Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945)
L’amico Fritz (1891)
Suzel – Salome Jicia (soprano)
Fritz – Charles Castronovo (tenor)
Beppe – Teresa Iervolino (mezzo-soprano)
David – Massimo Cavalletti (baritone)
Federico – Dave Monaco (tenor)
Hanezò – Francesco Samuele Venuti (bass)
Caterina – Caterina Meldolesi (soprano)
Orchestra e Coro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino/Riccardo Frizza
rec. live, 1 and 3 March 2022, Sala Zubin Mehta, Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Italy
Italian libretto with English translations enclosed.
Reviewed as download from press preview.
Dynamic CDS7960.02 [2 CDs: 95]
Mascagni’s second opera, L’amico Fritz, premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 31 October 1891, a year and a half after Cavalleria rusticana, and with the success of Cav in mind, other houses followed suit. Hamburg was on the track some ten weeks later, with Gustav Mahler conducting, and Covent Garden staged it in May 1892. It even reached Australia (Melbourne) within less than a year. As time went by interest gradually waned, but it is still the second most-played of Mascagni’s operas, and is regularly heard in Italy. It is quite different from its predecessor. Whereas Cav reeks with passion, jealousy, violence and death, L’amico Fritz is a more civilized, domestic story – but there is no lack of passion and a happy end ensues. Several arias and the unavoidable Intermezzo from Cavalleria are well-known to most opera lovers, but very little from Fritz has attained household status. The Cherry Duet from Act II probably comes closest, but there is still much to admire, not least the Intermezzo played before Act III. While it is not as immediately catchy as the one from Cavalleria, it is still well-constructed and beautiful, and all of the act that follows is truly gripping; with two well-endowed and expressive singers this can be great opera.
With so experienced a conductor as Riccardo Frizza at the helm of Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the ring is raked (as we say in Swedish) for a high-octane performance, and after a somewhat stilted first act, the inspiration flows uninterruptedly. The singing is on an elevated level. As Fritz, Charles Castronovo, an American tenor with a Sicilian father and an Ecuadorian mother, has all the required southern glow and lyrical beauty of tone, Suzel is sung by the Georgian soprano Salome Jicia, who has made a comet-like career the last few years. I recently heard her in a Bellini opera and wrote, “She has a wonderful instrument: beautiful, powerful, absolutely steady but also touchingly vulnerable,“ There is no need to modify these words; I need only to add that when she and Castronovo sing together in the Cherry Duet – but even more in the third act – it almost feels that we are back in time to the premiere in 1891, when the roles were sung by Fernando De Lucia and Emma Calvé. Another singer I recently discovered is mezzo-soprano Teresa Iervolino, who was an excellent Orlando in Porpora’s L’Angelica. Here in another trouser role, she sings Beppe with golden tone. Massimo Cavalletti is a characterful David, and the minor roles are fine. The drawback is the usual with live recordings: a certain amount of stage noise. It is annoying, of course, but I’ve heard much worse. There is applause – well-deserved – but the recording in general cannot be faulted.
As for competition, there is little to choose from. Mascagni’s own recording from 1942 – made 50 years after the premiere – with Ferruccio Tagliavini and Pia Tassinari, is of course historically interesting, but the classic recording is the EMI set from 1968 under Gavazzeni with the young Luciano Pavarotti and Mirella Freni; it still holds its position after 55 years. There is also a DG set from 2009 with Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu, which I haven’t heard, but this newest version is certainly a worthy competitor, which should appeal to most opera lovers – except those who are allergic to stage noise and applause.
Göran Forsling
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