Reviewing the Pagliacci in 1961, Philip Hope-Wallace noted that the opera was, as he put it, ''divorced from its terrible mate'', and he added ''Or do I speak too soon?''. He probably did not expect that his question would eventually be answered 30 years later, and indeed a 'terrible mate' appeared two years later. The participation of Franco Corelli in both operas would normally have been enough to bring them together in an LP reissue box-set, but they were never equally matched and that is the trouble now that they do come to be united on CD.
In brief, Pag does much better than Cav. They have, as has probably been observed, different conductors. At first one may be inclined to give thanks that Santini, conducting Cavalleria rusticana, does not appear to be a man with a message. There have been so many since then who have seen it as their duty to convince us that the opera is more than melodrama, whereas Santini simply lets the music take its course so that we can see for ourselves. Unfortunately there is rather too much laissez-faire about it, and the contrast when Matacic takes over for Pagliacci is almost cruelly welcome. Without imposing, Matacic holds the reins firmly and provides a much more exciting ride. Perhaps the Scala orchestra is better than the Rome (the chorus certainly is), or perhaps it is merely that the distinguished Yugoslav conductor, just about to be appointed Solti's successor at Frankfurt, brought with him more sense of occasion. Maybe Walter Legge's presence made a difference. Anyway, whatever the cause it is also a different Corelli who sings in this. As Turiddu he strikes me as a man very largely wasting a prodigious gift, but his Canio is almost magnificent. The voice certainly is on magnificent form, and he makes it act.
The role may have suited him also in that it is not to any great extent reciprocal. In the Cavalleria duet he gives Victoria de los Angeles no feedback save an invariable voice and an invariable manner. She, too, is not well cast, for there is no blaze of resentment in her, only a warmth and vulnerability that would encourage the mildest among us to bite the ear of anyone who hurt her. The Pagliacci soprano, Lucine Amara, gives a vivid performance, at one point having Gobbi as a stimulating partner. But he is not in the best of voices here, having, as PH-W put it, some ''hard wood in the voice at the top where once it was fresh and supple''. For Pag and its 'terrible mate' brought together in a single issue, either of the versions listed above would on balance, be preferable, my own recommendation being the Karajan (DG), with Carlo Bergonzi as both Turiddu and Canio. But there is much to be said for this Pagliacci; and, as a Corelli-revival seems to be in progress, I should think it will find an interested public.'