Spontini La Vestale
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Gaspare (Luigi Pacifico) Spontini
Genre:
Opera
Label: Orfeo
Magazine Review Date: 7/1993
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 146
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: C256922H
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| (La) Vestale |
Gaspare (Luigi Pacifico) Spontini, Composer
Arturo Cauli, Pontiff, Bass Bavarian Radio Chorus Francisco Araiza, Licinius, Tenor Franco de Grandis, Haruspex, Tenor Gaspare (Luigi Pacifico) Spontini, Composer Gisella Pasino, Chief Vestal, Mezzo soprano Gustav Kuhn, Conductor Munich Radio Symphony Orchestra Pierre Lefebre, Cinna, Tenor Rosalind Plowright, Julia, Soprano |
Author: Alan Blyth
We have waited long for a recording of this crucial work in the history of French opera, a tragedie-lyrique that is the true link between Gluck and Berlioz, who himself described Act 2 as being a single crescendo gigantesque. The libretto has always been compared with that of Norma, both depicting a priestess who comes to grief through preferring profane to sacred love—although Spontini's work, unlike Bellini's, ends happily. It has been revived in comparatively recent times, after some 80 years neglect, for singers such as Ponselle, Callas, Gencer and Caballe—the first two made notable discs of Julia's main arias—but all sang the work in Italian rather than the original French. The construction is taut, the alternation of sung rectative, ariosos, arias (often short and to the point in a Gluckian manner) and ensemble cogently handled. Yet there are many anonymous patches and John Ardoin in his book The Callas Legacy (Duckworth: 1977) may be right in declaring that ''only Julia's music billows out over the otherwise cramped and stilted score''. Yet I recall having a higher opinion when I heard a convincing broadcast from Wexford 20 or so years ago. This set, with the exception of the central portrayal, does little to further the cause of the opera.
Plowright makes a bold attempt at emulating her distinguished predecessors and accomplishes much that is eloquent, most of all in her Act 2 solos, the second of which, ''O des infortunes, deesse, tutelaire'', within the act's finale, has just the right prayerful, rapt quality. Then, in the last act, she brings refined, moving accents to ''Adieu, mes tendres soeurs'' as Julia bids farewell to her vestal sisters, and to the most touching of all her solos, ''Toi que je laisse sur la terre''. (Both of these must surely have been known to Berlioz in terms of line and colour.) The soprano's whole performance is conceived on the right, grand scale with nothing shirked: if that means that some notes strike the ear uncomfortably, so be it. And she is the only singer, apart from the comprimario tenor taking Cinna, who sings French with regard for the language's meaning—and that tenor spoils his contribution through his unacceptably ugly tone.
Araiza is a competent Licinius, but the role hasn't been truly learnt, thus becoming part of the singer's being. It sounds like another recorded task ably, anonymously accomplished, no more. The rest are a trial. The rather crucial role of La Grande Vestale is sung by a mezzo who seems to think she's tackling Amneris. The bass has a rough tone and sings excruciating French. The chorus, who have such an important part in the drama, are tentative, tame, without words and outside the drama. Similarly, the orchestra sound wanting in precise articulation and a sense of the work's true style, though Kuhn does his best to invest the proceedings with some of the requisite urgency. Enough is done to make the project a worthwhile addition to the catalogue but not enough to do it full justice: for that one would need, say, Crespin and Thill with Gardiner in the pit—perhaps the last, more realistically, might give us a performance with Margiono and Rolfe Johnson—and a carefully chosen cast of singers in the secondary roles, which play a vital part in the drama.'
Plowright makes a bold attempt at emulating her distinguished predecessors and accomplishes much that is eloquent, most of all in her Act 2 solos, the second of which, ''O des infortunes, deesse, tutelaire'', within the act's finale, has just the right prayerful, rapt quality. Then, in the last act, she brings refined, moving accents to ''Adieu, mes tendres soeurs'' as Julia bids farewell to her vestal sisters, and to the most touching of all her solos, ''Toi que je laisse sur la terre''. (Both of these must surely have been known to Berlioz in terms of line and colour.) The soprano's whole performance is conceived on the right, grand scale with nothing shirked: if that means that some notes strike the ear uncomfortably, so be it. And she is the only singer, apart from the comprimario tenor taking Cinna, who sings French with regard for the language's meaning—and that tenor spoils his contribution through his unacceptably ugly tone.
Araiza is a competent Licinius, but the role hasn't been truly learnt, thus becoming part of the singer's being. It sounds like another recorded task ably, anonymously accomplished, no more. The rest are a trial. The rather crucial role of La Grande Vestale is sung by a mezzo who seems to think she's tackling Amneris. The bass has a rough tone and sings excruciating French. The chorus, who have such an important part in the drama, are tentative, tame, without words and outside the drama. Similarly, the orchestra sound wanting in precise articulation and a sense of the work's true style, though Kuhn does his best to invest the proceedings with some of the requisite urgency. Enough is done to make the project a worthwhile addition to the catalogue but not enough to do it full justice: for that one would need, say, Crespin and Thill with Gardiner in the pit—perhaps the last, more realistically, might give us a performance with Margiono and Rolfe Johnson—and a carefully chosen cast of singers in the secondary roles, which play a vital part in the drama.'
Spontini La Vestale
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