PUCCINI "LA FANCIULLA DEL WEST" - Birgit Nilsson, Lovro von Matacic

Description: This Fanciulla del West may be one of the few examples of a major opera recording starring none of the original principals for whom it was intended, but which nonetheless turned out to be a success. EMI planned for a cast that could have been something special: Maria Callas, Franco Corelli, and Tito Gobbi. Callas dropped out first, and the other two followed suit. The label offered Birgit Nilsson her first major recording if she would learn the role of Minnie on two weeks’ notice (in 1958 she was already 40, but only at the beginning of the major part of her career). EMI added Brazilian tenor João Gibin and Italian baritone Andrea Mongelli to fill out the principal roles, and it made the wise decision to have Lovro von Matačić conduct.The result never achieved the popularity of Decca’s rival effort with Renata Tebaldi, Mario del Monaco, and Cornell MacNeil, despite the workaday conducting of Franco Capuana. Later DG added a version magnificently conducted by Zubin Mehta, with Carol Neblett, Plácido Domingo, and Sherrill Milnes. Domingo is a bit light for Dick Johnson, but he sings with authority and involvement. Milnes’s voice is the right color and he sings with great sensitivity, though he has a few moments slightly under pitch. Neblett, however, is simply not in the league of Tebaldi or Nilsson. Even though all the gestures are in place, her voice lacks distinctiveness as well as the right weight in its middle and lower registers. A word also must be said for what I consider to be the greatest live performance on disc, from the 1954 Florence May Festival with del Monaco, Eleanor Steber, Giangiacomo Guelfi, and Dimitri Mitropoulos on the podium. The problem is that the sound in all versions I’ve heard (it has appeared on a number of labels) is quite congested, obscuring Puccini’s imaginative orchestration and requiring a great deal of allowance from the listener.Nilsson will be the big surprise for those unfamiliar with this recording. She offers the brilliant high notes on which she built a huge career in Wagnerian roles, but she also shows an ability to lighten the voice to convey a girlish side to Minnie. One would not associate words like coy or coquettish with the great Swedish soprano, but there are sidelights in Minnie’s character, whether genuine or put on, that Nilsson captures convincingly. She does this through vocal color and dynamic shading more completely even than Tebaldi, frankly. Moreover, even in her prime, Tebaldi’s high notes were stressful. It is true that Nilsson’s approach to singing and her basic sound are more Germanic than Italian, but overall hers is a thrilling rendition of a role that has defeated many sopranos because of its high tessitura, a feature that offers Nilsson a chance to shine.The now forgotten Gibin sings his role splendidly. He has, at least under the conditions of a studio recording, enough heft for Johnson’s big moments. At the same time he sings with sensitivity and tenderness in his scenes with Minnie. Matačić takes “Ch’ella mi creda” at a very slow tempo, but he and Gibin make it work beautifully. The one negative is that Gibin lacks a unique sound. The voice is that of a fine generic tenor, one you are not likely to recognize on first hearing, unlike Gibin’s recorded competition. Some may also find his quick vibrato disturbing, though I did not. Overall, his musicianship and his imaginative shading make this a satisfying performance.Similar observations can be made about Andrea Mongelli. He creates a complete character out of Jack Rance rather than a cardboard villain. His timbre lacks richness and demonstrates a certain hollowness, but the latter is not inappropriate to his portrayal. The same could be said of Gobbi’s voice, but Mongelli’s is not as distinctive. All the small roles are very well sung by La Scala veterans.The unifying force of the performance is Matačić. A sense of the whole is particularly important in this opera, which has few stand-alone arias, but which offers some of Puccini’s finest orchestration. One has the feeling that Matačić coached each singer into thinking about the words and the dramatic setting, resulting in a very satisfying sense of interaction throughout. His conducting conveys both the urgency and the lyrical beauty of the score. Matačić makes one small cut in the first-act poker game where one of the miners, Sid, is caught cheating. I’ve always assumed Puccini included that scene to humanize Sheriff Rance, because while the miners all urge lynching Sid, it is Rance who takes a more forgiving approach. Although several minutes long, the cut represents no loss of significant music or plot development. It is reasonable, I think, to say that both Matačić and Mehta conduct Fanciulla wonderfully—Mehta perhaps the more richly Romantic, Matačić the more urgently dramatic. It is hard for me to imagine anyone who cares about this opera not wanting to have this recording.Fanfare

Price: 19.95 AUD

Location: Northam, Western Australia

End Time: 2024-09-29T15:25:55.000Z

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