Customer Reviews

Bellini: I Puritani

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is actually not a live performance. It was a 1969 recording made by the Italian Radio Network in Rome, which is why there is no audience applause and really excellent sound (which might even be stereo!). Riccardo Muti is much less rigid here than he was to be on his later 1979 EMI studio recording with Montserrat Caballe and Alfredo Kraus, which allows the singers considerably more latitude than was the case a decade later. The singers here, of course, are top drawer. Mirella Freni sounds young, fresh, and is a beautifully lyrical Elvira. She still had at this time a few optional notes above the top C, which, admittedly, she uses sparingly, though effectively. She does not have the coloratura technique of Joan Sutherland, who, with all due respect, put in all sorts of extra coloratura interpolations and added cadenzas that were only hers to command. Nonetheless, Freni achieves a true vocal pathos and vulnerability that completely eludes Sutherland. At all points, the singing is very, very beautiful.

Luciano Pavarotti is superlative here, even better, I think, than he was to be four years later, when he commercially recorded the opera with Joan Sutherland. At the time of this performance, Pavarotti was little known outside of Italy, and his voice was an instrument of sublime beauty. This is most emphatically NOT the Pavarotti who much later became a grossly overweight operatic media Bozo. If nothing else, this recording shows what a great and serious artist he would have become had his success not gone to his head (as well as the rest of his body). The sheer beauty of his singing here is something to be experienced instead of discussed.

Personally, I find this "Puritani" to be the most listener-friendly around, and it's the version I return to most often. While I also admire the coloratura fireworks of Joan Sutherland (who, I again say, adds many, many interpolated top notes and decorations that were never written by Bellini in the first place), I also realize these fireworks were her speciality, and she gave of them generously, but Freni's diction is a thousand times clearer, and she is in the end, a far more communicative artist than Sutherland was. In fact, I don't think that even Maria Callas found more pathos in this role than Freni does.

Recorded live (though without any sound of the audience) in Rome in 1969 under Muti's sensitive and dramatic conducting. The sound is remarkably good, and the voices are recorded far foreword. Freni, Bruscantini, and Pavarotti sing superbly and seemingly effortlessly. Pavarotti is unbelievable! The whole thing comes out beautifully. Though the Callas-I Puritani with Serafin conducting in the studio is a must have, it seems Callas sings restrained, perhaps she had to tone down her voice not to blow away the 1953 microphones! But Serafin's conducting drives rigorously until the last note! The other famous recording, Sutherland-Pavarotti-Bonynge, has magnificent singing, but the conducting loses all momentum rendering the 3rd and last Act formless. This live recording is my first choice, but the Callas-Serafin is the standard by which the others should be compared.

Having Mirella Freni sing with such full golden tone is a luxury in this bel canto role and though her top notes are tentative the quality is beyond doubt,Callas is of course better equipped for Elvira but she was never partnered by Pavarotti whose clear,mellifluous tones breathe life into Arturo only occasionally being strained by the high tessitura,these two produce magnificant singing!Bonaldo Giaiotti is a paragon amongst basses, refined but firmly resonant with an outstanding technique only Bruscantini falls below par being dry and under characterising the role of Riccardo,Muti conducts well seeming more flexible here than he was to become and the orchestra responds adequately,the quality of this live recording is more than acceptable.

Though I only recently acquired this Puritani, I have the feeling it will be the one I will most often listen to.

Freni's magic lies in her beautiful lyric voice and keen phrasing. She made me pay attention to every phrase she uttered even if her coloratura is nowhere near Callas', Sills' or Sutherland's. You have to love her for trying to hit some of the highest notes though. Strangely, these vocal shortcomings never make her Elvira less convincing. In fact, Freni is the one who made me realise that, indeed, Bellini wrote Elvira for a lyric coloratura soprano (Giulia Grisi).

The squillo voice of the young Pavarotti blends in magnificently with Freni's. A few high notes are sometimes surprisingly insecure but I can't imagine any other tenor singing them better. Sesto Bruscantini and Bonaldo Gaiotti offer not only great support but impressive individual performances. Muti is usually not linked to Bellini but he does a decent job here.

Recommended as one of the loveliest performances of this masterpiece.

It's a pleasure to hear this beautiful opera shorn of all the unwritten top E flats and added cadenzas that sopranos like Joan Sutherland and Beverly Sills added. The opera is so beautiful, and the melodies so pure and lyrical, that nothing extra is needed. Bellini never wrote any top E flats in this opera, and conductor Riccardo Muti is one conductor who is of the "as written" school of opera. In 1979, his EMI studio recording of "Puritani" (with Montserrat Caballe' and Alfredo Kraus) emerged, and it presented the opera very much as it is performed
on this recording. Mirella Freni, a lyric soprano (and a very beautiful one), sings the role of Elvira as beautifully as one is likely to hear it. Personally, I find her singing more beautiful in this role than either Sutherland or Sills. I also find her infinitely more vocally suited to the role than Callas, who sang the role very early in her career, but who made a celebrated recording of it inn 1953. Pavarotti is even better here than he was to be on the Sutherland recording four years later. Interestingly enough, both he and Freni were born in the same year, and in the same town (Modena). They sound incredibly good here ---- which makes us happy that this recording has been issued. Freni never recorded this role commercially, and though Pavarotti did, he didn't sound quite as good as he does here.
A great performance in good sound ---- at a bargain price.

I bought this set because of the fairly glowing reviews from other customers, and especially because of the recommendation from Robert Levine with whom I *fairly* often agree. But not always, as here. For sound quality, I'd give this 4 stars; for its time and source it's good. For conducting I'd give it one star. Muti actually manages to ruin the performance for me. The latter half lacks any sense of forward propulsion, indeed all sense of shape is lost. And worst of all one has to listen to Bellini through a Verdi filter. If I didn't know the music, if I were coming to it fresh, I'd think myself in another period altogether. Or, if you will, think Bellini on steroids. Vocally, the two principals produce some beautiful sound; but, again, it only barely manages to be Bellini. And, please, I'm not talking about a lack of embelllishment; I'm talking about a very different style of singing than heard here. So. . .I frankly didn't enjoy this particular performance; but, if you can live with the things that put me off, then you can obviously enjoy this set - and that's fine. There is another Freni "Puritani", live from 1962, when she is much younger and, additionally, has Alfredo Kraus as her partner [no Verdi bleed-through there]. From the snippets on Amazon, the sound wouldn't be as good as this Muti outing, but the whole style of the performance would be different. I wish I had opted for that one. Over to you now!

First the sound: sometimes Opera d'Oro sets can be desperately disappointing and depressing; not this one. The 1969 RAI live performance (taped for broadcast, hence without an audience and the inevitable hacking) is in excellent stereo sound; a little distortion on the loudest notes notwithstanding this is very listenable and one soon ignores or forgives the slight constriction compared with a studio recording.

The cast is outstanding. Freni was never a complete natural for this role, bein, at this stage of her career (before she ventured into more dramatic roles) essentially a lyric soprano with the ability to negotiate the coloratura and the C's and D's required without exactly relishing them as Sutherland did. However, she brings great pathos and tenderness to the role of Elvira and she sings all the notes without the need for stratospheric embellishments - you are simply getting those beautiful melodies as Bellini wrote them. Elvira comes across in her performance as truly vulnerable, fragile and loveable; not just a nut-case with a machine gun for a voice. Pavarotti, a couple of forgivable moments of weakness apart (in the top notes of "A te o cara" and the Act 3 duet, when he wavers a bit) is exemplary: his voice is in its pristine beauty and he dramatises convincingly. Both Giaiotti and Bruscantini - despite a slight nasality in the latter's tone - are terrific; fine, focused, renonant, Italianate voices to die for - and their big duet is the highlight it should always be. (I do not understand the unkind remarks about Bruscantini in some previous Amazon.com reviews; to me he is a paragon of a baritone.)

Muti conducts considerately and just occasionally you could wish for a little more tension and animation to avoid that stream of mellifluous melodies becoming a tad soporific but I'm not really complaining; this is a set you can buy ridiculously cheaply and might find yourself playing more often than the premium price and quality studio recordings. I certainly prefer Freni even to Caballe in Muti's later recording and I'm afraid I have never been much of a fan of Alfredo Kraus, so Pavarotti gets my vote every time.

Having Mirella Freni sing with such full golden tone is a luxury in this bel canto role and though her top notes are tentative the quality is beyond doubt,Callas is of course better equipped for Elvira but she was never partnered by Pavarotti whose clear,mellifluous tones breathe life into Arturo only occasionally being strained by the high tessitura,these two produce magnificant singing!Bonaldo Giaiotti is a paragon amongst basses, refined but firmly resonant with an outstanding technique only Bruscantini falls below par being dry and under characterising the role of Riccardo,Muti conducts well seeming more flexible here than he was to become and the orchestra responds adequately,the quality of this live recording is more than acceptable.

I HAVE MANY MIRELLA FRENI RECORDINGS. HER ADINA IN ELIXIR OF LOVE IS JUST BEAUTIFUL. HER ELVIRA, HOWEVER, IS A DISAPPOINTMENT. HAVING LISTENED TO SUTHERLAND MANEUVER THROUGH THE DIFFICULT COLORATURA OF THIS ROLE, I SORELY MISSED THE TRILLS THAT FRENI LEAVES OUT. HER TONE IS LOVELY, BUT THE MUSIC JUST ISN'T SERVED BY HER LIMITED COLORATURA TALENT. SESTO BRUSCATINI IS, WELL, FLAT, COLORLESS, AND THE RUINATION OF THIS RECORDING. SOUND QUALITY OVERALL IS LACKING, TO BE EXPECTED FOR A LIVE PERFORMANCE OF THIS TIME. PAVAROTTI IS NEARLY ALWAYS TREMENDOUS, WHY EXPOUND? IN CONCLUSION, I WOULD HAVE TO SAY THAT ONE WOULD BE BETTER OFF SAVING ONE'S PENNIES AND PURCHASING A SUTHERLAND/PAVAROTTI RENDITION. I HAVE NEVER HEARD THE STUDIO VERSION, BUT I HAVE A 1976 LIVE RECORDING AND I CHERISH IT. 'SON VERGIN VEZZOSA' IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE ARIAS AND HAS BEEN SINCE I WAS TEN, AND SUTHERLAND SINGS IT RAVISHINGLY.

If you like Verdi and you do not know Bellini you will be enthusiastically suprised by this opera and recording.