Customer Reviews

Madame Butterfly

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I agree with the other reviewer-- Tebaldi's Butterfly just doesn't do it for me. I've heard both of her recordings of it and her appeal doesn't come through the way it does in her stunning Forza (buy the highlight disc immediately!), her truly magnificent Fanciulla del West, even her Wally (and who else could make something memorable out of that questionable piece?).The illusion of innocense is totally shattered after the wedding when the chorus ladies sing "Madama Butterfly" and Tebaldi answers "Madama F. B. Pikerton" and cuts loose with a huge, lusty laugh that's less appropriate for a shy 15-year-old than for a Sicilian fish wife.

Perhaps the Butterflys suffer by comparison, because there's no denying that her singing is still on a higher level than just about anyone else- and that includes her flatness at G and higher.

Come on, now, let's be honest: she never quite gets up to the highest notes. But that's part of the miracle of her singing; it's still incredible, stunning, gorgeous, moving-- everything else about her voice (especially the middle and bottom) is so amazing that you can't really appreciate operatic singing fully without at least hearing her voice. And when she's on, baby, it just makes your heart swell up until it feels like it might burst.

As for Butterfly- some purists may be horrified at this- but I really love the von Karajan with Mirella Freni. The soft high D she sings in Butterfly's entrace will leave you lying on the floor, gasping for breath. You might also try Callas's recording: I know, I know- but even people who hate her should hear the Act I duet. She's very suffuses her voice with fear and love.

Signora Tebaldi is a strange phenomenon for people under 40 who didn't have a chance to hear her live. Her marvelous voice is evident in her many recordings, but not much interpretative intuition comes across to make her truly memorable. As Cio-Cio-San we get the right spinto sound, but not the vulnerable affection to make her believable as a 13 year old. Maybe in a large theatre she could be more convincing, but under studio conditions she leaves me cold. Bergonzi sings a marvelous Pinkerton, but he can also be found in the best recording ever made of M. Butterfly: the Scotto/Barbirolli version in EMI, an infinetely more touching and poignant recording. Scotto may not have the gorgeous sound of Tebaldi, but she is much more interesting and credible in the title role. Barbirolli conducts a slower Butterfly than Serafin, but his reading too looks deeper and with more affection into the drama, and if you add the great Rolando Panerai as Sharpless, it's obvious that this is the best Butterfly ever made.