Comparison analogue recordings:
Fritz Busch, Glyndebourne 1935 "Mozart
Society Edition" LP Turnabout TV
4120/22
Fritz Busch, Glyndebourne 1950, Borriello,
Kunz, Lewis, etc. Testament SBT 1040
Eugen Jochum, Fischer-Dieskau, Prey,
Häfliger, etc. DG 449 580-2
Östman, Drottningholm Court Theatre
Thorn EMI HBO Video
I have been critical
of a couple of Mr. Marston’s transfers
in the past for leaving in too much
background hiss and crackle. I think
I know why he does it — it creates the
spurious impression of liveness and
covers the artefacts of digital signal
processing. But here I am delighted
to see he’s done everything just exactly
right. This is a recording you can enjoy
listening to. The orchestral bass is
firm, the voices have an amazing clarity
and vivacity, which would make any deficiencies
in the performance brutally clear. To
my taste, both the 1950 Busch recording
and the Jochum Berlin Opera stereo recording
have better voices and achieve better
drama in the opening trio and scene
than in this 1935 version. If we must
find another flaw with this classic
recording, it would be just that the
voices are a little too mature for the
parts.* This is supposed to be a story
about kids who don’t know anything about
love, and the voices come across as
individuals old enough to have been
married for decades. But are we really
after realism? OK, so opera is an impossible
art form, a perfect performance can
never been achieved, and this one is
far, far better than most. This opera
is a showcase for ensemble singing,
and as that it’s a consummate masterpiece.
So, if the orchestra spits out the overture
as fast as they can, almost contemptuously
so, you can just skip over it or play
another version.
I listened to a little
of the LP version of this same recording.
The sound is not so bad in terms of
frequency range, but there is the ever
present vinyl noise. How did we put
up with it for so long? And the relatively
primitive analogue filtering resulted
in congested, distorted high frequencies
which quickly cause listening fatigue.
Dynamic range has been attenuated which
also causes listening fatigue. This
CD transfer is remarkable not only for
its wide frequency range, but also for
its very low distortion and presence
which makes it pleasant to listen to.
The two preceding Mozart/DaPonte
operas have been extensively analysed
in terms of Mozart’s personal and political
motives. Both Mozart and Liszt in their
earliest years fell intensely in love
with women they couldn’t have because
of social convention, women who were
required by their families to marry
into money and respectability. Both
composers spent the rest of their lives
flouting social convention whenever
they got the chance. Mozart was more
or less manoeuvred into marrying the
sister of his beloved. At the time of
its composition, both Mozart and his
wife were pursuing outside interests.
Was this opera a message to his true
love, his wife’s sister, to set her
thinking about a husband swap? Or was
it just Mozart’s fantasy of what he
wished could happen? Had happened?
At one level this is
a nasty, cynical opera, gleefully trampling
on innocence. It was after all general
distaste for the plot which kept the
opera off the stage for nearly 140 years
in spite of the magnificent music. I
like the incident in the Met production
where Cecilia Bartoli as Despina
throws the money back in Don Alfonso’s
face and stomps off stage, becoming
bitterly aware of having been used to
accomplish a nasty thing. I’m with her.
I believe it is the La Scala production
where Montarsolo portrays Don Alfonso
as a truly wicked, nasty man.
OK, you say to me,
I’m missing the point. Yes, the devil
is a trickster, yes Mozart was tricked
by fate; but if he can work through
all this so can I. It’s just an opera,
that is, a collection of songs to be
sung, it’s not music drama, not Wagner
or Berg. The plot wouldn’t have
been taken all that seriously in Vienna;
people were at the theatre for an evening
of pretty singing. And whatever you
think, or expect, an evening of pretty
singing is what you always get. A friend
has requested that the "Departure
Trio" (#8) be played at his funeral,
and this performance easily meets the
requisite standard of not a single dry
eye in the house. This music is profoundly
sublime; why would anybody try to keep
in mind that dramatically it’s founded
on deception and most of the characters
are lying?
The "standard
cuts" observed in this recording
are: #7, Duettino Ferrando &
Guglielmo; #24 Aria Ferrando,
#27 Aria Cavatina, Don Alfonso, Ferrando
Guglielmo; #28 Aria, Despina,
Dorabella, Fiordiligi. Several recitatives
are omitted and a number are shortened,
but what is included, accompanied by
bonky chords on the piano, is accomplished
with notable drama and enthusiasm. Considering
the attitude toward recordings at the
time, it is more remarkable that any
recitatives are included at all.
These days our perception
of recorded opera is based on videos
of staged productions, and we are not
huddled at the speakers of our audio
disk players trying to visualise what
is happening. These days we consider
the acting ability as well as the singing
ability of the performers, and even
the staging, sets and costumes. This
is much more natural, what opera had
always been, until that brief period
recently past when the great opera recording
stars were judged on their ability to
put all of the drama into the vocal
sound. It is therefore very unfair to
compare classic opera sound recordings
with the sound tracks of video productions,
and I have not done so.
*I particularly recommend
that everyone who admires, or wants
to admire, this opera view the Drottningholm
Court Opera video production. Here the
singers are very young, and suddenly
the story makes more sense when you
see children acting like children.
Paul Shoemaker
Chorus and Orchestra of the Glyndebourne Festival/Fritz
Busch 