Customer Reviews

Puccini: Madama Butterfly / Leinsdorf, Moffo, Valletti, Elias

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

This is a surprisingly fine set. Moffo may not be the youngest-sounding Butterfly, but there are passages upon passages of lovely, intelligent singing -- something you cannot say about so many of the Butterflies on the market! There can be no arguement about Valetti. His handsome lyric voice is light, but his interpretation is totally engaging and his musicianship superb. Elias, too, is an uncommonly good Suzuki. Leinsdorf's rigid phrasing is the only snag, but not enough to compromise a remarkably appealing performance. The stereo is simple, but well-balanced. This is a true bargain at mid-price.

This is, beyond doubt, the youngest sounding Butterfly I have ever heard! As an accompaniment for recordings such as this, I have recently published an illustrated libretto of this opera now available on Amazon The Fully Illustrated Libretto of Puccini's Madama Butterfly (Madam Butterfly or Madame Butterfly) (Graphic Novel) (Illustrated Opera Librettos and Graphic Novels, Volume 1).

Erich Leinsdorf conducts the Rome Opera Orchestra with zest, energy and sparkle. His tempos tend to be somewhat fast, but this adds to the vitality one feels throughout the recording. This energy captures the bounce and excitement of Act I and the wedding perfectly. Acts II and III require a more sombre, enclosed, claustrophobic feeling and here Leinsdorf misses the mark somewhat, as he maintains a youthful energy throughout.

Rosalind Elias' interpretation of the secondary role of Suzuki is highly polished. Her voice has a distinctive ring that I could recognize anywhere and when appropriate, she combines that ring with a slight sob befitting a role like Suzuki perfectly.

Renato Cesari, consistent with the youthful quality of this recording, delivers an energetic, beautiful sounding Sharpless. His portrayal of a young Sharpless is satisfying, though I personally feel it necessary for Sharpless to be more mature as his compassion and wisdom come from having lived a few more years than the surrounding cast.

When I illustrated this libretto, I found Pinkerton by far to be the most difficult character to paint. The fact he is rich, good looking, spoiled rotten and self centered can be overlooked with some effort, but the fact he is so deceitful will turn anyone's stomach. In order to illustrate him convincingly, I found it necessary to overcome my complete disgust for this man and try to see him through the eyes of a naïve and trusting Butterfly....no easy task! Cesare Valletti's sweet sounding tenor makes Pinkerton convincing enough to fool anybody....a definite plus for any singing actor.

I have never heard Anna Moffo sound as young as she does here. Towards the middle of her career she developed a lovely vibrato that made her voice easy to recognize. But in this recording, that vibrato has yet to emerge and I would have never guessed this voice to be Moffo's! This works to her advantage, for Butterfly is only fifteen years old at the beginning of the opera, and Moffo pulls it off beautifully! As a matter of fact, she is the ONLY soprano I have ever heard who portrays a believable fifteen year old. However, she is only fifteen for the first act. Three years have passed at the beginning of Act II, which makes her eighteen. But Butterfly does an enormous amount of developing throughout the opera and by its end, though chronologically still only eighteen years old, she is, in fact, much older than that. Here Moffo falls short, and along with the orchestra under Leinsdorf's baton, maintains the vitality which was appropriate in Act I, but not so for Acts II and III.

Even so, this Butterfly is fresh, interesting, and makes a great addition to anyone's collection. I highly recommend it.

The Fully Illustrated Libretto of Puccini's Madama Butterfly (Madam Butterfly or Madame Butterfly) (Graphic Novel) (Illustrated Opera Librettos and Graphic Novels, Volume 1)

Well, I must say that I'm totally biased - I adore Anna Moffo. Her "Butterfly" is tender, beautiful and totally believable. Anna was a great dramatic actress and really brings forth the emotions here. I've listened to multiple "Butterflys" and Freni's version comes pretty close. Hands down though, this is my favorite. Valetti' tenor is well-suited to Moffo's voice - both soft and light. How come Moffo was not paired with Bergonzi for this performance? THAT would have been perfect as both were reknown for their lyric phrasing. Butterfly's death scene is so incredibly sad and yet awesomely beautiful - what a juxtaposition. The lady playing "Suzuki" is also superb. Overall, a solid performance with fine cast. It's like a good Cabernet. Moffo will be terribly missed.

When RCA was using Rome as a major base for recording opera, I guess Living Stereo went out the window. To appreciate what's good about this 1957 Madame Butterfly, you must overlook boxy, dull sound that distorts with microphone shatter every time anyone sings louder than mezzo forte. The second big drawback is Leinsdorf's unimaginative conducting, which is even more cramped and stiff than it would be when he returned to the same opera with Leontyne Price a few years later. (The effect is as if the conductor left the podium and a metronome was put in his place.)

The Price version quickly overshadowed this one with Anna Moffo, but it shouldn't have. Moffo delivers one of the most memorable portrayals of Cio-Cio San on records: fragile, touching, and always human. I have never heard another singer sound so genuinely frightened about her fate or so vulnerable to despair. She is ideally partnered with Valletti, who was a stylish but small-voiced tenor. Judging by the timbre of their voices, these really are two young lovers, not international opera stars pretending to be. Valletti makes Pinkerton callow and needy -- he doesn't so much seduce Butterfly as cling to her imploringly. The love duet is completely convincing, despite the fact that Leinsdorf tries to undermine it with his brisk, perfunctory tempo.

Moffo died in 2006, not yet seventy-five years old, but her following seems to be swelling as RCA releases her recordings, almost all from the Fifties. She was born in Pennsylvania of Italian immigrant parents, and her talent was such that she was admitted to Curtis Institute. Her voice wore out shockingly early, however. I msut admit that I hadn't remembered how persuasive Moffo was as a vocal actress. I became attuned too quickly to the Sutherlands and Prices of this world. It's lovely to encounter her again, and for those just arriving, this Butterfly is a very good place to begin.

Leontyne Price shines as one of the greatest Butterflies in this 1962 recording. Her performance is as complex as the character she portrays. But above all, her performance is passionate! She controls her beautiful instrument with amazing subtleties and can soar when needed sending chills up and down your spine. Richard Tucker is also quite good as well as the supporting cast. There are so many memorable moments in this recording. One in particular is the flower song in Act 2. Leontyne Price and Rosalind Elias sing so perfectly together they almost sound like one voice, it's extraordinary and moving. Erich Leinsdorf direction is superb and very dramatic. Finally we have a humming chorus that you can actually tell that they are humming and it is in perfect balance with the orchestra. In many other recordings the chorus is drowned out by the orchestra. The humming chorus has always been the most touching moment of all opera for me. It's night and everything is hope and joy for butterfly in anticipation of Pinkerton coming back after 3 years of waiting but yet with tinges if melancholy overshadowing it. It is so unbelievably beautiful. The recording, the first opera made in RCA's new Italiana Studio A in Rome, is excellent for 1962. The orchestra and singers are perfectly balanced. It is not plagued by distortion during the singer's forte passages like earlier opera recordings. Also, there is a smooth and more open yet detailed quality then earlier recordings. In summary, this is one of the most passionate, beautiful, heartfelt and moving performances of this great opera ever. A must have no matter how many recordings you might have of this opera.

This 1963 studio recording of Madame Butterfly is unquestionably the most beautifully and expressively sung, boasting the talents of singers who are yet to be surpassed - Leontyne Price as Butterfly, Richard Tucker as Pinkerton and Rosalind Elias as Susuki. Erich Leinsdorf conducts with attention to detail and makes the score a balance of dramatic fatalism and beautifully and poetically rendered lyricism. In '63, Leontyne Price had rocketed to fame after her Met debut and Richard Tucker was stil in his own prime and Rosalind Elias was another big star at the Met. This recording, if anything, demonstrates the actual kind of singing and interpretation that must have been staged at the Met around this time. The digitally remastered sound is crisp and voluminous. Turn up the volume in such moments as the Act 1 Finale-Duet "Vieni La Serra". When Richard Tucker and Leontyne Price belt out this beautiful and harmonic duet, it will be unlike anything you have ever heard. Tucker as Pinkerton is incomparable. Only Luciano Pavarotti, with his brash but light, nearly Broadway voice, is the only other tenor perfect for such a role. Tucker understands that Pinkerton is no heroic tenor we root for. He is not Cavaradossi, nor Rodolfo or even Calaf. He is instead a coward, a deceitful hypocrite and fits a negative profile of the American male. Richard Tucker did not possess a huge voice, nor a dark one, and his Pinkerton is markedly lighter when compared to the Pinkertons of Mario Del Monaco or Placido Domingo. But a lighter-toned tenor is a more convincing Pinkerton, who is vulgar, careless and insensitive. A bigger voice only makes him grander and more sympathetic. Thus, Tucker, Pavarotti and Giuseppe Di Stefano make great Pinkertons. Mezzo soprano Rosalind Elias is superb as Susuki, with a melodic, rich mezzo voice that blends well in the Act 3 ensemble with Sharpless and Pinkerton. Her voice is also dramatic, though never outshining her soprano "mistress". Elias and Price's voices are beautifully harmonized in the Flower Duet. Elias is an intelligent musical artist and her career extended beyond minor mezzo roles like this one. She was able to mirror Christa Ludwig's career and take on diverse operatic roles like one of the characters in the 50's opera Vanessa, which she had already sung prior to this recording. Elias is simply glorious, her voice is never affected or divaesque.

As for the Butterfly, Leontyne is incredible. I only learned recently that she sang this role in her career. I cannot think of a better Butterfly, though I also dig Mirella Freni's Butterfly. The fact that Leontyne was an African-American from racially tense Mississippi of the 50's and 60's makes her position in the world of opera like a story of triumph. A black Butterfly ? Yes! It works! Leontyne's dramatic lyric-spinto voice is the precise manner which Butterfly should be sung. Because this is Leontyne Price in her youthful prime and not the more rough-toned Price of the 70's, she can convey Butterfly's youthful naivete with credibility. Very few sopranos can sound as young, yet as mature as Price. If anything, at times Price sounds too girlish and too sweet, her voice exuding innocence and oozing with honey. Thus, her Entrance Aria, Duets, "Un Bel Di" and other moments are full of beautiful lyrical strength. Nevertheless, she is vigorous in the Finale and her suicide is so intense that one cannot help but scream out or cry. She lives the role, no matter how many times critics insist she is no actress. Yes, she has all the perfect vocal abilities to master this role but she is also a Butterfly that can act! Leontyne Price was born to sing this role, to sing Puccini. This is her greatest work on recording, but if you dig Leontyne Price's clean, dramatic and vibrant voice of this time look for the following recordings: Verdi's Requiem under Fritz Reiner's baton, Tosca under Karajan with Giuseppe Di Stefano and Trovatore under Karajan with Franco Corelli. This was the best time of Price's heady career and she has never sounded more moving and beautiful than in this recording.

This 1962 recording has been much reviewed and debated since its appearance nearly fifty years ago, yet I haven't found many reviews I've read to be very helpful or informative. Maybe this one won't be either, but I'll try. This set seems either to attract intemperate condemnation, grudging respect or unqualified - and undiscriminating - adulation. Leaving aside for the moment the central question of Price's singing and her suitability to the role of Butterfly, let's look at the secondary issues first, starting with the sound - which is superb: open, full, beautifully balanced and extraordinarily satisfying for so old a recording.

Next, Leinsdorf's conducting. Far from finding him "stiff and unyielding", as one fellow reviewer opines, I find him to be quite the opposite: rather stop-go, one minute indulgent and the next pushing ahead rather erratically - but he conducted a great deal of Italian opera and is responsible for many a favourite of mine, so I am inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt and go with the flow. He certainly belies his reputation for literalism and seems to me to be exceptionally considerate of his singers. He can crank it up, hence he manages very nicely the concerted passage just before the quiet conversation between the newly-weds in which the fate of Buttefly's father is briefly discussed, building to a splendid climax, whereas the subsequent love duet is very leisurely indeed.

The third issue is Tucker's Pinkerton. I think it wholly unfair to accuse him of "bawling"; that is more a reaction to his vocal make-up in general, which some respond to and others do not. Although he hardly sounds exactly young, his bumptious manner adds to the impression of thoughtless caddishness; too sweet and puppyish a Pinkerton such as Valletti delivers risks our generating some undeserved empathy with the blighter, which you don't want. He's a hateful, selfish pig and Tucker's slightly bombastic grandstanding sends the message that he is a user and a deceiver. His singing as singing per se is excellent; he fines down his hefty, slightly throaty tone very successfully for the love duet.

The supporting cast, Maero's ordinary Sharpless notwithstanding, is also fine - and Rosalind Elias is in outstanding voice as Suzuki - if rather grand for a servant.

Finally, Price's Butterfly has been bashed for all sorts of real and imagined reasons: she is too grand, she is embarrassingly arch and coy when affecting girlishness, she is too knowing, too calculated, she has too lush and heavy a voice, her screams are melodramatic etc., etc. I don't give a hoot; for me this is a ravishing, miraculous and devastatingly beautiful souvenir of one of the greatest lirico spinto sopranos ever and testament to the greatness of a voice in its absolute youthful prime. I also happen to think that her characterisation works rather well, given the difficulty that Puccini imposed upon any soprano attempting to encompass the demands of a role which moves from tittering ingénue to tragic heroine, abandoned wife and desperate mother. Something's gotta give here and Price seems to me to be as successful as Mirella Freni and certainly more so than Tebaldi or Callas. From her smoky low notes through the vibrant middle to her radiant top, she gives a commanding and fearless performance to delight any Puccinian.

So buy it!