Nobody who is interested in how Donizetti's lighter works could and should be sung ought to be without this Don Pasquale, a performance that preserves an almost lost tradition in interpreting this kind of music, as modern sets negatively prove (its sole rival is the 1952 Cetra set with Noni, Valletti and Bruscantini—nla). The piece is conducted with instinctive verve by the underrated Carlo Sabajno. Ernesto Badim, an admired La Scala singer for many years, gives us a Pasquale with real 'face'. He relishes the words and offers the authentic buffo tradition without exaggeration, apart from the occasional forgiveable chuckle. Afro Poli, at the outset of his notable career, sings Malatesta's role with the suave warm tone it calls for. Listen to his opening cavatina—it has just the right amount of insouciance The pair interpret the patter duet ''Cheti, cheti'; with the amusing touches and idiomatic diction that can only come from stage experience in their respective parts. Adelaide Saraceni's Norina has come in for some critical stick over the years, I forgive her the occasional touch of asperity for the way she enters into the spirit of the role. She is also fairly attentive to markings and finds the pathos needed when Norina feels that her teasing of Pasquale has gone too far.
I mention these artists before the renowned Tito Schipa, not because I yield to anyone in my admiration of his voice and style as Ernesto, the very epitome of bel canto, but because the others are quite as admirable as he. Schipa's performance here, with its refined line and subtle shadings, all summed up in ''Com'e gentil'' and the ensuing duet, is an object-lesson in how to sing this music. The earlier solos have been sung with anything like this delicacy, in complete sets, only by Valletti and Benelli, Schipa's natural successors.
A choice between these two transfers is made difficult by the additional Schipa items added to the French disc. EMI offer only Pasquale, but their set is at mid-price and on the whole their sound is clearer with more upper frequencies indeed truer to the original, and quite without surface noise, thanks to the Cedar process. The French CD may be taken from an earlier LP version, which somewhat cut the top. So if you're content with the opera alone and/or have the separate items in other forms, go for the EMI although the booklet presentation leaves everything to be desired—nothing about the historic provenance of the recording or about the singers. The additional items on Music Memoria are Schipa at his very best, notably the earlier of his recordings of ''Una furtiva lagrima'', the Sonnambula duet with dal Monte and Harlequin's Serenade. All show the Schipa gift for ideal wedding of word to note at its most persuasive, and no one since, even Pavarotti, has boasted that plaintive soulful touch in the voice suggesting vulnerability and tenderness in equal measure unrepeatable The transfers here are rather variable. The particular characteristics suggest to me that they may come from an RCA LP of the 1970s; there is some hiss, a little added echo, but on the whole the voice sounds full and true.'