coun- However, in this as in later decades, in not half -clear English by Florence try is concerned. Dorothy Maynor's Louise although there can still be disagreement Austral, and it seems a bit of a waste to aria has quality, but not that of any opera about the excerpts chosen to represent cer- have the whole last scene of Massenet's house, and Maggie Teytés Grétry ( "Vous is very much tain singers, there is so much fine singing sleazy Don Quichotte sung in aura -duet etiez ce que noas n'étes plus") a self In fact, the critical to be heard that the best answer to objec- like -reproach. in Mr. Kolodin's book come tions is simply another such anthology, and judgments inclusions another, and another, with all companies closer to cold truth than some that have such materials entering the com- here might indicare. petition with the best they have in their Yet however much an individual may regret the intrusion of un- favorites, the files -and doing as gored a job of engi- can hardly be blamed that the neering as RCA has done. anthologist years of the century had too many The five disks hold a total of 68 excerpts early in such a time- divided far too many to list in even the most fine singers to admit - that neither the world nor economical fashion. Among the real anthology -nor is as rich in vocal as it once was treasures are Plançon's Dort Carlo soliloquy, RCA art and may come to be again. The most in the French text that Verdi set; Caruso's really, is one of deepest tremendous "No! Pagliaccio non son"; apposite reaction, Kolndin. all, not every- Edmond Clément's exquisitely phrased "La envy of Mr. After is invited to take his pick of such a Rive"; Emmy Destinn's "O patria mia," one -trove as that of the RCA hoard. with an incredible pianissimo at the end; treasure and if some gold has been left, silver will Caruso's arias from Macbeth and L'Africana the next visit. All told, very, very (not the usual); John McCormick's aria do until highly recommended. JAMES HINTON, JR. from Méhul's Joseph; Frieda Hempel's aria I Puri :mtt; robbed of its cabaletta, from OPERATIC Goldmark aria; 5o YEARS OF GREAT Leo Slezak's fine -spun SINGING Beniamino Gigli's Andrea Chénier; Gio- Scene" vanni Marrinelli's Guillaume Tell; Tito Mary Garden sings in the "Card RCA VICTOR LCT 67O I .Five I z -in. $29.95. Schipa's Almaviva; Ezin Pinza's Dolt Gin- from Carmen. At left: Rnsario Bourdon. JUNE .1955 55 www.americanradiohistory.com.