Our Summer BAL : 70 Puccini Madama Butterfly

[Barbirollians]

Not my favourite opera largely due to the story which is rather grim especially Butterfly’s suicide and leaving her child .

It does contain some marvellous music though and my favourite recordings are the 1967 Barbirolli from Rome with Scotto ,Bergonzi and Panerai- very passionate and the stunningly beautiful VPO/Karajan with Freni and Pavarotti at their finest . I was struck again at how involved Pavarotti sounds when singing with her.

Any other faves I have not played the Callas for ages. I recall she was great but the rest of the cast not so good.

[gradus]

The old Tebaldi recording was highly favoured but I think Barbirolli is the clear winner of all the versions I've heard. Puccini's finest score imv.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

It does contain some marvellous music though and my favourite recordings are the 1967 Barbirolli from Rome with Scotto, Bergonzi and Panerai- very passionate and the stunningly beautiful VPO/Karajan with Freni and Pavarotti at their finest . I was struck again at how involved Pavarotti sounds when singing with her.

Those are the two version I have. I prefer the Karajan, as Freni outclasses Scotto in the role of a young bride, and Karajan has both the Bienna Philharmonic and the best recording team, perhaps of all time.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Just thought I’d mention: summer doesn’t begin until June.

[Barbirollians]

The weather is the only good thing at the moment and as BAL is on a repeating dull recent twofers I think we can start early.

I agree that Freni is better than Scotto but dramatically the Barbirolli is more exciting to my ears. I had the Santini on a double CfP LP set many moons ago with de Los Angeles and Bjorling - great singing but conducting well below the big two.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Karajan has both the Bienna Philharmonic and the best recording team, perhaps of all time.

Don't know that one Alps - is it with the orch of the Venice Biennale?

I have a very ambivalent attitude to Puccini and his treatment of heroines, but did succumb to a cheap, librettoless reissue of the Barbirolli from a charity shop which will do me. I love the tunes and the orchestral writing; just such a pity he couldn't do without murdering at least one soprano per evening

[Pulcinella]

Fascinated to learn from the Wiki entry that the sopranos who gave the first performances in 1904 (original in Milan, revised in Brescia) were both born in 1872.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madama_Butterfly

I would have thought that Puccini would have had a younger voice in mind, and might even have written it specifically for someone, but it seems not.

Two versions on the shelves here: the Barbirolli and a Double Decca reissue of the one conducted by Serafin, with Tebaldi and Bergonzi, which might be the one that gradus is referring to in message #2.

[verismissimo]

Fascinated to learn from the Wiki entry that the sopranos who gave the first performances in 1904 (original in Milan, revised in Brescia) were both born in 1872.

Just to broaden the field a bit. This is what I have on shelves:

Geraldine Farrar, Emmy Destinn, Caruso (compilation, 1908-11)
Rosina Buckman, Tudor Davies etc, RAH Orch/Goossens pere (1921)
Margaret Sheridan, Lionello Cecil etc, La Scala/Sabajno (1929)
Toti Dal Monte, Gigli etc, Rome/Fabritiis (1939)
Callas, Gedda etc, La Scala/Karajan (1955)
Marie Collier, Charles Craig etc, SWOO/Balkwill (highlights, 1960)
De Los Angeles, Bjorling etc, Rome/Santini (1960)
Tebaldi, Bergonzi etc, Santa Cecilia Rome/Serafin (highlights, 1960)
Scotto, Bergonzi etc, Rome/Barbirolli (1966)

Think that'll do for now.

[Barbirollians]

Just to broaden the field a bit. This is what I have on shelves:

Geraldine Farrar, Emmy Destinn, Caruso (compilation, 1908-11)
Rosina Buckman, Tudor Davies etc, RAH Orch/Goossens pere (1921)
Margaret Sheridan, Lionello Cecil etc, La Scala/Sabajno (1929)
Toti Dal Monte, Gigli etc, Rome/Fabritiis (1939)
Callas, Gedda etc, La Scala/Karajan (1955)
Marie Collier, Charles Craig etc, SWOO/Balkwill (highlights, 1960)
De Los Angeles, Bjorling etc, Rome/Santini (1960)
Tebaldi, Bergonzi etc, Santa Cecilia Rome/Serafin (highlights, 1960)
Scotto, Bergonzi etc, Rome/Barbirolli (1966)

Think that'll do for now.

Which is your favourite ?

[Barbirollians]

I see on the shelves I have the Gheorghiu/Kaufmann/Pappano account which was I think one of the last EMI studio opera recordings. I don't have much memory of playing it and I recall Gheorghiu claiming she had discovered Kaufmann which I don't think he was very impressed by and of course did he not make a joke to the audience when she missed a cue in Tosca and was late on stage ?

[Cockney Sparrow]

I too (cf #1) regarded this piece as grauitously cruel and was happy to forgo live performances, and I haven't listened much to recordings.

It was casting of Ermonel Jaho at the ROH which led me to see the piece again, as she has been superb in everything she has done there - at least since Suor Angelica, her breakthrough. It was a wonderful experience, revisited a few days later in the cinema and followed by acquiring the Opus Arte DVD.
How she compares to other artists (same for the cast generally) I don't know, but I I'll be lucky* to have such an absorbing and rewarding experience again with M Butterfly in live performance.

Specifically - I'd got tickets for one of her (6?) performances in the July run at the ROH. It will be something of a feat to get that up and running, even if its allowed. The average age of many of the audience at the ROH put them well into the "at risk" category and I myself don't rate my chances.

Although I'm retired but not past 70, and with no notable specific health problems, I think I must rank last in the queue for any vaccinewhen it appears and yet I don't rate my chances very high if I am exposed to the virus. I think I'll have to make do with the DVD going forward...

[Barbirollians]

I too (cf #1) regarded this piece as grauitously cruel and was happy to forgo live performances, and I haven't listened much to recordings.

It was casting of Ermonel Jaho at the ROH which led me to see the piece again, as she has been superb in everything she has done there - at least since Suor Angelica, her breakthrough. It was a wonderful experience, revisited a few days later in the cinema and followed by acquiring the Opus Arte DVD.
How she compares to other artists (same for the cast generally) I don't know, but I I'll be lucky* to have such an absorbing and rewarding experience again in M Butterfly.

Specifically - I'd got tickets for one of her (6?) performances in the July run at the ROH. It will be something of a feat to get that up and running, even if its allowed. The average age of many of the audience at the ROH put them well into the "at risk" category and I myself don't rate my chances.

Although I'm retired but not past 70, and with no notable specific health problems, I think I must rank last in the queue for any vaccinewhen it appears and yet I don't rate my chances very high if I am exposed to the virus. I think I'll have to make do with the DVD going forward...

They have cancelled up to the end of May 2020 at least- I have been told that Elektra is cancelled. I note IGI gave Jaho's DVD a very good review in Gramophone.

[LHC]

I too (cf #1) regarded this piece as grauitously cruel and was happy to forgo live performances, and I haven't listened much to recordings.

It was casting of Ermonel Jaho at the ROH which led me to see the piece again, as she has been superb in everything she has done there - at least since Suor Angelica, her breakthrough. It was a wonderful experience, revisited a few days later in the cinema and followed by acquiring the Opus Arte DVD.
How she compares to other artists (same for the cast generally) I don't know, but I I'll be lucky* to have such an absorbing and rewarding experience again with M Butterfly in live performance.

Specifically - I'd got tickets for one of her (6?) performances in the July run at the ROH. It will be something of a feat to get that up and running, even if its allowed. The average age of many of the audience at the ROH put them well into the "at risk" category and I myself don't rate my chances.

Although I'm retired but not past 70, and with no notable specific health problems, I think I must rank last in the queue for any vaccinewhen it appears and yet I don't rate my chances very high if I am exposed to the virus. I think I'll have to make do with the DVD going forward...

Jaho's breakthrough at CG was when she subbed for Netrebko in La Traviata in 2008, and created quite a stir. She so impressed then that she was invited back to perform in La Traviata in her own right in 2010, before her sensational performance in Suor Angelica in 2011.

[verismissimo]

Which is your favourite ?

Thought I'd start my review with Barbirolli, Barbs, and aside from the marvellous orchestral playing, it's Bergonzi who strikes me as unsurpassable, but let's see …

[verismissimo]

Which is your favourite ?

Thought I'd go from my most recent (Barbirolli) to the earliest - Rosina Buckman and Tudor Davies in English in 1924 (not 1921 as I wrote in #8. And the conductor is Goossens sohn, not pere.

It's a complete delight! Sad that they recorded it just months before the arrival of the microphone and electrical recording, but one can sense immediately why Buckman was so admired as Butterfly, a role she first sang with Beecham's company during WW1. And Tudor Davies - really first rate!