Every Wally shall be exalted

A while back, Trove Thursday featured La Wally in a starry La Scala broadcast from the mid-1950s.I refer any interested reader back to that post for my thoughts on this Catalani work.

I will add that this later Tebaldi performance for the American Opera Society at Carnegie Hall was likely her final Wally after having laid aside the work for a number of years. This concert was probably occasioned by her Decca commercial recording from around the same time. Given how rarely the opera is given, it’s likely this was only time Carlo Bergonzi sang Hagenbach.

Westbroek often said that her preferred fach was verismo and here is a prime opportunity to judge her suitability for the repertoire.

I could imagine the opera having been a success a decade or so ago with either Anna Netrebko or Sondra Radvanovsky, but who might be today’s Wally?

Catalani: La Wally

Wally: Renata Tebaldi
Afra: Deborah Kieffer
Walter: Isabel Penagos
Hagenbach: Carlo Bergonzi
Gellner: Peter Glossop
Stromminger: Andrzehj Saciuk
Il Pedone: Fernando Corena

Conductor: Fausto Cleva
American Opera Society, Carnegie Hall
13 March 1968
In-house recording

Wally: Magda Olivero
Afra: Laura Zannini
Walter: Ida Farina
Hagenbach: Amedeo Zambon
Gellner: Silvano Carroli
Stromminger: Nicola Zaccaria
Il Pedone: Giovanni Foiani

Conductor Ferruccio Scaglia
Teatro Donizetti, Bergamo
October 1972
In-house recording

La Wally: Carol Neblett
Afra: Marilu Anselmi
Walter: Martha Millan
Hagenbach: Ermanno Mauro
Gellner: Gianpiero Mastromei
Stromminger: Nino Meneghetti
Il Pedone: Jose Crec

Conductor: Michelangelo Veltri
Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires
16 September 1981
Broadcast

Wally: Stefka Evstatieva
Afra: Marion van den Akker
Walter: Ghyslaine Raphanel
Hagenbach: Kristjan Johannsson
Gellner: Sigmund Cowan
Stromminger: Henk Smit
Il Pedone: Henk Smit

Dutch Radio Chorus & Orchestra
Conductor: Henry Lewis
Vredenburg, Utrecht
5 April 1992
Broadcast

Wally: Eva-Maria Westbroek
Afra: Serena Malfi
Walter: Inna Dukach
Hagenbach: Mats Carlsson
Gellner: Piero Terranova
Stromminger: Kristof Klorek
Il pedone: Hugo Oliveira

Groot Omroepkoor & Radio Filharmonisch Orkest
Conductor: Guiuliano Carella
Concertgebouw, Amsterdam
27 February 2010
Broadcast

Any Wally can be downloaded by clicking on the icon of a cloud with an arrow pointing downward on the audio player above and the resulting mp3 file will appear in your download directory.

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