Two great Spanish prima donnas in their famous interpretations of Violetta return to the catalogue, now on CD, at the same time. As it happens the differences in the two performances on these sets are more significant than their similarities. Setting the ladies side by side, you cannot help but remark that Caballe has much the easier time of it vocally. Then in her prime she shows no sense of strain at any point, by contrast los Angeles is sorely stressed by ''Sempre libera'' and is never exactly happy much above G, or shall we say the tone tends to discolour thereabouts. On the other hand, put on any of the key passages of the first scene in Act 2 and you find it is the older artist who, singing off the words, catches the essence of Violetta's predicament. Caballe undoubtedly feels the music deeply and is often very moving in her own, slightly generalized way with consonants often swallowed; it is los Angeles who insists you hang on her every word. But then other factors come into the reckoning. Caballe is coping with one of the most unsympathetic conductors ever to have laid hand on this score stop-start, espressivo in all the wrong way so that his singers are obviously worried about what he is going to do next. Serafin, by contrast, is the soul of discretion, his caring hand and steady tempos always supporting his singers sympathetically. ''Alfredo Alfredo'' in the Act 2 scene 2 concertato is as fair example of what is so right about the EMI set: clear diction, perfect legato, ideal pacing.
When it comes to the supporting cast, the merits are more equally balanced. Bergonzi remains a Verdian stylist of a rare kind, not putting a note or a phrase wrong. Del Monte has an appealing plangent timbre much to my liking, but has moments of tenorial bad manners. Sereni is a sound, not inspiring Germont (he's heard as a more involving father on Callas's Lisbon set under Ghione also on EMI). Milnes sings beautifully, but seems to be addressing a public meeting, partly the fault of the too spacious recording—the EMI has the voices and orchestra in closer perspective, which I prefer.
If you want the score absolutely complete, you need the RCA. The EMI makes the old theatrical cuts, which to many are now quite unacceptable but then so does Callas in the set which, without a doubt, I would take to my desert island (it has an even more telling Alfredo than Bergonzi in the young Kraus), and Kleiber with Cotrubas (DG), another attractive proposition (with Milnes in subtler form) makes many of the excisions. The complete versions—Bonynge (Decca), Muti (EMI) and now Pretre—are not to my mind so attractive, though Muti and Scotto have much to commend them and would be my preference for a complete version. But the truth about Violetta lies with los Angeles, Callas and Cotrubas and their various tenors and conductors.'