Verdi La Traviata
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Giuseppe Verdi
Genre:
Opera
Label: Philips
Magazine Review Date: 12/1993
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 129
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 438 238-2PH2
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| (La) traviata |
Giuseppe Verdi, Composer
Alessandro Calamai, Messenger, Bass Alfredo Kraus, Alfredo Germont, Tenor Barry Banks, Gastone, Tenor Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Giorgio Germont, Baritone Donato di Stefano, Doctor, Bass Florence Maggio Musicale Chorus Florence Maggio Musicale Orchestra Giorgio Gatti, Marquis, Bass Giuseppe Verdi, Composer Kiri Te Kanawa, Violetta, Soprano Massimo La Guardia, Giuseppe, Tenor Olga Borodina, Annina, Soprano Roberto Scaltriti, Baron, Baritone Silvia Mazzoni, Flora, Mezzo soprano Zubin Mehta, Conductor |
Author: Alan Blyth
This represents all that is most questionable in the studio recording of opera today—the gathering together of a starry cast that simply wouldn't work in the theatre under a conductor who seems wholly divorced from the mood of the piece in hand and plods through it no more than dutifully. The box cover is cynical, showing Dame Kiri all in white, on a chaise-longue, not a hint of Violetta's tragedy conveyed. Is that really what sells CDs? I hope not.
Presumably the original idea was to preserve Dame Kiri's Violetta on disc; fair enough except that she no longer sounds in freshest voice and displays little or none of the temperament required for it, especially when compared with the most recent advocate, Fabbricini on Sony. In the First Act she tends to coast through her music, never gripping it or her audience. All the notes are easily accomplished in her big scena, but with Mehta setting a dismal pace Violetta's feelings never take wing and the coloratura is sometimes effortful. In her key encounter with father Germont there's none of the pointing of words, the consonants weak (you can't even discern her lover's name at her entry in the Act 2 concertato), that should enliven and move us, and Te Kanawa's tone is constantly covered. She and Hvorostovsky seem to be singing in different rooms with no sense of personal involvement. His tone is firm (though it has lost some of its former beauty), and his phrasing long-breathed and musical, but he sings stiffly in a consistent mezzo forte, evincing none of the experience this role insistently demands.
Dame Kiri improves in Act 3, beginning, rather too late, to connect with Violetta's desperate state of mind. Although the letter is unconvincingly read, ''Addio del passato'' is nicely phrased and movingly sung, as is the duet of reconciliation with Alfredo Kraus's Alfredo, but the contrast in their respective enunciation of Italian isn't in her favour and the tempo is again on the sluggish side. This Violetta also goes to her death with an unusual touch of the heroic.
Kraus, 60-something, hardly sounds like the son of Hvorostovsky's Germont, 30-something; quite the opposite. Kraus's tone is now dried out, aging, yet the man remains something of a miracle. I first heard him sing Alfredo at the old Stoll Theatre some 35 years ago along with another unknown young singer, Renata Scotto, as his enchanting and touching Violetta. The occasion was revelatory. Kraus eventually recorded the work with her on the earlier of Muti's two recordings. He remains a model of the right style, singing with more subtle accents and pointing the text with more meaning than Alagna (Sony)—and he still has a serviceable top C for the close of his cabaletta (the score is given complete, as it is on the two Muti versions). He is splendidly vivid and involving in his denunciation of Violetta at Flora's party. Certain phrases have to be 'managed', but as a whole his reading is the most cogent reason for hearing this set (and he wasn't first choice for the recording!).
Mehta opens proceedings with a vulgar account of the music for Violetta's soiree, and treats all the other externalized music in the same vein. For the heart of the work, he seems to go on to automatic pilot (vide ''Di Provenza'' and much else) and he indulges in some bad old practices, such as the unmarked rallentando for Violetta's ''Morir mi sento!'' in the finale of Act 2. Frankly this is bad conducting. Nor are his Florence forces quite on a par with Muti's at La Scala (Sony) with a deal of smudged string phrasing Muti would never permit. The recording catches the voices truly but the orchestra paradoxically sounds at once over-reverberant and too distant.
Not nearly enough is done here to dislodge the current recommendations of Callas in her prime (EMI), or either of the two Muti versions, where you hear Italian sopranos make so much more of the title-role than Dame Kiri. If you want a fuller voiced Violetta I suggest Studer (Levine) in preference to Te Kanawa, although her myriad fans will no doubt find more to appreciate in her portrayal than I do.'
Presumably the original idea was to preserve Dame Kiri's Violetta on disc; fair enough except that she no longer sounds in freshest voice and displays little or none of the temperament required for it, especially when compared with the most recent advocate, Fabbricini on Sony. In the First Act she tends to coast through her music, never gripping it or her audience. All the notes are easily accomplished in her big scena, but with Mehta setting a dismal pace Violetta's feelings never take wing and the coloratura is sometimes effortful. In her key encounter with father Germont there's none of the pointing of words, the consonants weak (you can't even discern her lover's name at her entry in the Act 2 concertato), that should enliven and move us, and Te Kanawa's tone is constantly covered. She and Hvorostovsky seem to be singing in different rooms with no sense of personal involvement. His tone is firm (though it has lost some of its former beauty), and his phrasing long-breathed and musical, but he sings stiffly in a consistent mezzo forte, evincing none of the experience this role insistently demands.
Dame Kiri improves in Act 3, beginning, rather too late, to connect with Violetta's desperate state of mind. Although the letter is unconvincingly read, ''Addio del passato'' is nicely phrased and movingly sung, as is the duet of reconciliation with Alfredo Kraus's Alfredo, but the contrast in their respective enunciation of Italian isn't in her favour and the tempo is again on the sluggish side. This Violetta also goes to her death with an unusual touch of the heroic.
Kraus, 60-something, hardly sounds like the son of Hvorostovsky's Germont, 30-something; quite the opposite. Kraus's tone is now dried out, aging, yet the man remains something of a miracle. I first heard him sing Alfredo at the old Stoll Theatre some 35 years ago along with another unknown young singer, Renata Scotto, as his enchanting and touching Violetta. The occasion was revelatory. Kraus eventually recorded the work with her on the earlier of Muti's two recordings. He remains a model of the right style, singing with more subtle accents and pointing the text with more meaning than Alagna (Sony)—and he still has a serviceable top C for the close of his cabaletta (the score is given complete, as it is on the two Muti versions). He is splendidly vivid and involving in his denunciation of Violetta at Flora's party. Certain phrases have to be 'managed', but as a whole his reading is the most cogent reason for hearing this set (and he wasn't first choice for the recording!).
Mehta opens proceedings with a vulgar account of the music for Violetta's soiree, and treats all the other externalized music in the same vein. For the heart of the work, he seems to go on to automatic pilot (vide ''Di Provenza'' and much else) and he indulges in some bad old practices, such as the unmarked rallentando for Violetta's ''Morir mi sento!'' in the finale of Act 2. Frankly this is bad conducting. Nor are his Florence forces quite on a par with Muti's at La Scala (Sony) with a deal of smudged string phrasing Muti would never permit. The recording catches the voices truly but the orchestra paradoxically sounds at once over-reverberant and too distant.
Not nearly enough is done here to dislodge the current recommendations of Callas in her prime (EMI), or either of the two Muti versions, where you hear Italian sopranos make so much more of the title-role than Dame Kiri. If you want a fuller voiced Violetta I suggest Studer (Levine) in preference to Te Kanawa, although her myriad fans will no doubt find more to appreciate in her portrayal than I do.'
Verdi La Traviata
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