Montserrat Caballé (soprano)
Rossini, Donizetti, Verdi: Rarities
Ambrosian Opera Chorus
RCA Italiana Opera Chorus & Orchestra/Carlo Felice Cillario & Anton Guadagno
London Symphony Orchestra/Carlo Felice
rec. 1967, RCA Italiana Studios, Rome & 1969, Walthamstow Town Hall, London. ADD
Texts and English translations
RCA 82876623092 [2 CDs: 144]

It is over twenty-five years since Colin Clarke enthusiastically reviewed this RCA Red Seal issue of this on MusicWeb, so perhaps it is not too soon to revisit it, especially as it has since become an established classic and has been endorsed by other reviewer colleagues. There is also an earlier RCA Victor/BMG Gold Seal box set (GD 60941); both include the Italian texts and English translations, the only difference being that the issue under review is in a space-saving slimline double case. It combines two recitals by the young Caballé from the late 60s, one in Rome and the other in London. She had already made international break-throughs at the Met, Carnegie Hall, Philadelphia and Glyndebourne and was an acknowledged star whose career endured for another two decades and more, but here we catch her when her voice was it its freshest, purest and most agile.

Perhaps some of the items here are no longer quite the rarities they were at the time of this recording five, even six, decades ago but the Verdi items in particular are still not so often encountered and they feature some of Verdi’s best arias which continue to be neglected in recitals.

Caballé’s voice has so much “face”; with its little glottal catch and inimitable timbre, it is immediately recognisable from the opening notes of the first Rossini aria – and it is a welcome luxury to have the full RCA Italiana chorus as backing. Rossini and Donizetti numbers are conducted in spritely, energised fashion by Carlo Felice Cillario with the RCA Italiana and London Symphony orchestras respectively. Yes; her trill is, as was ever the case, slightly sketchy but she concludes the Tancredi aria with a passable one and everything else – the trademark pianissimi, the coloratura divisions, the very serviceable lower register, the extraordinary steadiness and sustainability of her breath control – is in place; her loud top notes are devoid of the slight harshness which crept in later in her career and of course her diction is exemplary. I have long loved the “Willow Song” from “the other Otello” as sung by Frederica von Stade in the full recording with Carreras, and if Caballé doesn’t have quite the mezzo plangency of that other great singer, she still produces a simply captivating piece of singing, rather more ornamented – albeit tastefully – than that later version. She daringly concludes the prayer on a poised, prolonged A-flat sustained on a thread of sound.

The robust, impassioned address to the Virgin from the Stabat Mater forms quite a contrast, with its blaring low brass and a chorus not so different from those in Verdi’s Requiem. The Armida aria is charming – enormous in range and featuring fearlessly feisty fioriture – if I may be allowed a moment’s alliterative excess…

It is noticeable how easily she encompasses the tessitura of these arias, written essentially for what we now know as a mezzo-soprano but with an upper extension – though I note that Caballé understandably sings the Tancredi aria a tone up from the aria in the full recording with contralto Ewa Podleś – and at a much more leisurely pace. The aria from L’Assedio di Corinto is more obviously “Romantic” in affect, written for a Parisian audience and Caballé accordingly changes up a gear, adopting a more apt “Grand Manner”. The Donizetti extracts, too, are clearly redolent of a new sensibility and in the Belisario aria she sings of Antonia’s grief with great feeling and power. Parisina d’Este is still decidedly a rarity in that it has, as far as I know, received only one studio recording and a handful of live or concert accounts. Caballé sang it in concert under Eve Queler in Carnegie Hall in 1974 and here delivers a virtuoso performance of the finale with much exquisite soft singing and “floated” tones, enjoying sterling support from Margreta Elkins (wrongly credited as a soprano; she was an Australian mezzo who sang and recorded frequently with Joan Sutherland) and bass Tom McDonnell. Likewise, Donizetti’s operas from the same era, Torquato Tasso and Gemma di Vergy, are both now very seldom encountered and three of the few live recordings we have of the latter feature Caballé in the mid-1970s. The aria from the former is first a lovely waltz number followed by a lively cabaletta and makes great demands upon the soprano voice to encompass its wide range. The ensemble extract from Gemma di Vergy contains fine music and offers opportunities for both pathos and jubilation which Caballé exploits to the full.

CC opines “Maybe it is the Verdi items that show Caballé at her greatest” and I am not inclined to disagree. All the arias are from lesser-known operas – although it is possible to argue that neither I Lombardi nor Attila is quite in that category. The aria from Verdi’s second opera – and a failure – Un giorno di regno is a jolly little item exhibiting all the Verdian musical tropes we love. The aria from I Lombardi is also very typical of Verdi in patriotic “risorgimento” mode and Caballé tackles it con gusto, revelling in its rum-ti-tum exuberance, concluding with a ringing top C. Likewise the top B in the opening of Lucrezia’s aria from I due Foscari is a belter; she follows with some melting cantilena accompanied by harp then goes all out for drama in the concluding cabaletta. Alzira was always doomed as gloomy and dramatically implausible but of course nonetheless contains some lovely – and indeed, unusual – music; Alzira’s aria here is just such a piece, in that it is atmospheric and melodic, giving Caballé more opportunities to display her gift for legato and those unearthly sustained ppp high notes. Odabella’s aria from Attila is dreamily sung; Caballé makes it sound as captivating as any of the more famous numbers from later, more mature works; the same is true of Medora’s aria from Il corsaro, whose three-quarter-time tune with harp accompaniment is a real ear-worm. My favourite aria comes last; indeed, I have always thought Stiffelio to be a most unjustly neglected opera and retain fond memories of a Covent Garden performance many years ago with Sondra Radvanovsky and José Cura – when his voice was mercifully intact. Here, the extract is from that opera in its recast form as Aroldo, designed to placate the censors. It is a real mature human drama containing some wonderful music, Lina’s aria being especially moving. Caballé identifies fully with its emotional content and caps “Ah, degli scanni eterei” with a stunning top D.

As a collection this represents a repository of all that was best about Caballé’s art.

Ralph Moore

Contents
Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868)
La donna del lago (1819) – Tanti affetti in tal momento; Fra il padre e fra l’amante
Otello (1816) – O tu, del mio dolor; Assisa a’piè d’un salice; Deh, calma, o ciel
Stabat Mater (1833, rev. 1842) – Inflammatus e accensus
Armida (1817) – D’amore al dolce impero
Tancredi (1813) – O patria, dolce e ingrata patria; Di tanti palpiti
L’assedio di Corinto (1826) – L’ora fatal s’appressa; Giusto ciel! In tal periglio
Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848)
Belisario (1835) – Plauso! Voci di gloria; Sin la tomba è a me negatta; O desio della vendetta
Parisina d’Este (1833) – No, più salir non ponno; Ciel, sei tu che in tal momento; Ugo è spento Torquato Tasso (1833) – Fatal Goffredo!; Io l’udia ne’ suoi bei carmi; Trono e corona
Gemma di Vergy (1834) – Lascia, Guido, ch’io possa vendicare; Una voce al cor d’intorno; Egli riede?
Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
Un giorno di regno (1840) – Ah! Non m’hanno ingannata! … Grave a core innamorato; Se dee cadar la vedova
I Lombardi (1843) – Qual prodigio! … Non fu sogno!
I due Foscari (1844) – No, mi lasciate … Tu al cui sguardo onnipossente; Che mi rechi? … La clemenza!  Alzira (1846) – Riposa. Tutte, in suo dolor vegliante; Da Gusman, su fragil barca; Alta pietade ogn’anima … Nell’astro che piú fulgifo
Attila (1846) – Liberamente or piangi … Oh! Nel fuggente nuvolo
Il corsaro (1848) – Egli non riede ancora!; Non so le tetre immagini
Aroldo (1857) – Oh, cielo! Dove son’io; Ah! dagli scanni eterei; Ah, dal sen di quella tomba

Other singers:
Margareta Elkins (soprano); Corinne Vozza, Maja Sunara (mezzo-sopranos); Ermanno Mauro, Lajos Kozma (tenors); Leslie Fyson (baritone); Tom McDonnell (bass).