This recital was recorded
over five days in 2002, just two months
before Marina Mescheriakova sang the
Countess in Naxos’s recently issued
Marriage of Figaro under the same conductor.
I was not
impressed by her portrayal of the
Countess finding her singing in ‘Porgi
amor’ uneven and unsteady. She was also
unable to float the phrases in ‘Dove
sono’. This was something of a disappointment,
for, in her 1998 recording of Hélène
in Verdi’s Jerusalem (Philips),
she had been vocally more secure in
legato and coloratura if not idiomatic
or incisive in diction.
This recital includes
items that demand lightness of touch,
full-lown Verdian phrasing and elegance
of Bellinian cantilena. The first of
these demands are called for in Tatiana’a
Letter Scene (tr. 1). Tatiana is an
impressionable adolescent at this stage
of the opera. Mescheriakova lightens
her tone appropriately but as she expresses
her feelings and colours the voice vocal
unevenness becomes all too evident.
Mescheriakova’s strengths
in Verdi have deteriorated since her
Hélène with choppy phrasing,
unevenness and poor diction. Her Tu
che le vanitá (tr. 3) bares
no comparison with that of the Latvian
soprano Inessa Galante on her recording
of late Verdi arias or the Romanian
Angela Gheorghiu on her ‘Verdi
Heroines’ CD (Decca). Both rival
singers launch the aria with good even
tone and portray the meaning of what
is being sung so much better than Mescheriakova
who is too inclined to the use of an
excessively earthy chest voice. Higher
up the stave her words are unintelligible.
To compare Gheorghiu’s ethereally sung
Come in quest’ora bruna, voice
well supported and the phrases inflected
with meaning, with Mescheriakova’s laboured
efforts (tr. 5) is to rub salt in the
wound.
Recitals as varied
in repertoire as this have a welcome
place in the catalogue, particularly
in this price bracket, although the
timing at 56 minutes for five days in
the studio is somewhat skimpy. The Naxos
booklet gives the words with English
translation. The recording is well balanced
between orchestra and soloist in an
airy acoustic. The content is interesting
but the singing is, is to me, a disappointment.
Robert J Farr
see also review
by Colin Clarke
Marina Mescheriakova (sop) 