Search - Zamboni, Merli, Conati :: Puccini: Manon Lescaut; Madame Butterfly [Germany]

Hear it now, La Scala in 1930 and New York in 1950

L. E. Cantrell | Vancouver, British Columbia Canada | 06/13/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a four-CD set that offers two complete opera recordings by Puccini: `Manon Lescaut" and "Madama [it's in Italian, after all] Butterfly."



SOURCE, "Manon Lescaut": Studio recording made in Milan in 1930 and originally issued on about thirty 45-rpm sides by Columbia Records.



SOUND, "Manon Lescaut": Surprisingly good for a 77 year-old recording. I am not so obsessive as to sit down with a score and a tuning fork, but I think that the digital remastering has more-or-less correctly regulated the notoriously unreliable pitch of the original 45s and nicely compensated for the roll-off often occurring at the ends of the old records. The worst sonic failures are located at the very beginning of the opera, for the first of the 45s was the most likely to be played and accumulate the most wear. Once past that, the overall effect is very like an early 1950s mono recording.



CAST, "Manon Lescaut": Manon Lescaut - Maria Zamboni (soprano); Renato des Grieux - Francesco Merli (tenor); Lescaut - Lorenzo Conati (baritone); Geronte De Ravoir - Attilio Bordonali (bass); Edmondo / Dancing Master / Lamplighter - Giuseppe Nessi (tenor); Innkeeper / Sergeant - Aristide Baracchi (bass-baritone); Singer - Massetti-Bassi (mezzo-soprano); Naval Commander - Natale Villa (bass).



CONDUCTOR, "Manon Lescaut": Lorenzo Molajoli with Orchestra e Coro del Teatro alla Scala di Milano.



DOCUMENTATION, "Manon Lescaut" and "Madama Butterfly": Barebones. No libretto. No plot summary. Track list that identifies singers and provides timings.



COMMENTARY: This is a very good, verismo-era recording of a verismo opera. It gives an excellent impression of what was taking place on the stage of La Scala when it was the center of the Italian operatic world, while many of the verismo composers were still on hand and active. No `Manon Lescaut" could be more authentic in style.



Maria Zamboni was a major name in Italian opera, early in the Twentieth Century. She was the very first Liu in "Turandot," sharing the stage with Raisa as Turandot and Fleta as Calaf. She provides a formidable, not particularly girlish Manon in this performance.



Francesco Merli (1887-1976) was a true tenore robusto of the Italian school, and perhaps the only dramatic tenor as elegant as he was dramatic. He is the tenor that the later Franco Corelli ought to have been. The Good Grey Gramophone Magazine, referring to his contemporaries, Gigli, Martinelli, Lauri-Volpe and Pertile, called Merli "the captain of the B-team." If that is so, than every major tenor today is struggling for a birth on the C-team. He is far and away the best Calaf I have ever heard, as well as one of the greatest recorded Manricos.



Lorenzo Conati was a dependable house baritone (incorrectly called a tenor in the cast list.) His voice is somewhat lighter and perhaps more lyrical than is fashionable among baritones today. He is a satisfactory Lescaut, if not much more.



Giuseppe Nessi (1887-1961) was La Scala's ubiquitous and absolutely reliable comprimario tenor during the 1920s, just as Alessio di Paolis would become in the 1950s and Charles Anthony at the Metropolitan, later still.



Lorenzo Molajoli (1868-1939) was Columbia's chosen conductor in the great opera recording war at the beginning of the electronic recording era. Depending on which source you consult, he conducted 16, 18 or 20 complete operas. Despite his prominence on recordings, Il Cavaliere Molajoli, like his rival in the war, Victor Sabajno, remains extraordinarily elusive with regard to biographical data. He apparently recorded with just about everybody in Milan between 1926 and 1935, but he goes almost unmentioned in the memoirs and biographies of his contemporaries. Some individuals of a conspiratorial mind-set have speculated that Molajoli was a mere facade, a pseudonym to allow Toscanini and/or others to record outside their exclusive contracts. His appearances in the historical record, however, are sufficient to establish that he actually existed. Whatever his biographical lapses, he was an superb conductor of Italian operas, a worthy peer of Tullio Serafin and not entirely overshadowed by Toscanini, himself.



SOURCE, "Madama Butterfly": Studio recording made in New York in 1949, and first released on about thirty-six 45-rpm sides.



SOUND, "Madama Butterfly": There is nothing in this set that indicates that the original matrices were remastered. I assume, therefore, that what is offered here represents pristine or near-pristine 45s adjusted for pitch and roll-off. Here, as with `Manon Lescaut," I have not been obsessive in checking for accuracy but the overall effect is pretty good--decent 1950s sound from just before the high fidelity revolution.



CAST, "Madama Butterfly": Cio-Cio San (Butterfly) - Eleanor Steber (soprano); Lieutenant Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton - Richard Tucker (tenor); Sharpless - Giuseppe Valdengo (baritone); Suzuki - Jean Madera (mezzo-soprano); Goro - Alessio de Paolis (tenor); Prince Yamadori - George Cehanovsky (baritone); The Bonze - Melchiore Luise (bass); Kate Pinkerton - Thelma Votipka (mezzo-soprano); Commissioner - John Baker (bass).



CONDUCTOR, "Madama Butterfly": Max Rudolf with the Orchestra and Chorus of the Metropolitan Opera.



COMMENTARY: This is one of the several operatic recordings of what might be called the post-War golden age of New York Singing. This "Butterfly" is as characteristic of the Metropolitan Opera in 1950 as "Manon Lescaut" above was of La Scala in 1930.



Subtlety was not high on anyone's agenda for this recording. This is very much a stand-and-deliver performance with downright athletic-sounding Butterfly. Hers is not the high art of Callas or the delicacy of any of several later Butterflies but, frankly, Steber sounds just fine to me. And Tucker, as always, is Tucker. I love the guy! Sharpless is not a role that I would naturally associate with Valdengo, but when all is said and done he is quietly unassuming (and all the more effective for it) in the role.



Eleanore Steber (1919-1990) was one of the great American singers of the Twentieth Century. Her operatic stage career extended from 1936 to 1961, although her concert career went on for several more years. She was the first American to sing at the post-War Bayreuth and she was the first Vanessa in Samuel Barber's "Vanessa."



Richard Tucker (1913-1975), born Ruvn Ticker, was also a great American singer. Along with Steber, he was a fixture at the Metropolitan Opera.



Giuseppe Valdengo (born 1914) in Torino, has a permanent place in recording history, for he was hand-picked by Toscanini to portray Sir John and Iago in his classic recordings of "Falstaff" and "Otello."



De Paolis, Cehanovsky and Votipka are superb examples of the kind of people who are invaluable to any well-run opera company, the ever-ready, always reliable, unshakeable comprimarios. Votipka (1906-1972) was particularly beloved ("Dear Tippy") at the Metropolitan Opera, where she sang for 29 years.



These are two complete operas, absolutely characteristic of their respective periods, enjoyable from start to finish, and purchasable for a remarkably low price. For anyone with a taste for historic performances, these are a pair of winners.



Five stars."