Most Helpful Customer Reviews
35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Still a reference after fifty years, December 6, 2007
This review is from: Puccini: Madama Butterfly / Leinsdorf, Moffo, Valletti, Elias (Audio CD)
There is no reason to expect consensus on a work as richly and as often recorded as "Butterfly," but this 1957 recording (from what would become the golden era of RCA's opera catalog) is arguably one of the most complete interpretations of the work. By "complete" I refer not to the musical score (and its revisions) but to the consistency of the performances, both vocal and orchestral. Leinsdorf's handling of the score is one that repays repeated listening, precisely because it is unsentimental, amazingly responsive to the conversational character of much of the drama, while also capable of soaring lyricism at just the right moments. For example, Leinsdorf's pacing of the duet between Pinkerton and Butterfly at the close of Act 1 is rapturous, more so than any other recorded version apart from Karajan's reading in the 1955 EMI recording with Callas and Gedda. As other reviews have noted, the casting of the lead roles is simply miraculous -- not because each singer is best in category (whatever that would mean) but because the ensemble works so well together, throughout the performance. Almost every other recording I can think of (with a couple of exceptions) depends on star turns by individual singers, but Leinsdorf's recording gives us a completely realized world --Puccini's fantasy of a delicately exotic, dangerous, and emotionally devastating encounter between East and West. Valetti and Moffo are perfectly matched as Pinkerton and Cio-Cio-San. Only Bergonzi (in the lovely '60s recording under Barbirolli) surpasses Valetti (and this by a margin). Rosalind Elias is peerless as Suzuki (and more involved here, in fact, than in the later RCA recording with Leontyne Price). As for the Butterfly, Moffo's performance may well be the best reason to hear this recording. There's no denying that her voice is light for the role. She cannot quite manage the vocal avalanche that Tebaldi and Callas and even de los Angeles could summon in the pivotal, traumatic scenes in the last two acts. And she doesn't convey the same degree of textual nuance displayed in both of Scotto's mainstream recordings. But she possesses something that none of these sopranos quite had, a voice with a timbre and color capable of conveying youthful innocence and powerful sensuality and emotional ambivalence at the same time; in purely vocal terms, Moffo knows how to convey the transformation from girl to woman in a way that practically no other soprano on disc has done. In my view, Callas' performance is the only exception -- and it's a wonder, exponentially more powerful than Moffo's in the last act, but far less believable in the first two acts (Callas' simulated "little girl" voice is not for all markets, but Moffo's is simutaneously gorgeous and touching without being affected, as both Callas' and Scotto's performances tend to be in the early scenes). Moffo's Butterfly is uniquely "complete" because it presents a consistently plausible vocal and dramatic portrait of Butterfly. This isn't to say there aren't rivals in key scenes: listen to Leontyne Price's entrance scene (RCA, again with Leinsdorf), Mirelli Freni's "Un bel di" (with Karajan), Renata Scotto in the painful Act II encounter with Sharpless (especially in the recording with Maazel), and Callas (Karajan) in the final scene.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A delicate Butterfly, June 20, 2001
This review is from: Puccini: Madama Butterfly / Leinsdorf, Moffo, Valletti, Elias (Audio CD)
This is an interesting recording of Madama Butterfly. Anna Moffo and Cesare Valletti have much lighter voices than we usually hear in this opera and the end result is very refreshing. Moffo sings very sweetly, her interpretation is girlish but not coy. She brings considerable warmth and tenderness to the role and is quite touching in her devotion to Pinkerton which makes the tragic end even more heart-breaking. She may lack a bit of heft for the big moments but hers is a thorougly beautiful and moving performance. Valletti is a youthful Pinkerton more carefree than truly callous. He and Moffo blends beautifully in the love duet. Rosalind Elias is a very good Suzuki and the Flower Duet with Moffo is a delight. Renato Cesari is fine and portrays a compassionate Sharpless. Chorus and orchestra may lack a bit of polish but are generally good and the sound vivid and atmospheric for its age (1957) though the singers are occasionally swamped. Leinsdorf is often criticized for being an "unfeeling" conductor but I find he does a good job and paces the opera very well.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Priceless Price!, August 28, 2000
This is an essential recording of "Madama Butterfly", if not the all-around finest. As Cio-Cio San, Leontyne Price is always moving, if not always a perfect Puccini soprano. All the voluptuous sound for which she is both revered and sometimes criticised is here aplenty, yet there is an aspect of youthful care that keeps her from the vocal preening with which she was occasionally afflicted. I suspect that a great deal of her requisite discipline in this recording comes as much from Leinsdorf, as from anything else. Her duet work with Rosalind Elias is generously partnered, Elias delivering her customary gold. Richard Tucker sings technically flawlessly, as usual, even when Pinkerton seems to fade a bit due to exalted Tuckerisms. I have never been put off by Price's unique use of her chest voice -Jessye Norman's laudable effort notwithstanding, was there ever a more willful Carmen!- yet in this recording, her particular vocal mannerisms seem kept to a minimum, and those that are employed seem so consonant with the intense burgeoning of her Butterfly, again, I suspect, following the wisdom of Leinsdorf. I have loved this recording for years; the Highlights CD is even better for those who wane a bit sitting through an entire Puccini lovefest. It has kept faith across the years, and every innate mark of the superlatively polished artist Leontyne Price eventually became is present and in ravishing form throughout this early recording. Price's portrayal of Butterfly reveals all the sub rosa strength and none of the banal predictability associated with this overwrought character, leaving one filled with a genuine longing, and burnished to a convincing glow.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
