Giacomo PUCCINI (1858-1924)
Il Tabarro
(1918)
Giorgetta – Melody Moore (soprano)
Michele – Lester Lynch (baritone)
Luigi – Brian Jagde (tenor)
Frugola – Roxana Constantinescu (mezzo)
Tinca – Simeon Esper (tenor)
Talpa – Martin-Jan Nijhof (bass)
A Song Seller – Khanyiso Gwenxane (tenor)
Two lovers – Joanne Marie D’Mello (soprano); Yongkeun Kim (tenor)
MDR Leipzig Radio Choir
Dresdner Philharmonie/Marek Janowski
rec. March 2019, Kulturpalast Dresden.
A digital booklet with text and translation is included.
Reviewed as downloaded from digital press preview
PENTATONE PTC5186773 SACD
[49:42]
This new recording of Puccini’s one act melodrama was welcomed in its SACD
release a few months ago by Simon Thompson:
Review.
I am reporting on the digital download version which has been released in
both a regular 44.1 khz, and also a high-res audio 96 khz version for a small
increase in the price. (Also as a surround download from the
Pentatone website.)
Il Tabarro
is the curtain raiser for Puccini’s Il Trittico an opera of three
short works that are intended to be played together on one evening. The
1918 premiere at the Metropolitan Opera in New York featured no less a star
than Claudia Muzio, who was one of the most veristic artists in recorded
history, as so many of her surviving gramophone records demonstrate. She
unfortunately left no recording of her one short aria in this opera but I
suspect she must have been truly powerful in the role, assuming that I can
judge based on the other recordings I have heard from her.
My comparison recording for this opera is the fairly impressive one on Sony
from 1977 featuring Ingvar Wixell, Renata Scotto, and Placido Domingo under
the baton of Lorin Maazel (complete Trittico 88697527292, download
only, no booklet). It was part of his take on the complete Il Trittico although, at the time, the three operas were all
issued separately on vinyl rather than as an entity. The only flaw I have
ever found in Maazel’s Tabarro is the far too diffuse acoustic
of the orchestra, who sound as if they are covered by a thick fog hanging
over the Seine. There is just too much orchestral detail lost in an otherwise
atmospherically-charged recording. On this shiny new release from
Pentatone, orchestral detail and the many sound effects required by Puccini
are captured in vivid detail. Marek Janowski leads a performance that
manages to be both passionate and elegant at the same time. I particularly
loved the gusto of the strings galumphing their way through the swooping
figures during the organ grinder’s waltz early in the opera.
The cast is uniformly good, with one small exception, and is likely the
best available that one could find for any opera house today. Melody Moore
has been having wonderful success with a string of recent recordings of
verismo operas on the Pentatone label. Her appearance in La Fanciulla del West which I reviewed
here,
showed how well this repertory suits her lush but youthful sounding
soprano. Her Giorgetta is greatly helped by Janowski, as together they
gradually build the emotional arc of the young, desperately unhappy barge
wife. Ms Moore gives a passionate account of her aria about Giorgetta’s
earlier life in Belleville, before coming to Paris. It is better that her
sense of desperation is only suggested in this aria and not pushed too far
forward, as Renata Scotto does for Maazel. She is equally impressive in the
duet which is the emotional centerpiece of the opera. Only in her lifeless
scream at the conclusion does she sound unconvincing, but this is just a
small quibble.
Brian Jagde has a voice that is perfectly suited to the passionate barge
worker, Luigi. Often sung on stage by voices that are a little past their
best years, Jagde shows what can be done when a gifted singer in his prime,
with a voice of appropriate weight and presence, can make of Luigi. He is
thrilling in the duet and in vocal terms, he dies rather convincingly.
Domingo’s version for Maazel is more the romantic hero and he produces a
burnished, bright tone but this is not as fine a representation of the
character as Mr Jagde provides.
Lester Lynch impresses even more as Michele than he did as Jack Rance on
the Fanciulla del West recording. His upper range is absolutely
rock-solid and his tone bears a striking resemblance to that of the
excellent Ingvar Wixell on Maazel’s recording; however, Mr Lynch has an
even darker glint to his sound that I just love.
Most of the smaller roles are very well cast with the sole exception of an
uningratiating voice used for the offstage song seller. Roxana
Constantinescu is more than adequate as La Frugola, and she is better than
many who have been cast in the role including Gillian Knight for Maazel.
This is a fine modern version of Il Tabarro and I shall certainly
return to it in future. Simon Thompson expressed a preference for Antonio
Pappano’s recording on EMI (Il Trittico 5565872), but as I have
never heard that particular version of Il Trittico I cannot
comment. I sincerely hope that Pentatone and Mr Janowski will eventually
get around to recording Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi
when such things can be arranged again.
Mike Parr
Previous review:
Simon Thompson
