There are opera recordings and opera recordings -- sparkling new digital versions on the one hand where you can hear the musicians turning over the pages of their scores, and ancient classics still treasured despite their ever-increasing age, usually on account of their soloists, on the other.
EMI have just reissued three exceptionally celebrated examples of the latter category as new additions to their Great Recordings of the Century series. The sound quality, as must be expected, varies according to their date, but no collector would dream of being without them.
La Boheme (EMI 7243 5 67759 2 3)
Great Recordings of the Century series
Thomas Beecham said that each of Puccini's operas took you into a different tonal world. His recording of La Boheme, dating from 1956, has long been accorded mythical status. Although featuring Victoria de los Angeles and Jussi Bjorling, top stars in their day, it is nevertheless Beecham's drawing out the subtlest details of the orchestral score that has appealed to connoisseurs.
"Uniquely magical" insists the Penguin Guide to Classical CDs. Originally in mono, it has now been digitally remastered yet again. Acoustically it still shows its age, of course, but at around NT$500 opera lovers will be happy to have it alongside a more modern version, perhaps Antonio Pappano's of 1996, also from EMI.
Tosca (EMI 7243 5 67759 2 3)
Great Recordings of the Century series
Maria Callas needs no promotion, yet her distinctively fiery, passionate style was not equally suited to every role. But many felt that in the title role of Tosca you had Callas personified, and her first version, from 1953 with Tito Gobbi as the police chief Scarpia and Giuseppe di Stefano as Cavaradossi, has always been judged her most powerful performance.
This recording for many years received a rosette from the Penguin Guide (their top accolade) and it still remains their first recommendation.
Once again, the sound will not have you leaping from your seat, though the passionate commitment of all the soloists may well do. And Victor di Sabata's conducting has the virtue of being consummately Italian (unlike, for example, Karajan's oddly unidiomatic version of 1980 with Katia Ricciarelli for Deutsche Grammophon).
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (EMI 7243 5 67779 2 7)
Great Recordings of the Century series
Also getting a rosette from the Penguin team is the 1979 recording of Shostakovich's extraordinary Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. This is the most interesting of these reissues -- certainly the sound quality is the best. It's conducted by the great cellist Mstislav Rostropvich, a friend of Shostakovich's, and stars Rostropovich's wife Galina Vishnevskaya in the tortured (and murderous) title role.
The opera is far less well-known than the two Puccini items but is nevertheless a great, if neglected, classic. Much musing went on at the millennium as to who was going to be rated the century's greatest composer. Was it Stravinski, -- Sibelius, Mahler (but did he count as 20th century?), or perhaps Richard Strauss. There are signs that opinion is hardening in favor of Shostakovich, widely recognized now as having been a Soviet dissident under cover of party conformist and praise-singer.
In this case (or in any case) his only full-length opera must be something of great importance. It was a work created in defiance of official notions of good taste and Soviet political correctness. It tells the story of an abused wife who took a lover and murdered (hence the "Lady Macbeth" comparison) her brutish husband. The shock comes from the heroine being viewed sympathetically, as well as from the erotic explicitness of some of the music and action.
Two versions of the opera exist, the original one, and a doctored version re-titled Katerina Ismailova which Shostakovich reluctantly produced after Stalin went to a performance and disapproved of the sex and the violence (despite, of course, himself being a mass murderer on an unparalleled scale). On his death bed Shostakovich asked Rostropovich to record the work, and to make sure he used the original version. Rostropovich did as he was asked, and this reissue was the result.
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk is a towering masterpiece, and the very fact that few people will have ever had an opportunity to see a performance is even more reason to acquire these CDs. If you decide to buy only one of the three operas reviewed here, this would be the one to get. It's a truly magnificent achievement.
Quiereme Mucho (EMI 7243 5 7294 2 2)
Round Midnight (EMI 7243 5 57319 2 0)
Classical Graffiti (EMI 7243 5 57316 2 3)
EMI's classical department has also come up with three other CDs this month which it is energetically promoting. These are Placido Domingo singing some more songs in Spanish from South America (Quiereme Mucho), The 12 Cellists from the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in a program of jazz classics, themes from American musicals and so on (Round Midnight), and The Planets in a program of melodies deriving from popular classical highlights arranged by Mike Batt (Classical Graffiti).
All of these are cross-over productions attempting to please both popular and classical enthusiasts. Though they will certainly find an audience, the judgment of this reviewer is that they are more likely to please neither category of listener very much.
One curiosity in the second item is Simon Rattle, the new conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, trying his hand at rap. He speaks the words in a track entitled The Flower is a Key (A Rap for Mozart). The track ends with a group of speakers shouting "Mozart!" and apparently slamming a lid shut. The overall result is embarrassing more than anything else. Even so, this CD is on the whole the least unsatisfactory of the three.
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