Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835)
La sonnambula (1831)
Amina - Maria Callas (soprano)
Il conte Rodolfo - Nicola Zaccaria (bass)
Teresa – Fiorenza Cossotto (mezzo)
Elvino – Nicola Monti (tenor)
Lisa - Eugenia Ratti (soprano)
Alessio – Giuseppe Morresi (bass)
Un notaro - Giuseppe Nessi (tenor)
Orchestra e Coro del Teatro alla Scala di Milano/Antonino Votto
rec. 1957, Basilica di Santa Eufemia, Milan
Ambient Stereo
PRISTINE AUDIO PACO193 [2 CDs: 120]
Pristine Audio continues its series, remastering the commercial opera sets featuring Maria Callas. Of all of her complete recordings for EMI in the 1950s, La sonnambula was the one I was most anticipating. The audio gurus at Pristine have worked their customary magic on this set to give us the most desirable version to own. The main problem with this recording has been the extremely edgy acoustic of the Basilica di Santa Eufemia in Milan. It has always lessened my enjoyment of this set, particularly where the orchestra is concerned. Mercifully the Pristine treatment has finally freed the sound from that edgy glare which reveals mellow warmth that hasn’t been apparent before.
Antonio Votto made many cuts to the opera for this recording, so acquiring another version of this opera which is more complete would be advised. However, something about Callas’s portrayal always keeps bringing me back to listen to this one. She gives the gentle Amina an ethereal quality that I find lacking in nearly every other portrayal. When Callas played the role on stage she used ballet poses to give the character an allusion to Giselle. She carried this aspect over into her vocal portrayal of the sleepwalking girl. Listen to the little duet she sings with Count Rodolfo in Act One. Callas seems to glide through the delicate phrases as if her voice is emanating from another world entirely. Her voice doesn’t assume a corporeal presence again until the villagers startle her into waking up. This is the magic that was Callas. Technically she is in complete command of every trill and roulade and interpretively, no-one else touches her.
Elvino is sung by the slender-toned Nicola Monti. For the most part he sings his music suavely but he occasionally forces to achieve volume on a high note or two, mostly without success. Nicola Zaccaria’s burnished, aristocratic tone makes his Count Rodolfo unsurpassed on any other recording. It is disappointing that his only cabaletta was cut by the conductor. Eugenia Ratti’s Lisa lacks any sort of richness to her vocal timbre but then Lisa is an unsympathetic character anyway so it is not a serious loss. The young Fiorenza Cossotto spent much of 1957 singing Amina’s mother alongside Callas, when the La Scala company took this opera on the road around Europe. It is wonderful to have a document of her in this small role where her burnished bronze tones jump out of the sound system. She turns the phrases that introduce Bellini’s famous “Ghost Chorus” into a truly memorable vignette. The entire thing is beautifully and sensitively paced by Votto, with the La Scala musicians acquitting themselves admirably in a score that could so easily be tossed off without much care for all of the fine details.
Ideally one would choose a stereo version of this opera which is essentially complete. Joan Sutherland’s first recording would probably be my best recommendation, but for something deeply moving Callas’s recording is quite without parallel and Pristine’s fine new version is the version for choice for this much reissued recording.
Mike Parr
Previous review: Ralph Moore
Published: November 18, 2022
