This
Falstaff is not the Toscanini recording described
by
Gramophone as 'one of the greatest of all operatic
sets, and one of Toscanini's most perfect operatic recordings'.
It's a re-engineering of the full live performance staged in
August 1937 at the Salzburg Festival. That
Falstaff was
actually the second of three remarkable performances by Toscanini
at the height of his powers … relaxed, detached yet in
full control and able to extract the very essence of Verdi's
operatic and dramatic intentions. This was the same year in which
the conductor had successes at Salzburg with
Fidelio,
Zauberflöte and
Meistersinger.
This
Falstaff has been transferred by Andrew Rose - not
from the collection of selenophone film at the New York Public
Library - which was used for another recent CD - but from a series
of six LPs containing a 'private recording'. The same performance
(presumably from another source) was also previously issued on
Andante (AN3080) with a recording - for comparison - of the same
opera by Karajan from 20 years later with the same orchestra
but, frankly, a weaker cast of soloists.
These CDs from French Pristine Audio come minimally packaged:
the two in a single jewel case with next to no liner-notes. The
recording is also available from the Pristine website as a zipped
MP3 download. Given the age and roughness of the mono source,
the sound quality - although by no means high fidelity - is more
than adequate for you to enjoy Verdi's last opera.
Almost the first thing you'll notice is that this
is a
stage recording. You're well aware not just the 'noises off'
(applause, coughing) but also of the movement, 'business' and
dialogue. In the end these actually add to the experience. The
action of
Falstaff is concentrated and inward-looking:
these performers convey a sense of great immediacy. Just what
the work needs. This includes the orchestra, which is closely
recorded. To bring the comedy to life and make the deceptions,
characterisation and shifts in the players' fortunes as vivid
as possible there needs to be a sense of space. Space in which
to mirror the body language, for example, and illuminate the
way the personalities interact and react to the twists in their
(mis)fortunes.
After all, Verdi described
Falstaff as a
commedia lirica,
Toscanini's is more of a dramatic conception. Comedy is not missing:
the delivery of the principals (Stabile, Biasini, Borgioli and
Somigli, in particular) is forward, pressing and zesty. This
is particularly true, for example, towards the end of Act II
[CD.2 trs.1-3]: there is an almost tangible energy in the coming
and going, the bustle, and in the ways in which the mischief
is ever more deeply confounded. But - as later, more detached,
scenes show - there was never rush or busyness for their own
sake in this performance.
With the exception, really, of the Fenton-Nannetta interest,
the plot of
Falstaff is simple and linear. Toscanini elicits
from his players and singers an equally closely and clearly driven
account of the events of a few intense days in such a way that
their characters (foibles, weaknesses, constancy, self-deception)
are transparent - yet still… entertaining! Each action,
dialogue, solo and exchange somehow contributes to a greater
sense of their selves.
As is often the case with Toscanini, it's the ensemble work (so
important in
Falstaff) that strikes one. Not just a singleness
of purpose or sense of team-work; but also that the soloists
derive the life and interpretative impetus from a source - Shakespeare,
when all said and done - in which they all obviously believe.
This is unlikely to be most people's first choice as a
Falstaff.
Yet it's much more than a historical document. It has persuasive
performances … Stabile's Falstaff, Borgioli's Fenton and
Biasini's Ford in particular. Their interpretations suggested
(let's not say 'dictated') the approach for a generation or two.
The boxy sound and lack of libretto or background material are
minor drawbacks.
If you appreciate the huge contribution which Toscanini made
to music-making in the first half of the last century; if you
want a valid and special
Falstaff; if you want to get
to know the opera anew or see it in a new light after such performances
as those by Abbado with the Berlin Philharmonic on DG (471194)
or Solti with the RCA Italian Opera Chorus and Orchestra on Decca
(425002), this effective reissue is worth a look.
Mark Sealey
Mariano Stabile -
Falstaff (baritone); Pietro Biasini - Ford (baritone); Dino Borgioli
- Fenton (tenor); Alfredo Tedeschi - Dr. Cajus (tenor); Giuseppe
Nessi
- Bardolph (tenor); 
