Pietro MASCAGNI (1863-1945)
Cavalleria rusticana, opera in one act (1890)
Libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci
Santuzza – Renata Tebaldi (soprano)
Turiddu – Jussi Björling (tenor)
Lola – Lucia Danieli (mezzo-soprano)
Alfio – Ettore Bastianini (baritone)
Mamma Lucia – Rina Corsi (alto)
Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra & Chorus/Alberto Erede
rec. 1-7 September 1957, Teatro Communale, Florence, Italy
Libretto available online
ALTO ALC1434 [73:35]
Apart from its inclusion as a recommended recording in my survey of this opera, I cannot find a previous review of this recording here on MusicWeb, which is surprising given its fame and especially as
it is in fact superior in almost every way to the recording, also with Björling, made under Cellini four years earlier.
Anyway, originally issued on RCA, then on London/Decca, here it is once again remastered and available on the bargain Alto label. Relistening to it gives me no cause to revise the assessment I made of it in the survey, so I reproduce it here:
‘There is a plethora of excellent recordings of this old war-house out there but you cannot go wrong with this one. It is conducted by the ever-reliable Erede, somewhat disregarded today but a man who presided expertly over a number of thrilling, blood 'n guts renditions of operatic favourites in the 50's for Decca. His orchestra has the music in its blood and although the lusty chorus is afflicted by some screechy sopranos, their raucousness is not out of place in this rustic melodrama. The sound is terrific: a model of clarity but with strings rather too much to the fore. Erede permits plenty of rubato and the score swaggers and lilts just as it should in an entirely authentic manner. Björling is anything but raucous but that does not mean that he is lacking fire or passion; the voice (at least in this recording - I don't know if he could have managed quite the same effect live) rings out magnificently and he manages to keep up with La Tebaldi. (Björling once remarked that being on stage with her was "like singing with two sopranos", such is the amplitude of her tone.) To complete the starry trio, we have the inimitable, bronze-voiced Bastianini roaring away mellifluously as Alfio. What a cast, what an opera, what a recording.’
The only question, then, is whether this remastering is superior to what has come before. Direct one-on-one comparison reveals that the new issue is marginally mellower, fuller, less hissy and somewhat easier on the ear than the harsher Decca and it is the Alto CD I shall keep on my shelves; furthermore, Alto provides a link to an online bilingual libretto (not of their own creation), although of course anyone can access it
here.
Whichever issue you choose, this is the finest “vintage” recording available and it is still in stereo.
Ralph Moore
