Search - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Fritz Busch, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra :: Mozart: Così fan tutte

Not what it pretends to be

T. Giordano | Italy | 03/09/2010

(1 out of 5 stars)

"Let's go straight to the point. They say "premiere release" of Così fan tutte, conducted by Fritz Busch, Glyndebourne 1951. Yeah, it's a "premiere relase" indeed, but not of Così fan tutte conducted by Fritz Bush etc. It's a "premiere release" of I don't know what. Maybe an operatic nightmare. About 5 minutes in Act 1 (not including the ouverture, which comes from Glyndebourne-Busch '35) and about 8 minutes in Act 2 are taken from different sources, NOT GLYNDEBOURNE-BUSCH 5 JULY '51 as stated on the cover. This because, just as mr. Richard Caniell, boss of Guild, explains ONLY INSIDE THE BOOKLET, the acetates he used were of such bad quality he had to assemble a Frankenstein like this. This is not Mozart, Busch, etc., it's a monster. Anyway, sound is pretty bad, sometimes horrible. Sena Jurinac has some gorgeous moments, Bruscantini is good of course, the rest is negligible. Ferrando (Richard Lewis) pronounces Italian like the Italian version of Oliver Hardy.



There's only one place for artifacts like this, the drain.





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