Master class
In response to the recent lively(ish) discussion about the suitability of Maria Guleghina to the rigors of the role of Elena in I vespri siciliani, La Cieca has decided that she should demonstrate how this music should be sung. No, actually La Cieca is not going to sing it herself; rather, she will present Renata Scotto‘s peerless interpretation from La Scala in 1970. This will also mark La Scotto’s debut with Unnatual Acts of Opera, and an overdue debut it is when you recall that she is La Cieca’s favorite singer, ever. La Cieca once opined that Scotto is the nearest anyone ever came to being the Bette Davis of opera; for that matter, La Davis could certainly be called the Scotto of the Silver Screen. But La Cieca digresses. This gala Vespri also stars Ruggiero Raimondi, Piero Cappuccilli and Gianni Raimondi, under the baton of Gianandrea Gavazzeni. Maestro G. took a number of cuts in the score, which means that we have time for some delightful extras following the acts, with Leyla Gencer, Anita Cerquetti, Boris Christoff and Renato Bruson headlining. It all begins Monday on Unnatural Acts of Opera.
I agree that JS never really had a great top E-natural. Even those very early recordings (such as the Bell Song) show slight technical imperfectin in the High E. (Not that it matters in the slightest, and I would never insult our Joan.)
But have you given a GOOD listen to the final E in that first Bell Song? She almost loses it! But those early Semiramide E’s are magnificent, as are the Vespri Bolero and the Rossini “Vorrei Spiegarvi.”
Interestingly, let us talk about her high E-natural in her second recording of Lucia, with Pavarotti, from the early 70′s. Has anyone noticed that she and MIlnes sing the “Sei tradirmi” (I think those are the words) duet in Act II in they key of A-major, not the printed G-major. Of course, Bonynge says that A-major is the original key, and I’ve never taken time to verify that, but I’ll not take issue with it.
Well, the Interpolator agrees that OVERALL the key of A-major is a better one for that final duet, and gives much better color and bite to the music. But — come on, now — let’s just listen to that High E-natural. Have you noticed that it acutally takes Dame Joan a few seconds to truly spin into the note? Then, after she grabs hold of it, she just won’t let go and allow the breath to take over — she’s just “got it by sheer force of will and muscle — and then, all of a sudden, she let’s go. The spin kicks in, the vibrato evens out, the pitch steadies, and the note is clean. But all too quickly, she’s got to portamento down to the high A because she spent too much time (and too much air, I guess) at the attack — which just doesn’t sound right to the Interpolator’s ears.
But listen to it, and see what you think. Every high note on that set is quite spectacular — except that one. To my knowledge, this was the last High E that Dame Joan recorded — and I wonder if they shouldn’t have left if in G-major and given us a fab high D to conclude? Well, probably not: the A-major sounds wonderful, and the Interpolator does admit: the high E is exciting, even if not perfect.
And yes, she was not up to a high E by the time she recorded Mozart’s Vorrei Spiegarvi, and Bonynge found a creative way around it. But still, the Interpolator wonders whether Dame Joan (or the engineers at Decca!) could have “found a way” for her to get up there — just for the recording — even though that note was no longer for public consumption on the stage. Dame Joan was known for never “tweaking” much with studio recordings, but the Interpolator admits that he misses the high E in that recording.
By the way, LTDCS and LTDG, the Interpolator made a longer and much more interesting post in Cieca’s “Sound and Fury” topic.
I decided to post this under this entry merely because there is a potrait of the diva placed here by La Cieca. Discussion about Scotto has ensued immensely on this site and I would like to ask if any other readers (probably ITDG) have ever heard the live recording of Bellini’s “I Capuletti e Montecchi” with Scotto, Aragall, and Pavarotti. I am listening to it right now and I think it is some of Scottos most AMAZING singing. Alas, I am not as familiar with this opera as I would like – really the only things I am familiar with are the two famous arias – O quante volte and Tybalts famous tenor aria. I just listened to some extremely high interpolated note at the end of on act. The note itself starts great and ends a little shakey, but it really is fantastic nonetheless.
What I would like to state about this particular recording which is the reason I was so drawn to it in the first place (a friend lent it to me which I burned on my computer and now am taking the opportunity to listen to while doing some other work), is because there is no mezzo-soprano singing Romeo. Giacomo Aragall (a wonderful tenor, especially in French repertoire) is singing Romeo and Luciano is singing Tybalt. This is making me feel the need to run and get my hands on a good edition of the score to find out if he is actually singing the music as written for the mezzo or if the keys of the opera have been altered. Does anyone know which is the case? Interpolator, have you ever encountered this in your career?
This particularly interests me because when I was in my early years in college, I was looking for some new arias at the time, and wanted to find me a good Bellini aria. I sat down and flipped through the pages of all his operas and came across this one (which at that point I didn’t know at all) and immeadiately turned to Romeo’s aria expecting it to be written for tenor (mind you, the edition did not include a character list nor an index) and I was so evil to discover that such low notes had been written. I certainly didn’t have such low notes in my range – and then I realized that it was written for mezzo which I found severely disappointing and of course, I couldn’t sing Tybalt’s music, it was far too heavy for me at the time. But of course, if this recording means that it is acceptable for a tenor to sing Romeo’s part, I think I would find it much more to my liking than Tybalt’s part, which still doesn’t sit quite right for me. Certainly it will in a few years, but at the moment, I prefer to stick with my Rossini, Mozart, Fenton, Nadir, and Gerald’s. At any rate, it’s a GREAT recording and Luciano is singing his ass off! and Scotto is brilliant!
My Dear ITDCS, I don’t have the recording that you mention, but I do remember hearing it once. I also sort of remember reading an article about the performance. At the Rome Opera, right? Around 1964? It was at the very beginning of Pavarotti’s career and I guess also at the beginning of Scotto’s although by then she was already a known leading singer and the opera was being mounted specifically for her.
My understanding (rumor mill, guess, divine inspiration, who knows?) was that the theater had three tenors available and saw this as a good way of not taking the spotlight away from the leading lady.
I think that at the time – mid 60′s ? – there may have been a bit of fad for doing this. For example, La Scala mounted a new production of Gounod’s “Faust” with a tenor singing Siebel. (Again, vague recollection tells me it was Luigi Alva.) And remember that when Beverly Sills had her big success in Handel’s “Giulio Cesare,” also in the mid-60′s, Cesare was sung by a bass: Norman Treigle.
The bel canto revival was hot at the time and perhaps this was an attempt at recreating the early 1800′s spirit of adventure ?
Different subject: happy with last week’s auditions? I hope so,
ITDG,
Thank you for your response.
I did manage to do a bit of investigating about the opera…Kobbe states the following: “A ‘new’ version of the score by Claudio Abbado with Romeo sung by a tenor was first given at la Scala, Milan in 1966, with Renata Scotto, Giacomo Aragall, Luciano Pavarotti (Tebaldo)” and then lists some future performances of this work in Edinburgh, Montreal and Philadelphia in 1968.
I have a close connection with a very close relative of Scotto’s and so I brought the subject up with this individual who told me first hand that the opera was scheduled for Abbado’s debut at la Scala. Scotto, however, refused to sing the opera with a female Romeo and thus insisted that Abbado find a way to adjust the part for tenor. The individual was unaware if the keys had been altered or not, but, seeing as I will be working with the diva herself come the end of Spring, I think I will wait and ask her myself and thereby get a (hopefully) honest response and the opportunity to understand this scenario better. Alas, it doesn’t seem that there is any evidence that supports a like-performance during or shortly after Bellini’s lifetime – even though I did mention at one point after listening to Vasselina Kasarova’s Rossini album where she sings the Otello duet with JDF and she is singing the tenor role of Otello! This, according to those liner notes, was a practice employed by very virtuostic and deeply dramatic female singers of the 19th century. Perhaps it is not so criminal for a male to do the same in certain instances. Granted, I think most people would shit a Mach truck if a tenor or a baritone ever attempted to sing Cherubino (although countertenors have successfully portrayed the role!).
But as for Capuletti, ITDG, I believe there was also a performance at the Rome opera with the same cast – obviously not later than ’66 though.
You mention the instance regarding Giulio Cesare very wisely (and the info about Faust is new to me and very exciting!)…particularly in Baroque opera, especially when performed after the beginning of the 19th century, it has become a necessity in many cases to alter the vocal assignments to bring truth to both the music and the character. With the lack of avaiable castrati over the centuries and nowadays (who knows, there might be one running around somewhere on the face of this earth, although probably not an opera singer) it was essential that women began to take over their repertoire. In many situations though, baritones were found taking many of the lower female and castrati parts in opera (male characters of course) and performing them. Now with the age of countertenors upon us, everything seems pretty much a free-for-all in pre-Mozartian opera. I myself am trying to find a way to sing some fantastic (male character) Handel arias that Marilyn Horne recorded – some very fiery pieces of music with tumultuous strings or brazen trumpets! Very exciting music – very unlike most of Handel’s vocal music *gag*. I’ll take any of his orchestral music over his vocal ANY day. I’m sorry, but his concerti grossi and the violin sonatas, not to mention Water Music and the Royal Firework Music are FAR superior to any opera or oratorio that man ever put pen to. Period. End of story. There is no changing my mind about that, sorry. (I feel the same about Schubert and Schumann – *GASPS* fill the surrounding space of the readers! – Look, if you don’t know anything about these composer’s non-vocal music, then you can’t possibly know much about them. After one immerses oneself in their chamber music, piano and symphonic works, then one can appreciate much better their vocal output. Ask any instrumentalist or conductor, they will tell you the truth. Singers tend to be so caught up in vocal music that they fail to experience much beyond it…and likewise, many instrumentalists are also ignorant of anything outside their immeadiate art. String players who don’t listen to wind music and pianists who don’t care about anything but piano music and brass musicians who only care about Strauss, Mahler and Bruckner for God’s sake!!! Maybe if they took a moment to listen to some Bruckner motets, they would learn something other than how to play loudly! LOL *sigh* If you only all knew the kinds of musicians that I have encountered throughout my educations and short career – it really is amazing to me how few musicians really know anything about music!
But I digress.
ITDG, There is also an amazing history regarding Gluck’s Orfeo which he later revised into the French version Orphee with a tenor as the protagonist. Legend also has it that a german version exists where Orpheus is played by a baritone. This I have not yet come across as a proven fact so to me it still remains musical apocrypha, although performances in German have often cast a baritone in the lead. As to whether it is merely a translation of the Italian text or a version supported by Gluck himself, I have not found ample evidence to prove or disprove it.
ITDG, you seem to be one with a wonderful wealth of knowledge and I truly enjoy your input on this website. I will be shooting you an email in the near future, we can do some trading of recordings!
To answer your question, the auditions went very well and there is a strong possibility that the door of singing in Europe will be open for me fairly soon (I do hope so!). I’ll keep you posted on the results of the auditions.
Till next time! Au revoir!
Dear ITDCS, you asked a few postings ago about the I Capuletti performances with Scotto and a tenor in the mezzo place. I just saw that the Premiere Opera web site has several versions of this with Scotto and Aragall. One is supposed to be from Philadelphia in 1968. Others from 1964 in Italy.