29 Oct 2006
Placido Domingo — Be My Love
Decca/London was somewhat earlier with their series ‘Classic Recitals’ and now Deutsche Gramophon is following without that title.
Recently in Recordings
Ariane et Barbe-Bleue on Blu-Ray
Paul Dukas’ Ariane et Barbe-Bleue, first heard in 1907, once seemed important. Arturo Toscanini conducted the Met premiere in 1911 with Farrar and later arranged some of its music for a 1947 recording with his NBC Symphony.
Kaufmann Wagner
The economics of the recording companies dictate much that is not ideal. Wagner’s operas were not composed as they were in order to permit the extraction of bleeding chunks, even on those occasions when strophic song forms do occur.
Mahler: Symphony No. 8
Among the recent recordings of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony, Valery Gergiev’s release on the LSO Live label is an excellent addition to the discography of this work.
Songs by Zemlinsky
While not unknown, the songs of Alexander von Zemlinsky (1871-1942) deserve to be heard more frequently.
Gustav Mahler: Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Rückert-Lieder, Kindertotenlieder.
Recorded on 5 and 6 May 2008 and 17 and 18 January 2009 at the Lisztzentrum (Raiding, Austria), this recent Bridge release makes available the piano-vocal versions of three song cycles by Gustav Mahler, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, Rückert-Lieder, and Kindertotenlieder performed by mezzo-soprano Hermine Haselböck, accompanied by Russell Ryan.
Kathleen Ferrier: A Film by Diane Perelsztejn
Contraltos rarely achieve the acclaim and renown of sopranos. Assigned few leading roles in opera, they are condemned to playing the villain or the grandmother, or to stealing the castrati’s trousers in en travesti roles.
1612 Italian Vespers
Following their 2011 Decca recording of Striggio’s Mass in 40 Parts (1566), I Fagiolini continue their quest to unearth lost treasures of the High Renaissance and early Baroque, with this collection of world-premiere recordings, ‘reconstructions’ and ‘reconstitutions’ of music by Giovanni and Andrea Gabrieli, Monteverdi, Palestrina, and their less well-known compatriots Viadana, Barbarino and Soriano.
Eternal Echoes: Songs and Dances for the Soul
Eternal Echoes is an album of khazones [Jewish cantorial music] for cantorial soloist, solo violin and a blended instrumental ensemble comprising a small orchestra and the Klezmer Conservatory Band.
Mahler: Symphony no. 3 / Kindertotenlieder
Michael Tilson Thomas’s recording of Mahler’s Third Symphony is an outstanding contribution to the composer’s discography.
Oliver Knussen’s Symphonies from NMC
Oliver Knussen burst into British music with an unprecedented flourish. In 1967, the London Symphony Orchestra premiered Knussen’s First Symphony, with István Kertész scheduled to conduct.
Ludwig van Beethoven: Fidelio
Based on performances given in Summer 2010 at the Lucerne Festival, this recording of Beethoven’s Fidelio is an admirable recording that captures the vitality of the work as conducted by Claudio Abbado.
Stanisław Moniuszko: Flis
Stanisław Moniuszko (1819-1872) was one of the most popular composers of his day in Poland, and of the many works he wrote for the stage, two are performed from time to time, Halka (1848) and Strazny dwór [The Haunted Manor] (1865).
Stanisław Moniuszko: Pieśni Songs
The Polish alto Jadwiga Rappé is a familiar voice in various stage and concert works, and the recent release of a selection of songs by Stanisław Moniuszko (1819-1872) is an opportunity to hear her performing artsongs.
Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge: Serate Musicali
Originally released on multiple discs in 1981 this reissue on two CDs is a comprehensive collection of art songs by Italian and French composers from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Richard Strauss: Salome
An exciting contribution to the discography of this popular opera, the live performance of Richard Strauss’s Salome from the Festspielhaus at Baden-Baden is a compelling DVD.
Lulu by Gran Teatro del Liceu, Barcelona
Released in late 2011, Deutsche Grammophon’s DVD of the new staging of Berg’s Lulu at the Gran Teatro del Liceu, Barcelona is an excellent contribution to the discography of this fascinating opera.
Lulu by the Metropolitan Opera
A recent release by the Metropolitan Opera, this two-disc set makes available on DVD the famous performance of Berg’s Lulu that was broadcast on 20 December 1980 as part of the PBS series “Live from the Met.”
Elmer Gantry the Opera
The novels of Sinclair Lewis once shot across the American literary skies like comets, alarming and fascinating readers of that era, but their tails didn’t extend far behind them.
Historical Performances from Covent Garden: Barbiere, La traviata and Tosca
Once the province of only the most dedicated opera fanatics, mid-20th century recordings of privately taped live performances have become more widely available.
Lucia and the glass harmonica
Flute players in opera orchestra around the world must look forward to the frequent appearances of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, knowing that while the stage spotlight in the mad scene will be on the soprano, the orchestral spotlight will be on their instrument.
OPERA TODAY ARCHIVES »
Recordings
This was Domingo’s first solo album on DG and it is re-edited the way it appeared thirty years ago, though with one difference with the Decca re-issues. The sleeve notes from the original LP release are reprinted at the inside and are clearly readable, which cannot often be said of many Decca releases where you need a magnifying glass to decipher the text.
Domingo always liked to take an artistic risk and he surely did it on this record. Though he only mentions one name in his sleeve note interview –Mario Lanza – it’s clear that’s he up to some of the most intense competition in his whole career, probably even more than on many an aria recording. Almost all pieces on this record were intimately connected with some of his greatest predecessors: ‘Non ti scordar,’ ‘Core ‘ngrato’ and ‘Marta’ with Gigli; ‘Ay ay ay’ with Fleta; ‘Dein ist mein ganzes Herz’ with Tauber; ‘Mattinata’ with Caruso and Björling; ‘Amapola’ and ‘Munequita Linda’ with Schipa etc. I regret to say but the Spanish tenor fails almost in every of his trials. Of course he set himself some impossible goals. Many a song was composed to bring out the best in a particular voice. Tauber even co-composed a few things with Lehar. But the consequences are there for everybody to hear. Most collectors will have that particular sound in their ears and it needs more than the golden tone Domingo still had at the time to challenge the earlier recordings, as the tenor almost never varies the volume he uses. Out comes a stream of honeyed tenor tone without one original phrase, without a piano or even an occasional mezza-voce. Not that everything was still perfect in Domingo’s vocal production at the time. In ‘Core ‘ngrato’ and ‘Mattinata’ one is immediately struck by the squeezed nasal top, warning of Domingo’s difficulties with high B from 1978 on.
As could be expected, he is at his best when singing his own language, though even there his predecessors win hands down. Miguel Fleta and definitely Tito Schipa had less than half of Domingo’s vocal means and still they make twice the effect: Fleta by his haunting messa di voce in ‘Ay, ay, ay’ and Schipa by rhythmic incisiveness in ‘Amapola’. Domingo is excellent in the lesser known ‘Marta’ but who can compete with the 1932 recording of Gigli?
Domingo always was an admirer of Mario Lanza and back in 1976 it was still not done to do that clearly and loudly. So praise to the Spanish tenor. But we are used to hear that glorious high C at the end of ‘Be My Love’ and that’s a note that never was in Domingo’s vocal armoury (even Gheorgiu sings the note less well than Lanza).
I cannot help thinking that this is one of these records where Domingo looked at the score while flying in, relying on the beautiful sounds he could make and recording at a whirlwind pace. In some of his earlier albums like ‘Perhaps Love’ or later ones like ‘The Broadway I love’, the tenor proved that he could tune down his voice and look for and find the magical phrase that makes these recordings often more interesting than his operatic ones. He is not helped by the orchestra either. The conductors probably wanted to earn a few Deutsch Marks themselves as arrangers and they only succeed in adding syrupy preludes and postludes with rather noisy brass between. Many a tenor has sung the abbreviated version of ‘Core’ngrato’ as an encore in a live recital; but Domingo is the only major tenor to have recorded it that way in an official recording, probably another proof of the haste in which this recital was recorded.
Jan Neckers