In Bruno Tosi’s Italian biography of Renata Scotto, he and colleague
Carlo Marinelli list the soprano’s last appearance as Violetta
in September 1973, in Tokyo. In the seven-year interim before Scotto
recorded this Traviata with Muti in 1980, the busy diva
added a number of new roles to her repertoire: Bellini’s Norma,
Verdi’s Luisa Miller, Il Trovatore, and Don Carlo,
Donizetti’s Anna Bolena, Puccini’s Il Trittico and
one of her most vocally-challenging roles, La Gioconda by
Ponchelli. In order to appreciate the soprano’s sympathetic and
at times intense portrayal of Verdi’s emotionally complex heroine,
listeners are asked to accept her vocal condition in this studio
recording which shows the wear these roles had taken on her lyric
soprano.
Before
taking a closer look at what Scotto had to offer her public
by taking on this role again, we can look for reasons why EMI
chose to re-issue this recording as one of their Great Recordings
of the Century.
The
most striking element here is Riccardo Muti’s conducting. Some
listeners may feel that at times he drives the music a little
too hard, but there is no doubt the conductor gives the tender
moments their due. This is particularly evident in his way with
Violetta’s introspective arias, Ah, fors’ e lui, marked
Andantino in Act One and Addio del passato, marked legato e dolce in
Act Three. Muti and Scotto made the choice of recording the
opera as Verdi wrote it, so we get to hear both verses of each
aria. Also, in the preludes at the beginning of Act One and
Act Three, Muti uses the strings to show the depth of Violetta’s
melancholy. On the other hand, the conductor drives the music
in the party scenes emphasizing the risky, haphazard behavior
that permeates the life of a courtesan. One can even hear a
sliver of anger in Muti’s emotion-laden interpretation.
Muti
brought Alfredo Kraus on board to sing Alfredo Germont. Kraus
and Scotto had been friends and colleagues since the 1960s and
two of their collaborations, around the time of this recording,
were Manon in Chicago and Werther in Dallas. As in these productions, Kraus brought the same style and vocal grace
to this recording. Unfortunately, the studio microphone accentuates
the nasal quality his singing sometimes took on at this stage
of his career, but his close artistic association with Scotto
more than makes up for it. The intimate quality of their duets
engenders a welcomed interpretative maturity not found in other
recordings.
Renato
Bruson sings with an attractive dark sound as the elder Germont
even without the ardent overtones typical of Verdi baritones.
Technically, however, he easily fills out each note and gives
full expression to every dynamic marking; the baritone offers
a complete vocal interpretation that today’s Germonts find challenging.
In the Act Two duet, Bruson and Scotto create a touching scene
where Violetta’s heart is broken by Germont’s request to sacrifice
her love for Alfredo so that his daughter may marry without
any social opprobrium. Here Bruson matches Scotto’s sympathetic
illumination of the text.
Scotto’s
ingrained artistic sense certainly allows her to express every
emotion that Verdi flooded into a character that he evidently
loved creating. If at this point in her career, the soprano
wasn’t able to command the authority to cover every vocal demand,
she is still able to portray the musical essence of the role.
Patrick O’Connor, in his 2003 piece in Gramophone titled Dramatic
Diva, said of this recording, “There are moments in this
latter performance as Violetta where the rawness of her voice
betrays her years … yet it is a small price to pay for the sincerity
of the interpretation, and in every scene she illuminates the
text with subtle insights.” If the listener appreciates the
dramatic consequences of the Scotto/Muti collaboration, this
recording is for you.
Nick del Vecchio
see also Review
by Robert Farr
