prepackaged pathos
Those of you cher public who ordered and enjoyed Decca’s bargain Wagner box
The set, Puccini: The Operas
- Manon Lescaut (Montserrat Caballe, Placido Domingo, New Philharmonia, Bruno Bartoletti)
- La boheme (Mirella Freni, Nicolai Gedda, Rome Opera Orchestra, Thomas Schippers)
- Tosca (Maria Callas, Carlo Bergonzi, Tito Gobbi, Paris Conservatoire Orchestra, Georges Pretre)
- Madama Butterfly (Victoria de los Angeles, Jussi Bjorling, Rome Opera Orchestra, Gabriele Santini)
- La fanciulla del West (Birgit Nilsson, Joao Gibin, La Scala Orchestra, Lovro von Matacic)
- La rondine (Robert Alagna, Angela Gheorghiu, London Symphony Orchestra, Antonio Pappano)
- Il tabarro (Neil Shicoff, Maria Guleghina, London Symphony Orchestra, Antonio Pappano)
- Suor Angelica (Cristina Gallardo-Domas, Philharmonia Orchestra, Antonio Pappano)
- Gianni Schicchi (Tito Gobbi, Victoria de los Angeles, Rome Opera Orchestra, Gabriele Santini)
- Turandot (Birgit Nilsson, Franco Corelli, Renata Scotto, Rome Opera Orchestra, Francesco Molinari Pradelli)
I love Roberta Alexander to bits full stop. Thank God for Harnoncourt- without him she would barely have found her way onto record at all.
The Fanciulla was originally scheduled to be Callas-Corelli-Gobbi. Callas dropped, then Corelli, then Gobbi. They should have included the Gobbi Tabarro – simply masterful, although Naxos has issued a remastering in Europe that is wonderful. Same with the De Los Angeles – Di Stefano Butterfly.
Also regarding the live Corelli Fanciulla – I’ve never heard the Frazzoni performance in better than barely tolerable sound. There is also an act one of Fanciulla from the MET with Steber – he bowed out after act one and gave way to his cover – who ended up being the first leading tenor to sing in the new house – Gaetano Bardini. And Corelli did the Met broadcast on January 8, 1966, so that must exist somewhere – though I have never seen it. Mike
although Roocroft was raggedy of voice in those ROH Tatyanas, she was so unbelievably touching, I thought. She did Desdemona in about 2000, possibly 2001, in absolutely glorious voice, and it remains one of the most fantastic role assumptions I have seen – seriously – because not only was the singing close to flawless, but her ability to inspire sympathy without being a door mat was just extraordinary. When she filled in for Fleming a couple of years back in the same role, her singing wasn’t what it was, but she was still way more communicative and affecting than Fleming, once she showed up (I saw both), and i think my position on Fleming is clear. I then heard all these rumours about how Roocroft had changed teacher and sorted a lot out ahead of those ENO Jenufas, and it was the most gratifying thing to discover that it was actually true – the wobble at the top had gone, she had even registers again, and was better than she ever had been.
I know one generally gets ridiculed on here for enthusing about Roocroft, and granted, the actual voice itself may not be first rate, but it is a fine instrument, she did bloody good work when she was young, and she is doing bloody good work once more.
She was great in that Otello, cockyk. I wrote a review of the big screen relay for the old paper version of Parterre. Cura was the draw, but Roocroft stole the night.
She was overpraised though, I think, when she was young. I remember there being a huge furore over her Fiordiligi at RNCM, when she was being touted as THE great soprano of the coming age. Soon afterwards she sang Sophie (a really very odd casting for her, even then) with WNO and I remember wondering what all the fuss had been about. I think she counts as a good second division soprano. Sorry, a good Coca-Cola Championship soprano. One must move with the times.
Roberta Alexander is up for an interesting Bernstein evening in Rotterdam next January. A very classy singer indeed:
http://tinyurl.com/5y3fyw
I love Roberta Alexander. I even sat through the dreadfully dull Porgy at the MET to see her. She was great in Janacek, Mozart, and her Mahler 4 with Haitink (early digital era, NLA) is just about perfect, with her range and beauty. I’ve never heard it sung better, and I’ve got at least 15 versions…
Way back when I was a budding opera queen and had just learned that my local public library had opera videos to lend out, for some reason I checked out the Glyndebourne Jenůfa with Roberta Alexander. Her performance just blew me away, and though it must be about 20 years since I watched it, I still remember it vividly.
Roberta Alexander – one of the finest especially her American composers song series (Bernstein, Ives, Copland)
I have somewhere a cassette (oh, that makes me feel old) of Der Schauspieldirektor on one side, and Salieri’s ‘Prima la musica’ on the other. Alexander plays the prima donna on the latter, and in her big aria goes down to what I think is a bottom G. It’s not a great noise, but it’s a game one. And I love her Elvira on the underrated Harnoncourt DG.
EMI is not the only one issuing a great Puccini operas series. DECCA has put out a 15CD set of Puccini Opera with Tebaldi.
Manon Lescaut: Molinari Pradelli, Tebaldi,
Del Monaco, Boriello, Corena
Boheme: Serafin, Tebaldi, Bergonzi
Tosca: Molinari=Pradelli, Tebaldi, Del monaco, London
Buuterfly: Serafin, Tebaldi, Bergonzi
Fanciulla: Capuana, Tebaldi, Del Monaco
Turandot: Erede, Borkh, Tebaldi, Del Monaco
Trittico: Gardelli, Tebaldi, Simionato, Corena, Del Monaco
It’s a pretty great set
http://www.amazon.com/Puccini-The-Great-Opera-Collection/dp/B000YCLR6K/ref=pd_bbs_5?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1223244841&sr=8-5