Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)
A te, Puccini
Angela Gheorghiu (soprano), Vincenzo Scalera (piano)
rec. 2023, St John’s Upper Norwood, London, UK
Sung texts with English translations enclosed
Signum Classics SIGCD780 [50]
Surprisingly, the songs of Giacomo Puccini have never been particularly popular. A quick search reveals few recordings, and few individual songs stand out as being regularly recorded. Kiri Te Kanawa recorded some of them but rather too late in her career, both Renata Tebaldi and Marilyn Horne recorded E l’uccellino, and Beniamino Gigli recorded Inno a Roma. This is a shame, as while there is no masterpiece here, they are lovely songs and deserve a good recording. Some use melodies you will already be familiar with if you know his operas. Sogno d’or for instance uses a theme from La Rondine while Sole e amore uses a theme he would later reuse in the third act of La Bohéme. His gift for melody means that no item here is anything less than pleasing, though finding a recording you are happy with might be a difficult task.
Angela Gheorghiu has always been a reliable soprano. She’s never had an idiomatic voice, with a somewhat veiled quality rather than a more traditionally Italianate timbre with its focus on penetration and richness of overtones. Yet, for the most part of her career, she sung with an attractive timbre and, while the voice is on the smaller side and lacking in projective qualities, she could sound beautiful on record. I saw her in Tosca some years ago, and while her lyric voice seemed over-parted in Puccini’s sweeping score she didn’t force her voice out of shape trying to be heard more clearly and she preserved her instrument for a good many years. These songs for piano and voice should have been ideal repertoire for her. Unfortunately, now, at 58 years old, real wear is starting to show and vocal problems which were left unaddressed for too long can make this album a hard listen, though some songs quite obviously come off better than others.
A te is, for the most part, unproblematic and the middle of the voice is, if lacking in those projective qualities I mentioned earlier, not too unsteady, and certainly not in lamentable shape for a soprano nearing 60. She does dip into her chest voice to give weight to some lower lying phrases though it is not properly integrated in the central octave which would have kept this area of her voice sounding fresher and fuller for longer. The more major problems, however, become immediately obvious in the second song, Salve Regina. Here there is evident strain and the upper middle and top of the voce is thin, wobbly, and out of focus. Gheorghiu never developed a properly raised girare but vocal freshness, while not giving her voice the spin and resonance it could have had, prevented the upper voice from sounding distractingly constricted. But here the sagging soft palate is an unavoidable reality of her aging voice and as such she is unable to phrase fluidly, the wobbly vibrato can distort the pitch and the basic vocal timbre is unattractive. Not all songs sound as laboured as Salve Regina but most contain moments, or stretches, where the vocal issues are all too apparent.
If you are desperate for a recording of these songs then Maria Prinz’s Complete Songs (Naxos 8.573501) is another option. The soprano has many of the same technical shortcomings as Gheorghiu but the voice is somewhat fresher and as such there are songs in which she can phrase with a little more refinement. Roberta Alexander (Etcetera KTC1050) is far fresher than either and certainly preferable vocally, but didn’t record as many of the songs. Beyond that, even individual performances by Tebaldi and Gigli, while unquestionably the most vocally secure and idiomatic, sound dull and uninspired, though they are included on discs with other music which is likely a worthwhile listen.
Vincenzo Scalera accompanies Gheorghiu sensitively throughout the album though the accompaniment is rarely particularly notable in these songs. The recording does sound excellent, but this is not much consolation. I’m sure there are fans of the singer who will want to hear this, and her signature sound is still there, but the wear and tear is plainly evident and the resulting difficulty in maintaining her phrasing means this is a rather mixed bag at best.
Morgan Burroughs
Previous review: Göran Forsling (February 2024)
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Contents
A te (c. 1875)
Salve Regina (c. 1882)
Storiella d’amore (1883)
Ad una morta (1883)
Mentia l’avviso (c. 1883)
Sole e amore (1888)
Avanti, Urania! (1896)
Inno a Diana (1897)
E l’uccellino (1899)
Terra e mare (1902)
Canto d’anime (1904)
Dios y Patria (1905)
Casa mia, casa mia (1908)
Sogno d’or (1912)
Inno a Roma (1919)
Morire? (1917)
Melanconia (1883)
