Giacomo Puccini Alberto Erede Saint Cecilia Academy Orchestra - Puccini Madama Butterfly (40 tracks) +Album Reviews +Used CD available for Swap

Beautiful Tebaldi but poor recording quality!

A reviewer | 10/05/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"That is also the main reason why I rated this edition with 4 stars.Renata Tebaldi performes wonderfully (she surely deserves 5 stars)but the recording quality is unable to catch her high-powered notes.In addition,I believe that Bergonzi (on the other Decca set with Tebaldi) is a far better tenor than Campora.The rest of the cast is very good containing a wonderful Sharpless.However,if one accepts the poor recording quality (usual for most recordings made before 1956) this edition remains a beautiful Butterfly."

Great Butterfly, terrible cast and conductor

Leroy I. Sykes | 11/29/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Renata Tebaldi shows us in this recording why her Butterfly was the best sung bar none. Her singing is astoundingly beautiful and secure. She makes full use of her special histrionic abilities. Her interpolated laughs are out of place, but she is so sincere that she can be forgiven. "Un bel dì" is marvelous. The high notes at the end are huge. Unfortunately, the recording's mono sound distorts all of Tebaldi's powerful high notes. The entire aria is sung with so much warmth and feeling that one can hardly imagine it being sung better by another soprano. However great her singing is on this recording, she has a terrible cast to support her. Giuseppe Campora makes an ardent and believable Pinkerton, but he just does not have the style of Carlo Bergonzi on Tebaldi's second "Butterfly". Alberto Erede, the conductor, should have pounded home the orchestral climax of the love duet like most conductors do. Instead, he makes it sound weak and underpowered. His conducting is very routine. Giovanni Inghilleri is just terrible as Sharpless. Rolando Panerai should have been picked for this role. Now there was a really great Sharpless. Nell Rankin stinks as Suzuki. An Italian mezzo-soprano would have done this role much more justice. Rankin's Italian is very poor and most of the R's are not even rolled. The others in the cast do an OK job. If you get Tebaldi's other "Butterfly", be prepared for a voice that has lost its wonderful youthful sheen, but still retains its gorgeous timbre. She also sings "Un bel dì" and the "Death Scene" quite differently than she does on this recording. That recording should be your first choice for any "Butterfly" recording. Do not purchase Renata Scotto's first recording of "Madama Butterfly". She is not a spinto and therefore, cannot do vocal justice to the very demanding role of Cio-Cio San. Her rendition of "Un bel dì" makes that recording inferior to Tebaldi's second recording of this Puccinian masterpiece. "Un bel dì" is sung so slowly that it ruins the aria's beauty. Also, the high notes at the end are weak and are only held for a very short time. Scotto's voice was incompatible with the role's enormous vocal demands. Any of Victoria de los Angeles' studio recordings of "Madama Butterfly" are worth your while. Her voice is absolutely beautiful on those recordings. However, her Italian, while perfectly pronounced, sounds very strange to my ears. Oh well. Happy CD shopping!"

Early Butterfly from the great Renata Tebaldi

klavierspiel | TX, USA | 01/16/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The singing of the young Renata Tebaldi is the principal reason to own this 1951 recording of Puccini's opera. She was never the most compelling actress either on stage or record, and her attempts at a girlish characterization in the first act are unconvincing. But it's hard to resist the diva in her loveliest, freshest voice, and although some top notes already have a hint of hardness, more are free and easy; there are some beautiful floated pianissimi in the Flower Duet and a convincing top C to cap the first act, something Tebaldi would not be able to rely on later in her career. She summons reams of pathos for the tragic finale.

I've dwelt at length on Tebaldi. Although her supporting cast is by no means "terrible," to quote another reviewer, there are stronger representatives of all of the other roles on record. Giuseppe Campora in particular can sound strained on top and lumpish in phrasing, though he also produces some nice soft singing in the first-act love duet. Nell Rankin (Suzuki) and Giovanni Inghilleri (Sharpless) are acceptable. Alberto Erede leads a good orchestral rendering of the score by the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, but they are ill-served by the dated mono sound--not much lushness comes through and the big climaxes are muted in their impact."

Excellent, emotional performance

A reviewer | Ky, USA | 05/14/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Yes, the sound quality isn't great, but you can hear the singers pretty well, even if the orchestra is a little muddy, which is fine, because the singers are definitely the reason to buy this Butterfly. Often, in studio recordings, a lot of acting (and hence phrasing and whatnot) are lost, so a studio recording can seem like a mechanized affair. However, in this recording, the singers seem to be singing to each other, and the emotion of Butterfly is captured. Don't let a little poor sound quality turn you away from this gem of a performance."

A Tebaldi/Campora Masterpiece

Leroy I. Sykes | Flagstaff, AZ USA | 09/11/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Tebaldi/Campora blending of voices in this recording is truly magnificent. I have loved this recording for over 60 years. Allow me to point out what I think are some of its highlights. In the first act, when Goro introduces Butterfly and her bevy of friends to Pinkerton ("Ecco, son giunte...") one hears Butterfly's offstage voice singing "Ancora un passo or via" (Just one more step to go) and the music and female choral voices of her friends join and intertwine into a beautiful musical introduction of the young Madama Butterfly, the heavens, the sea and the view from the summit of the mountain they all just climbed. The beauty of this introduction is frequently neglected by many conductors and audiences and proceeds with musical indifference. Not so, by Maestro Erede. It is given the importance it deserves in a masterful blending of the orchestra and the voices.

Most conductors save all of their ammunition for the love scene ending the first act. Erede is no exception and builds on the voices of Tebaldi and Campora. He joins them subtly at first, with the orchestra into a fragile but beautiful threading of sound until it waxes into a magnificent crescendo ending in climax of indescribable beauty.

Tebaldi's portrayal of the young Japanese girl is excellent with the type of vocal variety one would expect of a 15-year-old girl. In the second act, Tebaldi's voice sounds more mature as are her actions. She defends her husband's (Pinkerton's) absence insisting that he will return in the beautiful "Un bel di" (One fine day) aria. Overall Tebaldi's vocal facility and beauty are auditory wonders.

Giuseppe Campora deserves some discussion. He has been an overlooked and unheralded tenor in this country. Campora was very well known and respected in Europe. He was at home in a smaller venue and lacked the power needed to fill the Metropolitan or other extremely large halls. As Pinkerton in this recording and Cavaradossi in the Tosca recording with Tebaldi, Campora exhibits impeccable diction, style, and a perectly lovly spinto tenor voice. He is certainly on par with a Tucker, Vargas or Bergonzi.

Finally,one must take into account that this was recorded in 1951. Do not expect a grandiose stereophonic soirée. Expect a superlative rendering (at an unbelievably low price) of Puccini's Madama Butterfly."

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