Wolfgang Amadeus
MOZART (1756-1791)
La Clemenza di Tito: Deh, per questo
istante solo
Staatskapelle Dresden/Sir Colin Davis
(pub. 1997)
Così fan tutte: Ah scostati
… Smanie implacabili
Staatskapelle Dresden/Sir Colin Davis
(pub. 1997)
Gioacchino ROSSINI
(1792-1868)
La Cenerentola: Tutto è deserto
… Una volta c’era un re … Un soave non
so che
Juan Diego Flórez (tenor), Münchner
Rundfunkorchester/Arthur Fagen (pub.
1999)
Tancredi: Perché turbar la
calma di questo cor
Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Münchner
Rundfunkorchester/Roberto Abbado (pub.
1996)
Vincenzo BELLINI
(1801-1835)
I Capuleti e i Montecchi: Siam giunti
… Ecco la tomba … Deh! tu, bell’anima
Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Münchner
Rundfunkorchester/Roberto Abbado (pub.
1998)
Charles Louis
Ambroise THOMAS (1811-1896)
Mignon: Connais-tu le pays
Münchner Rundfunkorchester/Frédéric
Chaslin (pub 2002)
Jules Emile Frédéric
MASSENET (1842-1912)
Werther: Werther! Qui m’aurait dit
la place … Je vous écris de ma
petite chambre
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin/Vladimir
Jurowski (pub. 1999)
Louis Hector BERLIOZ
(1803-1869)
La Damnation de Faust: D’amour l’ardente
flamme … Au son des trompettes
Orféon Donostiarra de San Sebastian,
Staatskapelle Berlin/Sylvain Cambreling
(live, Salzburg Festival, August 1899)
Christoph Willibald
GLUCK (1714-1787)
Orphée et Eurydice (Berlioz version):
Qu’entends-je? Qu’a-t-il dit? … Amour,
viens rendre à mon âme
Bayerische Staatsorchester/Ivor Bolton
(live, Bavarian State Opera, November
2003)
Georg Friedrich
HANDEL (1685-1759)
Rinaldo : Or la tromba in suon
festante
Münchner Rundfunkorchester/Friedrich
Haider (pub. 1996)
In a world rather well-stocked
with interesting mezzo-sopranos, Vesselina
Kasarova’s claims are as high as any,
but time was that a "Magic of …"
compilation such as this would be reserved
for artists with at least twenty years
of recording career behind them. Is
it not a little early as yet, and even
counter-productive in the sense that
those who have not collected her discs
to date may now be tempted to "make
do" with this selection from most
of them (but why nothing from her lieder
recital or the recent selection of Bulgarian
melodies?).
Anyway … I wrote enthusiastically
about Kasarova’s recording of Donizetti’s
"La Favorite" (not represented
here, rather strangely) and her recital
of French arias entitled "Nuit
resplendissante" (from which we
get the "Mignon" romance).
This latter has been rubbished in some
quarters on account of the singer’s
poor French and over-sumptuous, non-French
style. My feeling was that the vividness
of her communication and the beauty
of her voice rendered the latter a rather
paltry comment, and I queried if her
French is really so much worse than
the average for a non-French singer.
However, I have to say that as time
goes on (I’ve returned to parts of the
disc quite often) her French vowels
sound less and less French and certainly,
if you compare her with Jennifer Larmore
in the "Mignon" piece (a recital
on Teldec entitled "L’étoile")
you will find the American artist caressing
the words and the actual sounds of the
language much more. There is a technical
point here, for the nasal sounds of
the French language bring the voice
far forward in the mouth, creating that
distinctive timbre, small but able to
penetrate effortlessly to the far reaches
of a large theatre, which used to characterise
French singing. Nowadays even the French
prefer something more rounded but, of
the two, Larmore’s seems the better
modern compromise. However, the problem
is serious not so much here – the "Mignon"
romance can be very well resolved as
just a beautiful piece of singing, and
Kasarova certainly gives us that – as
in the scene from "Werther".
Here the words really do count and at
times they are reduced to a jumble at
the back of the throat. If you do not
sing French with the words fully forward,
then to compensate you have to sing
Massenet as Italian singers tend to
do, with a full-voiced Puccinian splendour,
inauthentic but winning on its own terms.
Kasarova hardly has a Puccini voice
and her Werther falls between the two
stools, under-powered from an Italian
standpoint, under-characterised from
a French one. And why ever finish the
extract in mid-air instead of continuing
to the end of the act? (Because the
disc was already full, you will say,
but then why start with three-and-a-half
minutes from the orchestra alone, unremarkably
conducted?).
So on the whole she
makes a better showing in Italian. The
"Cenerentola" duet shows the
accuracy of her coloratura (but the
two voices are not perfectly matched,
Florez showing the virtues of more forwardly-placed
words, Kasarova those of a more convinced
interpretation) and in the excerpts
from her "I Capuleti e i Montecchi"
and "Tancredi" sets we hear
her lovely voice, secure technique and
keen communication at their best, as
we also do in the extracts from her
Mozart recital, which has in addition
the advantage of strong conducting from
Sir Colin Davis. I am only a little
concerned that her descents to the chest
register are too fog-horn like and unrelated
to the rest of her voice (compare Marilyn
Horne in the Handel aria and you cannot
really tell where the American artist
passes from one register to the other,
which is as it should be). I also query
if Kasarova is doing herself much good
by pressing so strongly on these chest
tones.
In spite of reservations,
most of the recitals and sets from which
these items come are worth having, so
I wonder how much point there is to
this compilation. For fans, there are
two tempters, live performances of Berlioz
and Gluck. These days one expects a
recording of a live performance to sound
technically as good as most studio-made
ones; these have the voice wandering
in and out, now faint, now overbearing,
like the ladies’ handbag recordings
of yore. The Gluck lets us appreciate
the gut conviction of Kasarova in the
flesh, as well as the hair-raising Viardot
cadenza which might make the record
for some. This recent item also seems
to register some improvement in her
French. If ever Kasarova returns to
"La Damnation de Faust" in
the studio I hope it won’t be with this
conductor, who drools over the introduction
interminably at something like half
the marked tempo. Fortunately when Kasarova
enters a more normal tempo is established,
but Cambreling still tends to lag behind.
To say that her singing seems a bit
squally is probably unfair given the
unsympathetic circumstances, but why
release the track?
We are given texts
and English translations (not to be
taken for granted in this sort of compilation)
plus an interview with the singer. All
the same, to return to my original argument,
if you are at all interested in the
art of one of today’s leading mezzo-sopranos,
I think you should ignore this compilation
and go for the source discs.
Christopher Howell
Vesselina Kasarova (mezzo-soprano), orchestras/conductors
as below