Bellini: Norma

Vincenzo Bellini (Composer), Gabriele Santini (Conductor), Rome Opera Orchestra (Orchestra), Anita Cerquetti (Performer), Franco Corelli (Performer), Giannella Borelli (Performer), Giulio Nero (Performer), Miriam Pirazzini (Performer), Piero de Palma (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Anita Cerquetti, Franco Corelli, Giannella Borelli, Giulio Nero, Miriam Pirazzini, et al.
• Orchestra: Rome Opera Orchestra
• Conductor: Gabriele Santini
• Composer: Vincenzo Bellini
• Audio CD (April 12, 2005)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Opera D'oro
• ASIN: B0007X9U1A
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #138,489 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Norma, opera: Overture

2. Norma, opera: Act 1. Ite sul colle, O Druidi

3. Norma, opera: Act 1. Svanir le voci

4. Norma, opera: Act 1. Meco all'altar di Venere

5. Norma, opera: Act 1. Mi protegge, me difende

6. Norma, opera: Act 1. Sediziose voci

7. Norma, opera: Act 1. Casta Diva

8. Norma, opera: Act 1. Ah! bello a me ritorna

9. Norma, opera: Act 1. Sgombra č la sacra selva

10. Norma, opera: Act 1. Eccola! Va, mi lascia

See all 15 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Norma, opera: Act 1. Oh! di qual sei tu vittima

2. Norma, opera: Act 1. Vanne, sě, mi lascia indegno

3. Norma, opera: Act 2. Dormono entrambi

4. Norma, opera: Act 2. Me chianni, o Norma?

5. Norma, opera: Act 2. Mira, o Norma

6. Norma, opera: Act 2. Sě, fino all'ore estreme

7. Norma, opera: Act 2. Non parti? Finora č al campo

8. Norma, opera: Act 2. Ah! del Tebro al giorgo indegno

9. Norma, opera: Act 2. Ei tornerŕ! Sě!

10. Norma, opera: Act 2. Norma, che fu?

See all 15 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars very rough diamond, May 23, 2005

By 

zaranda "zaranda" (Winnetka, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bellini: Norma (Audio CD)

In the aftermath of Maria Callas' famous 1st Act walk-off in January 1958, Anita Cerquetti came on for the remaining Rome Opera performances. After hearing this highly flawed recording you may fume in futile fury that Decca or Cetra or somebody did not rush the cast very next morning into a studio for a commercial setting down. Too bad, they didn't.

Cerquetti's histrionics are not of Callas proportions--one does not cringe before her "trema per te, felon!"--but her voice is always wonderfully rich, vibrant, above all Steady, and--without wobble. Corelli was still in the early flush of his natural endowment, and he luxuriates in the super machismo high testosterone chestiness of it all.

There are apparently limits to digital technology. Altho Opera D'oro's is some improvement over the vinyl "pirate" edition of decades ago--the voices are brought forward more satisfactorily--the sound is, by contemporary standards--even by 1958 air-check standards--wretched. This was supposedly a broadcast pick-up but one might think it was taken off by a guy in the top balcony with a mini concealed in the hanky pocket of an outlandish sports jacket. It is uneven, scratchy at times, cavernous, top-suppressed...on and on. Still, at only $12, Normaphiles' existence with this version "omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries"

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars La Cerquetti hits the big time with a 1958 triumph in Rome, September 5, 2011

By 

L. E. Cantrell (Vancouver, British Columbia Canada) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Bellini: Norma (Audio CD)

SOURCE:

In January 1958, Maria Callas was contracted to sing four performances of "Norma" at the Rome Opera. The first performance was the gala opening night of the season and the president of Italy would be present. A day or two before the performance, Callas seems to have experienced some significant vocal difficulties. This caused consternation. Callas was convinced (bullied in her own mind) to take the stage on opening night. She sang very badly. At the end of Act I, the audience expressed its displeasure with such comments as "Go back to Milan!" and "You've cost us a million lire!" The Manager of the Rome Opera, Antonio Ghiringhelli, applied to the Prefecture of Rome to ban Callas from singing in the three remaining contracted performances and flew in up-and-coming soprano Anita Cerquetti to sing in them.

This was the central scandal of Callas' stormy career and La Divina seems to have taken it very hard, indeed.

This recording captures the second performance on January 4th, and Anita Cerquetti's triumphant performance as Norma.

SOUND:

This recording bears the hallmarks of an off-the-air capture made with far from state-of-the-art equipment. Even by the modest standards of 1950s mono broadcast recordings it is fairly awful. The voices of the soloists are not too bad but the orchestra and chorus sound much as they might over two tuna fish cans connected by a string. In short, to hear this "Norma" is very like listening to an AM broadcast over the radio of a clapped-out Chevy while driving through a tunnel.

Audiophiles, turn away right now, this recording is not for you. The virtues of this "Norma"--and they are substantial!--are in the performers, not in the mechanical recording of their sound.

CAST:

Norma, Gaulish high priestess and seer, mother of Pollione's children - Anita Cerquetti (soprano)

Pollione, Roman pro-consul of Gaul, a hound-dog in character - Franco Corelli (tenor)

Adalgisa, a young Gaulish priestess who is infatuated with Pollione (mezzo-soprano)

Oroveso, Archdruid and father of Norma - Giulio Neri (bass)

Clotilde, a priestess and confidant of Norma who oddly bears a Germanic name - Gianella Borelli (soprano)

Flavio, a Roman officer - Piero De Palma (tenor)

CONDUCTOR:

Gabrielli Santini, with the Rome Opera Orchestra and the Rome Opera Chorus.

TEXT:

This performance contains the standard cuts customary for its time.

DOCUMENTATION:

No libretto. Short summary of the plot. Nothing on the performers or the circumstances of the recording. Track list that identifies principal singers and provides timings.

FORMAT:

Disk 1 - Overture and Act 1 to "Ah si, fa core e abbraciami (Norma and Adalgisa), 15 tracks, 78'40".

Disk 2 - Act 1 (continued); Act 2 (complete), 16 tracks, 72"23".

COMMENTARY:

This recording is as notorious as it is famous, for it is a permanent memorial to the greatest crisis in the career of Maria Callas.

That said, let us turn to the merits of the recording itself. Antonio Ghiringhelli was clearly determined to open his 1958 season at the Rome Opera House with a splash. He chose to present Bellini's masterpiece "Norma," one of the very few bel canto operas that had never fallen out of the standard repertory and the leader of the then new revival of the bel canto works. His stars were to be the biggest box office name of the day, Maria Callas, the popular and handsome Franco Corelli, the first-rate bass Giulio Neri and the superb Fedora Berbieri. As it happened, Berbieri had to cancel out, but her replacement, Miriam Piazzini was very good and well-known to the Roman audience.

The best-laid plans of mice and managers of opera houses gang aft aglay. Ghiringhelli's plan positively blew up in his face when on January 2, 1958, Callas wheezed through Act 1 and refused to come out for Act 2. The working relationship of the star and the manager had been iffy, to say the least. Ghiringhelli fired Callas and flew in the 27 year-old Cerquetti who had already made a name for herself among the cognoscenti but was not yet famous with the general public. Cerquetti came, sang and conquered. If you have any doubts about that last, just listen to the storm of applause she earned for her rendition of "Casta diva." (Yes, some of that was a calculated slap by the audience at Callas. but most of it was for a terrific bit of singing. The audience did it again in Act 2, following one of the duets with Adalgisa, and that time I doubt that their minds were on Callas at all.)

Anita Cerquetti (b. 1931) had a career that was effectively confined to a single decade. She retired from the stage in 1960 at the age of thirty for reasons that have never been made entirely clear. In her few short years, she made it abundantly clear that she was a full peer of her great contemporaries, Callas, Caballe, Gencer, Olivero, Sutherland and Tebaldi.

Franco Corelli (1921-2003) was certainly one of the great tenors of his generation. There are those today who strongly argue that he was the best of the bunch. He was also a slave to nerves and exasperating likely to cancel performances at the last moment. I am not one of his greatest fans, but it is clear that he was very much on his game that January evening in Rome. His Pollione is full, passionate and very, very Italian. You have to be impressed.

Giulio Neri (1909-1958) was a great bass whose career was mainly confined to Italy. He offered a big, dark sound. That Roman audience gave him his own triumph in Act 2. He suffered a heart attack four months after this performance and died just short of his 47th birthday.

Miriam Pirazzini (b. 1918) made her operatic debut in 1944. She can be heard on a number of complete opera recordings from the 1950s. She sang often with Callas and Olivero. As Adalgisa she sounds a bit matronly for my taste, more suited for Azucena, one of her standard roles. Nevertheless, she is fine in the part and obviously much appreciated by the audience.

The two comprimario parts, Clotilde and Flavio are skillfully handled. Giannella Borelli did not do much in the way of recording. It may be that she will be best remembered as the teacher of soprano Sumi Jo. Piero De Palma was the leading comprimario and character-tenor in Italy. He is likely to appear and just about any opera recording made in Italy during the 1950s and 60s. On this recording, he holds his own nicely against the full-fledged vocal onslaught of Corelli.

Conductor Santini and the orchestra and chorus he commands do well enough but the limitations of the recording do them no favors.

This "Norma" should be no-one's first or only version of Bellini's opera. As good as the performance is, it has to be downgraded because of the poor sound quality. Nevertheless, for Cerquetti fans--and I certainly am one of them--and for people who love full-out, uninhibited Italian singing, this set is a must have.

Four poorly, alas, recorded stars.