Joan Sutherland (soprano)
In Performance 1957-1960
Donizetti’s Emilia di Liverpool & Scenes and Arias by Donizetti, Verdi, Handel & Bellini
ADD mono
CAMEO CLASSICS CC9133 [68:58 + 45:46]
Although she had made her stage debut in Australia in
1951 (in Goossens’ Judith) and sang her first major role
at Covent Garden in 1952 (Amelia in Ballo in Maschera), these
recordings can reasonably be regarded as early Sutherland. It was only
after her marriage to, and re-training by, Richard Bonynge from 1953,
that she found her true métier in the bel canto repertoire,
displaying this for the first time in 1957 with performances of Handel’s
Alcina in March and the Emilia di Liverpool included
on these CDs in September. All the recordings here are fascinating,
especially to those like myself who only heard her towards the end of
her career. I heard her first in Trovatore in 1981, then Esclarmonde,
the wonderful “Darby and Joan” Lucias with Bergonzi
and Anna Bolena in 1988. Her last public performance was in
the New Year’s Eve Fledermaus at ROH in 1990. The voice
that I remember from all these performances was radically different
from that on these CDs.
The first performance of Emilia di Liverpool since the first
half of the 19th century was given as part of the celebrations
to mark the 750th anniversary of Liverpool’s charter
in June 1957 with Doreen Murray as Emilia, and three months later the
BBC broadcast the same heavily cut edition that had been prepared by
Fritz Spiegl in the recording here. I must confess that it is not an
opera that I know, so I wanted to get an idea of how much had been cut.
I therefore attempted to follow the performance with a libretto I found
on the internet, but found it simply impossible. There is less than
an hour’s music in total, and not only had all the recitative
been cut and replaced by an English narration, but the remaining numbers
had been trimmed and re-ordered. All I can say with certainty is that
merely the bones of the opera are given here.
The performance starts with an introduction by Fritz Spiegl about the
history of the opera and its resurrection for the Liverpool anniversary.
I had never heard Spiegl speak, and had expected a heavy German accent
and slow, ponderously academic style, but I could not have been more
mistaken - he sounds the very epitome of the understated, amused English
gentleman of the period, and he has a delightfully urbane sense of humour.
I was not quite so happy with the narration written and delivered by
Bernard Miles. Here the humour seems to me to cross the line into a
somewhat sneering condescension towards this foreign tosh. Perhaps I’m
being oversensitive.
The other members of the cast were all well-known parts of the British
musical scene in the 1950s and 60s, the most well-known being April
Cantelo, who was singing well into the 1970s or beyond. It must be said
that not one of them sounds remotely Italianate or shows much of a feeling
for the bel canto style. The first voice we hear is that of Hervey Alan,
who really does sound as though he would be far happier singing Merry
England or some G&S. The others are all considerably better
than this, especially Cantello and William McAlpine, who sings very
sweetly in a Heddle Nash sort of style, but there is no doubt that this
performance would just be historical curiosity without the presence
of Sutherland. Her voice is quite a surprise to those of us used to
her later style. It is much brighter and lighter than it became, and
far closer to what had long been the more traditional sound of an Italian
lyric soprano that we can hear in Carosio or dal Monte, to take two
singers from the immediately preceding generation. Although she was
certainly no Callas in her use of the text, Sutherland here has much
better enunciation than she was to have just a few years later - the
Dissolution of the Consonants was yet to happen. The vocal line is often
beautifully moulded and dynamically varied, as in “Confusa č l’alma
mia” in the finale, the florid technique is already superb and
the high notes are spectacular, as the top E flat at the very end of
the opera demonstrates. Incidentally, there seems to have been some
speed drift over the original tape recording, and the final scene is
noticeably sharp, as I discovered when I checked the pitch of that last
note.
The two arias which conclude the first CD are from a BBC studio concert
a year and a half later, and it is interesting to hear how the voice
had already begun to change and become closer to the later sound. The
first are “Regnava nel silenzio” and “Quando rapita”
(Lucia), and were recorded about three months after her eruption
into international stardom with the Covent Garden Lucias. The
timbre of the middle register is noticeably darker than in the Emilia
performance. The top notes remain bright and full, however. The second
is the Bolero from Vespri Siciliani. This aria has some very
tricky passages which often lead to sopranos taking a distinctly stately
tempo, going against the whole character of the piece. Unsurprisingly,
Sutherland is not among them, and gives a really splendid, truly celebratory
performance ending in a superb top E. George Hurst’s conducting
is unexpected fine in both arias; I had never associated him with opera,
but he gets the feel of both arias very convincingly.
The second CD includes the items that Sutherland sang at her final Proms
appearances on 1 and 13 August 1960 (for some reason, they are put in
reverse chronological order on the CD). Incidentally, on her previous
appearance at the Proms on 11 September 1957, she had sung Eva in a
performance of Act 3 of Meistersinger - I wonder if that is
included in the Itter Collection; it would make fascinating listening.
The second CD begins with “Di cor mio” and “Tornami
a vagheggiar” from Handel’s Alcina under Sargent.
This role was her first stage performance in a bel canto opera (if I
may call Handel bel canto), so she had internalised the role, and this
comes over in the performance. Right from the beginning we can hear
that the darkening of the tone has continued, and the middle register
has attained a positively mezzo-ish richness. This is a long way from
the sort of Dora Labbette or Isobel Baillie type of soprano sound that
was expected in Handel at the time (and, of course, is also expected
today). The fioriture in “Tornami a vagheggiar” is faultless.
The next track is another performance of “Regnava nel silenzio”
and “Quando rapita”, a further year and a half from the
Emilia recording, and displays a greater dramatic involvement.
Most unusually for a Proms audience, the applause begins before the
music stops - a sure sign of the excitement that the performances generated.
Between the two Proms evenings is sandwiched the Mad Scene from one
of the Covent Garden Lucias of February 1959. I think all that
needs to be said is that it lives up to its legendary status. One fascinating
thing that will appeal to nerds such as me concerns the key of the Mad
Scene. In 2006, the Royal opera House issued the whole performance in
its Heritage CD series, and in his review in Gramophone magazine John
Steane came to the conclusion that the performance had been transferred
a semitone too high, and that Sutherland had not used the original score
key of E, but had made the usual transposition down a semitone into
E flat. The ROH actually re-transferred the second CD with the transposition
and offered to exchange the original CD of anyone who agreed with Steane,
though as far as I recall they never admitted to its being a mistake.
The key of the transfer here is E flat, which would tend to support
Steane’s view. Unless the Cameo’s engineers have consciously
put it into E flat, this seems conclusive evidence.
The final track on the CD is of “Qui la voce” and “Vien,
diletto” (Puritani), from the 1 August Prom, under Basil
Cameron, where we hear her again in top form. Her moulding of the opening
recitative approaches the depth of Callas, and the aria itself is most
sensitively and delicately sung. The cabaletto,“Vien diletto”,
is a tour de force and absolutely deserves the ovation it gets from
the Proms audience.
The quality of the recordings on this issue is superlative for their
date and provenance. Even if the BBC’s in-house recordings still
exist, I cannot believe that they can be substantially better than these.
Mr Itter clearly had top-of-the-range equipment, and real expertise
in gaining the best out of it. Only in the Covent Garden Lucia
is there any distortion through over-recording, and this is slight.
The Emilia performance has been issued at least once before
by Myto, but I have not heard that. However, I cannot believe that it
could be in better sound that this. I have not encountered any of the
other items before, but cannot guarantee that there is not some small
company out there that has issued them, but, again, it is impossible
to believe that the sound could be better than this. This is a fascinating
and rewarding issue.
Paul Steinson
Footnote from Adrian Farmer
Regarding the key of the Mad Scene from one of the
Covent Garden Lucias of February 1959. I can confirm that the transfer
was made from an original acetate, at the original cutting speed, and
no 'key' adjustment was applied. My conclusion - undoubtedly John Steane
was correct, as those who of us who knew him would not doubt for a moment.
You may quote me!
Adrian Farmer
Music Director - Nimbus, Lyrita, Cameo
Previous review: Ralph
Moore
Contents
Donizetti, Gaetano (1797-1848) - Emilia di Liverpool
- abridged performance
Joan Sutherland (soprano) - Emilia
April Cantelo (soprano) - Candida and Bettina
William McAlpine (tenor) - Colonel Tompson
Hervey Alan (bass) - Count Asdrubale
Denis Dowling (baritone) - Claudio
Bernard Miles (narrator)
Fritz Spiegl (introductory talk)
Singers of the Liverpool Music Group
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/John Pritchard
BBC studio recording 8 Sept 1957
Donizetti, Gaetano (1797-1848)
Lucia di Lammermoor - Regnava nel silenzio...Quando rapito
in estasi
Verdi, Giuseppe (1813-1901)
I vespri siciliani - Merce, dilette amiche
London Symphony Orchestra/George Hurst
BBC studio recording 24 May 1959
Handel, George Frideric (1685-1759)
Alcina, HWV34 - Di, cor mio, quanto t'amai
Alcina, HWV34 - Tornami a vagheggiar
Donizetti, Gaetano (1797-1848)
Lucia di Lammermoor - Regnava nel silenzio...Quando rapito
in estasi
BBC Symphony Orchestra/Malcolm Sargent
BBC Proms recording 13 Aug 1960
Donizetti, Gaetano (1797-1848)
Lucia di Lammermoor - Mad scene
Covent Garden Orchestra and Chorus/Tullio Serafin
Live, Royal Opera House, 26 Feb 1959
Bellini, Vincenzo (1801-1835)
I Puritani - O rendetemi la speme ...Qui la voce sua soave
...Vien, diletto
London Symphony Orchestra/Basil Cameron
BBC studio recording 8 Sept 1957
All recordings are from the Itter Broadcast Collection
