Customer Reviews

Rossini: The Barber Of Seville with Maria Callas, Tito Gobbi, Alceo Galliera, Philharmonia Orchestra & Chorus

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Callas sung this after her 5 unhappy performances at the La Scala. Her Rosina was described by critics to have "excessive nervous energy and unsuitable vocal color". Today, I've still seen a surprising number of comments stating that this was far from Callas' best performance.

But I don't agree at all! At the centre of the performance is the combination of Gobbi and Callas. They're delightful. Galliera was a fortunate choice, the orchestra excels. Zaccaria is a very good Basilio. Fritz Ollendorff is not my favorite Bartolo, he lacks a bit of that evil comic villainy I've seen in others, but in any case, his performance is still excellent and others might find it perfect. The young Luigi Alva was also brilliant, and was probably very helped by his great performance in this recording.

This version of Il Barbiere was one of the factors that ignited my interest in opera to levels I never expected before. The others were perhaps a few excellent live performances I had the privilege to hear. That's why I recommend this version to my opera-hating friends now, together with some tickets to a good live opera; Great libretto, wonderful music, a riotous romantic comedy, funny, fast action, top quality performances - Not bad for a start.

Most people I know consider "Una voce poco fa" Callas greatest moment in this opera; They might be right, but to my ears, Callas excels in her second duet with Gobbi: "Dunque io son" remains one of my favourite all time duets in opera buffa. You can find Calla's sweet and innocent Rosina at her most here. Incredibly satisfying. Gobbi and Callas are amazing in these 5 minutes. Bliss! I remember hitting "previous track" quite a few times on the player when I first heard it. Couldn't get enough. Well, still can't. :-)

Finally, a small note to those who are worried about the almost 50 years old ADD recording: Fear not! Yes, this was recorded in studio in 1958, while stereo technology was still fairly new, but the sound quality is surprisingly good. I am rather picky with audio quality and sometimes regret not being able to fully enjoy some of the old classics, I just can't fully appreciate the music if the sound quality isn't a good challenge to my ears and equipment. This version was obviously well recorded back in 58 and EMI's remastering in 1997 improved it. Stereo separation is excellent, soundstage is wide. Obviously, don't expect it to match today's cutting edge sound engineering, but vocals are very clear and well defined.. I can only complain of the usual tape hiss (quite subtle in this case) and the usual overload clipping in a few more intense areas, but those are never too irritating (even with headphones). I've often seen many modern ADD and even DDD recordings put to shame by this quality.

Not the only good Barbiere I've heard, but definitely my favourite so far. Get it, chances are you won't regret it at all. Ever.

I admit to being very skeptical of this recording. I couldn't picture Callas, the queen of Grand Noble Heroines, in a comedy. But I'm very happy to say I was oh-so-wrong. This recording is pure fun and energy from start to finish.

Callas is delightful here, as is the rest of the cast. Today this role is usually taken by a mezzo-soprano, but Callas sounds very mezzo-like and uses much of the mezzo score. I really can't believe her voice would be shot within a year -- here she sounds amazingly young, fresh and agile. She shows off a lot -- high notes (she holds the high B of "Una voce poco fa" until you're afraid her lungs will burst), trills, ornamentations, but that's part of the fun. She tosses in high notes here and there too, just to remind people that she can. Her Rosina is equal parts "dolce, amorosa" and "vipera." I never knew Tito Gobbi could sound so lighthearted. I particularly love the way he sings his recitatives -- hilarious. Luigi Alva makes his Count slightly silly-sounding, which is very funny, particularly when he pretends to be the music teacher. Galliera leads the Philharmonia orchestra in a spirited, lighthearted rendtion of the score.

This recording is just too fun to pass up. Occasionally, you need to hear an opera where people don't die. Some caveats: there are the traditional cuts, and sound is early stereo, so sometimes the balance isn't quite right between orchestra and voices -- you know its not balanced when you have a hard time hearing Gobbi and Callas! But try this -- you'll like it!

What a recording this is! Witty, funny, grabs you, puts you in the middle of the action and doesn't let you go all the way to the end. You will find yourself cheering happily when it is over and you will think that these are the actual characters coming all the way from Seville to sing for you.

Everybody is in excellent shape but the real difference is made by the unity and the flawless unfolding of the intrigue. Every single role is convincing and consistent throughout the opera, the orchestra plays beautifully and supports with such energy and humour the voices. Callas is in perfect mood and in excellent voice. Her Rossina is the best available. Listen to "Una voce pocco fa" and be amazed by all the nuances you can find there. Mr. Gobbi is again the voice and the actor in one of his best recorded performances. I must agree with one of the reviewers in saying that his Figaro is the best on disc. He displays too a very beautiful voice and an amazing characterization of Figaro. Their duet in the first act is a glorious moment of recorded opera. They tell so much besides what their words are actually communicating. The rest of the cast comes nearly as equals and everybody seemed to understand the in the same way what this opera is about and what each and all of them have to say in it.

All in all it is a great recording. Great music making, solid and expressive characters, good and entertaining drama, good loughs everything the Barbiere should be in my opinion.

Here we have a masterpiece of a recording. This Barbiere di Siviglia is the best on record and hasn't been surpassed by the modern recordings and will not easily be surpassed.
It is true that Callas sang the role of Rosina on stage rarely and she didn't have a success with it. Her performances of the role at La Scala were not at all successful. She overplayed the part making nervous movements and gestures all the time and she was described as "an excitable, nervous, overpowering Rosina". Her voice was not in good form then either. To make you understand just how bad were these performances, I need to mention that after them the conductor Giulini severed his connections with the Theatre and its production team.
Yet, in this recording Callas shines! She is magnificent and her voice is in very fine shape. Her recent success then at Covent Garden as Norma probably helped her a lot psychologically. She gives us a willful Rosina, cunning and smart and surely a "vipera". Just listen to "Una voce poco fa", how gloriously it is sung and acted. To mention but one point: the word "ma" after "mi fo guidarrrrrrr" with that repetitive `r'. Absolutely thrilling.
Her Figaro is Tito Gobbi. We cannot probably imagine Tito Gobbi in a funny role, when we have in mind his Scarpia or his Iago. But here he is magnificent, comical, humorous and absolutely singing AND acting the part.
Luigi Alva still young and in his prime gives us a spectacular account of Almaviva's part and he is quite memorable.
The rest of the cast and the conductor, Alceo Galliera, were all picked up by the famous EMI producer Walter Legge and make a wonderful team. The Philarmonia Orchestra under Galliera's conducting plays skillfully and full of life and give a magic touch to the score.
All in all, a fabulous recording! Get it and you will not miss!!

Others have written of the undoubtedly great individual performances of most of the soloists in this recording. The most important feature of this opera in general, though, is the drama - it just doesn't work as highlights. At conveying the drama, this recording absolutely excels, primarily through the quality of the ensemble singing of the soloists. The finale of Act I is the finest piece of dramatic singing anywhere in my collection outside live recordings, and one I return to much more than the "lollipops". The timing is perfect, and the balance exceptional.

I suppose it is obligatory to mention a couple of negatives: firstly there is what sounds like some odd balance or microphone placement in some scenes (although my recording predates the nineties mastering mentioned by someone else here, so I'd be interested to see whether that has changed there). Secondly Callas' singing style doesn't really fit the Rosina part, for me. However, that is more than made up for the brilliance of her coloratura, evident particularly to my ears in the Finaletto to Act II. Could do with a bit more subtlety from the chorus in places, too, but the Chorus is often a weakness in recordings from this period.

This was the first opera I ever bought on CD, and therefore it must have been one of the first reissued on CD. I don't think it's been off the shelves ever since, so if you haven't got it, buy it.

Callas's Barbiere is unusual for two reasons. Not only Callas, an interpreter of tragedies, takes a detour into a comic role, but Rosina is also one of the few roles in which she failed in theater but succeeded in studio.

While many tend to think Callas as a soprano, she is, specifically, a soprano sfogato who usually graduates from a mezzo by force of an extended top. One singer of this kind, Maria Malibran, was a celebrated Rosina. Perhaps more than a piping and pretty coloratura, Rossini demands an expressive mezzo.

Callas's voice does not have the sensual roundness of a Berganza or a Sutherland--so one cannot luxuriate or relax in her singing. Yet, Rosina is hardly another docile and sweet Amina. So, the edge and points in her voice furnish witticism, archness and coquetry. In her "Dunque io son," one hears that tone of banter and pertness with Figaro and detects even a hint of smile in the voice. I absolutely love her middle range, so colorful and energetic in this recording, and ditto for her precise coloratura and fine diction.

The Gobbi-Callas partnership has been as fine as ever. Even though Gobbi aspirates a few of the florid passages, he makes such a clever singing actor and hence a worthy partner of Callas. I have heard richer-sounding Figaros, but none has such inspired phrasing, accents and colors like Gobbi, not to mention his sympathy with Callas in singing and acting. In fact, both belong to the category of singers whose singing makes the listeners see their acting.

The rest of the ensemble have their strengths and weaknesses. Fritz Ollendorf strikes me as a sluggish and imprecise Bartolo, but Nicola Zaccaria fares better in his role. Luigi Alva, a tenorino still at this time, adds smoothness, charm and gallantry to the role of the amorous (and later libertine, as in The Marriage of Figaro) Count Almaviva. His serenade under the windows of Rosina certainly makes a good case for elopement.

I am particularly grateful for the intelligent and humorous conducting of Alceo Galliera, whose apt rhythms whip up the comedy without becoming repetitive, as Rossini's music can be in the hands of an unimaginative maestro. The suavity and felicity of his delivery not only serve Rossini well, but also conjures up wittiness worthy of Beaumarchais's original plays.

The recording can introduce listeners uncomfortable with acidulous high notes to Callas, who do have those problems in some of her soprano recordings. Without exposing her defects, it shows off her brilliance--a rich middle range, a command of coloratura and an insightful musicianship--so that people can understand and appreciate her better before they encounter the famed and feared wobble in other CDs.

I've never been a fan of funny operas except for two Rossini-operas: Barbiere and L'italiana in Algeri. Having heard many dull singers (Esp. Gruberova) as Rosina it's fun to have a Rosina at last who understood the part. "Sara una vipera saro!" Here the viper AND the charming girl are portrayed to perfection. Her live-recording is too unfinished but Callas' studio-effort as Rosina has never been surpassed, NO, not even by Berganza. TWO THUMBS UP for Callas and her great colleagues! The BEST Barbiere!

After purchase of a disappointing version of Rossini's Barber, I heard this recording. Historically definitive, we are fortunate to have this excellent version available.
What is so great? The Philharmonia Orchestra, Luigi Avla as Almaviva, Callas as Rosina, and Gobbi as the Barber, along with the chorus, all brilliantly capture the Italian flavor of Rossini's genius. The EMI sound quality is perfect! One may listen over and over just to hear Luigi Alva's splendid interpretation. Quite funny as well!

If you are going to get one version of this classic opera, this is the one. Besides the obvious brilliance of Maria Callas, Tito Gobbi shines throughout the CD.

My desert island list would include a recording of "Il Barbiere di Sevilia" but the choice of either this EMI set or RCA's Living Stereo Edition, would cause me to attempt smuggling in one or the other recordings of this work. My heart belongs to the Callas/Gobbi set because it was one of the first opera recordings I owned. What grabbed me as a pre-teen was that I could visualize the action through nothing more than the voices of the two lead singers and their ability to shade words. I was oblivious to the reservations many had about both singers in 1958. Gobbi's dry baritone and Callas's edgy and unsteady high notes were for me easy to excuse and I still feel the same way. The RCA set has Robert Merrill and Roberta Peters in their prime. Their voices are simply gorgeous and just as theatrically real as Gobbi/Callas. The RCA set is virtually uncut on 3 disks, the EMI set has some traditional cuts on 2 disks.
But the RCA set distances itself with the presence of coloratura lyric tenor, Cesare Valletti as Almaviva, not that Luigi Alva is second best but the RCA set reinstates Rossini's original closing to the final act with a show stopping coloratura tenor aria that would eventually end up as the closing aria for his Cinderella, "La Cenerentola". There is a passage here with music as fleet and difficult that I thought only a coloratura counter-tenor could sing. Valletti's voice is not as handsome as Alva's but the coloratura work is amazing.

I give both recordings four stars and as much as I dislike having more than version of an opera in my collection, these two recordings are recordings I turn to many times when I want to hear some extraordinary singing.

Now to sonics. Both recordings were made in 1958 but the RCA edition, the second CD edition of this recording, will be of interest to audiophile fans. The sound is splendid, open, with full fidelity. Some ensembles at full tilt distort a bit but the digital master was made using the original tapes on the original tape decks. RCA chose to not clean up the sound (tape hiss) for fear that the original fidelity and crispness would diminish the overall effect. They were right. The EMI remastering is good but I'm always cautious with these Callas Editions because EMI ruined several Callas mono recordings, mistaking the work of adventurous producers and engineers and even pitching some of the recordings incorrectly. But the sound is close to what I remembered with the LP editions. There is a hint of tape hiss, but I would rather have the hiss than the flat line noise reduction systems that deaden the brightness.