Customer Reviews

Verdi: Macbeth (complete opera live 1952) with Maria Callas, Enzo Mascherini, Victor de Sabata, Orchestra & Chorus of La Scala, Milan

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an opera that EMI should have recorded with Callas in the studio, but it never happened, so we are lucky to have this recording of the 1952 live performance from La Scala. While the sound is boxy, dry, and lacking in range, it remains listenable and the ear quickly adjusts. Callas is an Amazonian Lady Macbeth, and it's a thrill a minute. Her voice, as heard here, is huge, powerful, and completely steady as she spews venom at every turn. The effects achieved by Callas on this performance are easier heard and experienced than discussed. Not surprisingly, the Macbeth of Enzo Mascherini is not on this level, but he manages a creditable performance in a role that should have been cast with Tito Gobbi (the only Macbeth who would have met Callas on equal ground). Victor de Sabata conducts a dramatic and searing performance. For Callas fans, this set is an absolute must.

When Arturo Toscanini was making plans to conduct a performance of Verdi's Macbeth at La Scala, he had one singer in mind--Maria Meneghini Callas. For more than a hundred years, this Verdi opera was much neglected by hundreds of great artist because of the composer's demands for the voice--choked, evil, not even singing. Of course, with the passing of time, a great artist with the genius of bel canto singing, the ability to color each and every phrase accurately, and with the most powerful stage and dramatic presence, came along the scene. Such a soprano was Maria Callas. Of course, because of her disputes with the damned Antonio Ghirangelli, the head of La Scala at the time, the Toscanini Macbeth never took place. How fortunate we truly are, however, to have Callas sing the role in La Scala a few years later with the great Victor de Sabata conducting. Here, we hear a totally different Callas, an antiheroine bent on achieving her goals without care for moral justice. No other soprano or mezzo for that matter could have captured the Lady Macbeth that Callas poured out on La Scala for the audiences that she mesmerized with her ability to portray such a despicable character. What a brilliant artist she truly was! Her letter scene is undoubtedly the benchmark for any other letter scene read by successive ladies after her career. Her La Luce Langue is simply amazing. Her sleepwalking scene caused only her to gain more legions of fans. Her colleagues weren't too bad either. Enzo Mascherini was evil yet cowardly as Macbeth. Truly a great performance that night. Do not miss out on this recording.

The opera should be called Lady Macbeth when the Lady is Maria Callas! Im not a huge Callas fan since I can never find much beauty in her voice but indisputably this role was written for Maria Callas. It needs a rough, ... sound with much coloratura and powerful both high and lower notes. This is, to me, Callas greatest role! However besides Callas, the less famous Elena Soulioti is also great, even if her studio recording does not represent her Lady well. Back to Callas, it is really sad that the diva never recorded the opera in studio, though she did record the famous aria and caballeta. This is, therefore, the only complete testament we have with Callas in this role and despite the terrible sound its a must.

Macbeth here is Enzo Mascherini who does a fine job but I much prefer others who have recorded the role in studio (Warren, Milnes for example). I also prefer sopranos in the title role, thats why my recommendation for a studio version goes to the RCA: Warren/Rysanek/Bergonzi. Last but not least here, the underrated conductor De Sabata is superb!

Concluding, even though the bad sound should prevent me from giving 5stars, I do give them because of Maria Callas: the definite Lady Macbeth.

Lady Macbeth was the role Callas was born to sing. The sound of her voice was so full, heavy, dark and evil, just like the way Verdi intended it to be. It's very disappointing that Callas never made a studio recording of this opera. It would have been a masterpiece.
...As for the reviewer who said that Callas is ruining Verdi's name, Toscanini who knew Verdi personaly, picked Maria to sing the role for La Scala. Verdi wanted a singer who possessed a big, dark heavy voice to sing the role not a light soprano who produced pretty sounds! Why do you think Macbeth is rarely performed anymore? Because Lady Macbeth is hard to cast. No singer from the past and today has the right voice to sing Lady Macbeth.

I fell under Maria Callas' "spell" very early in my teens which coincided with the conclusion of her performing career. It was a time long before she was the legend that she is today. In fact, at that time (late 50's early 60's) for a person to even state in public that they liked (or in my case adored) Maria Callas put that person at risk of receiving a lot of ridicule which could very easily turn to scorn. At the time, she was either loved or hated. I'm afraid that during my teen years I, alas, seemed to find more hate than love for her. Therefore, being the nerdy kid that I was I retreated into my own private world which consisted mainly of my record player and the recordings of Maria Callas. I eventually succeeded in procuring all of her commercial recordings-which were my prized possessions. However, I avoided (mainly due to their poor sound quality) the (what was known at that time as) "pirated" recordings.
Now that I, again, have reached a time in my life that I am, sort of, retreating into my own private world, I find myself turning, once again, to Maria Callas and to her singing for some solace. This time, my emphasis is (and will be) her "live" recordings--what used to be called the "pirated" recordings. After all, the technology restoring these live recordings has advanced unbelievably far. This recording of Maria's complete Lady Macbeth is a prime example. It is stupendous to hear Maria tackle the entire opera and to hear it in reasonably good sound. This performance catches her at her vocal peak! There is nothing Verdi throws at her that she can't do. In addition, even at the young age that she was during these La Scala performances, she was a very mature artist and was dramatically awesome-no wonder she became a legend. At this time she was vocally able to do anything. WOW, what a performance!!
Do yourself a favor by purchasing this recording to hear WHY Maria Callas is the operatic legend that she is today

Verdi's "Macbeth," often considered an uneven or problematic opera, really comes alive here under the spirited and imaginative conducting of the vastly underrated Victor de Sabata who was one of Toscanini's favorite conductors. (De Sabata is also the conductor on the Callas-di Stefano "Tosca," and as far as I am concerned should have conducted ALL of the Callas opera recordings.) Callas, here, is in fabulous voice, but more importantly, she gets deep down inside the character. By the time she finishes her first aria, she makes your skin crawl...you KNOW this woman is vicious and power-hungry!!

In the liner notes, critic John Steane has not very positive things to say about baritone Enzo Mascherini (who gives a surprisingly good account of the suffering Macbeth) or tenor Gino Penno (whose "Ah! la paterno mio" has tremendous feeling of a man who has truly lost his family), but I find them to be better than adequate - quite fine, in fact, better than any competing singers on record except for Leonard Warren's Macbeth on the otherwise disappointing RCA recording.

A genuine treasure, not to be missed. Even the witches scene sounds good in this one!!

This live recording of Macbeth dates back to 1952. Here we have maybe the best Lady Macbeth ever: Maria Callas. Unfortunately, Callas didn't think highly of this role and so she didn't sing the whole opera ever again but she recorded the arias and performed them frequently.
In this recording, we can hear and understand that this role was perfect for Callas. Verdi himself stated that he wanted a dark voice for the role of the Lady and Callas (with her great talent) transforms her voice and makes it appropriate for the performance of the role.
The gem of this recording is of course the "sleepwalking" aria. Listen to Callas' performance of the aria and you will find yourself applauding in the end with the whole Milan crowd.
It is a pity of course that Callas didn't record this role in the studio, preferably with Tito Gobbi as Macbeth.
Here we have in the title role Enzi Mascherini who is adequate, as meerly adequate is the supporting cast. De Sabata on the other hand conducts superbly and with perfect tempi.

On the whole, I recommend this recording to everyone who wants to hear a truly magnificent live recording of Verdi's masterpiece.

This is a magnificent performance with the greatest Lady Macbeth ever. What a stunning feat! Highly reccommended!

Thank God this absolutely divine performance was recorded at all! Callas WAS Lady Macbeth, this role suits her voice incredibly well! BRAVA!

SOURCE:
This live recording presents the opening night of the 1952-53 opera season at La Scala in Milan, December 7, 1952. It was a particularly lavish event, for Maria Callas was the bright, new star of the day and this "Macbeth" was the first opera to be telecast live from the stage at La Scala. Facts are, to say the least, in short supply, but my guess is that it was captured off the air by some enthusiast and is here given the semblance of legitimacy by EMI.

SOUND:
Dedicated audiophiles, turn away right now. This recording is not for you.

To those with more sense, I must explain that the very considerable virtues of this "Macbeth" lie in the performance and not in the sound reproduction. Overall, the sound is minimally acceptable, if not much more. It is restricted and boxy, there is occasional unbalance in the orchestra and, for those willing to strain a bit, fortunately little distortion in the loud and high passages, but a bit of pre- and post-echo.

Simply accept this opera as heard over a middle-quality AM radio--or television set--in 1952 (as might, indeed, have been the actual case.)


CAST:
MACBETH (aka Macbetto) - new-made Thane of Cawdor and tyrannical king that shall be - Enzo Mascherini (baritone)
LADY MACBETH (aka Lady), wife, co-conspirator and dedicated foe of d----d spots - Maria Callas (soprano)
MACDUFF (pronounced "Macdoof" in these parts), a man with a SERIOUS grievance who was from his mother's womb untimely ripp'd - Gino Penno (tenor)
BANQUO (aka Banco) - not a king himself, but ancestor to the Stuart kings - Italo Tajo (bass)
MALCOLM, son of the murdered King Duncan, who would reign as Malcolm III Canmore (="Big Chief") after Macbeth's death - Luciano della Pergola (tenor)
LADY-IN-WAITING to Lady Macbeth - Angela Vercelli (soprano)
DOCTOR - Dario Caselli (bass)
SERVANT - Attilio Barbesi (bass)
HERALD - Ivo Vinco (bass)
ASSASSIN - Mario Tommasini (bass)

CONDUCTOR:
Victor de Sabata, with the Orchestra e Coro del Teatro alla Scala, Milano.

TEXT:
This recording offers a nearly complete performance of the currently accepted standard version of the opera, the substantially revised text first presented to the public in 1865. There are a few cuts, mostly trimming some repetitions within individual numbers, and serving little or no discernible purpose. The absence of the first unaccompanied "O figli" from the recitative preceding Macduff's aria is so pointless that I can only assume that it marks an accidental omission on the original master recording.

COMMENTARY:
Verdi was a great admirer of the Bard of Avon. Among the few volumes found on a shelf near his bed after his death was a well-thumbed set of Shakespeare in Italian translation. The younger Verdi was particularly attracted to "Macbeth," "King Lear" and "The Tempest." Even the remote possibility that he might have set the latter two to music is enough to make a true Verdi fan throw up his (or her) hands while railing against fate and history.

"Macbeth" was probably Verdi's favorite amongst his earlier works. It premiered on March 14, 1847 at La Pergola in Florence, a year after "Attila" and six months before "I masnadieri." Its text is noticeably more faithful to Shakespeare's original than either "Otello" or "Falstaff," both written many years later. It was too faithful, as a matter of fact, for it contained a final dying speech for Macbeth, exactly as it was then being performed on the London stage. Years later, Verdi discovered that the speech was entirely bogus, a mere sop to the ego of the leading men who liked to go with a rattling final send-off. Verdi expunged that final death scene without a qualm.

Clearly, though, he did have some qualms about other parts of the opera. Almost two decades later, when he was well into his middle period and universally acclaimed as the great man of Italian opera, he returned to "Macbeth" revising, tightening up, casting some things out and adding others, in particular, the tremendous "La luce langue." To those who care desperately about such matters, there is a jangling mixture of styles in the revised version. As it so happens, I am one who couldn't care less.

Even though the mature Verdi had some second thoughts, it is clear that the youthful Verdi had a lot on the ball. "Macbeth," for example, marks the emergence of that new species, the Verdi baritone. Macbeth, as the great baritone Tito Gobbi put it, has "dramatic declamation" and "tessitura of an almost giddy height''. Gobbi studied the part for years but quailed before the thought of attempting it on stage. The very first Macbeth was Felice Veresi, who would later also become the first Rigoletto and the first Giorgio Germont in "La Traviata."

Lady Macbeth, likewise, is far from the typical Italian song bird of the period. The first Lady Macbeth, Marianna Barbieri-Nini, wrote years later with perhaps a little exaggeration that Verdi rehearsed the big first act duet for Lady Macbeth and her murderous husband more than "one hundred and fifty times so that it might be, as Verdi used to say, more spoken than sung." It ought to be noted that Verdi was just thirty-three years old at the time ... and that extensive or even dress rehearsals were virtually unknown at Italian opera houses of the day.

A month before this opening night at La Scala, Maria Callas had wowed London with her Norma--while sharing the stage with a very young Joan Sutherland, who sang a small comprimario part. In "Macbeth" Callas determined to give a very different performance. Verdi had famously stated that Lady Macbeth should be "ugly and evil." Callas agreed and later said "the role, and therefore the voice should have an atmosphere of darkness." That is what we here on this recording. A small minority at the time didn't accept her consciously chosen lack of vocal beauty and wrote vociferously on the matter. The vast majority, though, were simply awed. The recording discretely cuts away, but in fact she received seven curtain calls after the sleepwalking scene, alone.

By the way, Callas finished with the part on December 17 and never again appeared in "Macbeth" during her lifetime.

Many who have written of this performance have tended to treat it as a sort of solo recital by Callas. It is plainly more than that. The conductor was the under-recorded de Sabata who would soon lead the great "Tosca" with Callas, Gobbi and di Stefano. He was one of the handful of conductors who knew exactly how to get the best from the budding La Divina.

The Macbeth was Enzo Mascherini (1910-1981). He had been a pupil of not one but two great baritones, Ruffo and Stracciari. Mascherini made his professional debut in 1937 and had served as a good, solid, reliable baritone in the core repertory into the 1950s with "La Boheme," "Faust," Pagliacci" and "Andrea Chenier. He may be heard with Callas once again in "I vespri Siciliani." He is clearly not the greatest of Macbeths, but he certainly is a competent one, coping quite satisfactorily with Gobbi's feared dramatic declamation and giddy tessitura.

The Banquo was Italo Tajo (1915-1993). He was one of the best Italian basses of his time. His professional debut took place in 1935 as Fafner, of all things. Much later, he would take over from Ezio Pinza in the Broadway production of "South Pacific." In the meantime, he became a specialist in the comic roles in opera. He became a well-respected teacher and head of opera programs in the United States and sang his last stage roles as late as 1991. In the natural course of life among Italian opera singers, he also engaged in a fairly famous feud with Callas years after this "Macbeth." On this particular opening night, it can't be denied that he started off a bit shakily, but he rapidly pulled himself together and was singing well by the end of his truncated part.

About the fourth leading member of the cast, there are no ifs or buts or qualifications: he is simply terrific as Macduff. Gino Penno (1920-1998) was a dramatic tenor whose professional career flashed and sizzled and burnt out in the course of a single decade. Fan memory, that most unreliable source of information, recalls him as a singer with a huge voice, one even louder than that of Mario del Monaco. He specialized in the big, heroic parts in "Il trovatore," "Aida, "Medea," "La forza del destino," even "Lohengrin" and "Die Walkure"--the latter two in Italian, of course. (The is a recording of an Italian-language version of "Lohengrin" with Penno, Tebaldi, Guelfi and Neri that must be absolutely extraordinary.) Most of his career was in Italy and sadly for his memory, his studio recordings were made in the CETRA-ghetto. He had an excellent, although not very Italianate sound, but there must have been something wrong with his technique. Toward the end of his career, he broke loose from Italy and sang internationally, including two seasons at the Metropolitan Opera. Fan memory holds that his Met career ended when he simply ran out of voice attempting the high-C in "Il trovatore's" "Di quella pira." The red-meat-hungry fans of the day were not going to accept THAT kind of insult, no sir! He was not asked to return and that was pretty much the end of him--or so the old fans say.

The role of Macduff pretty much lives or dies on the one big aria in the last act. As fate would have it, I am currently looking at the parts of Macduff and Malcolm in which I'll be alternating in performances in the fall. Let me assure you that Penno does everything with the aria that can be done. I'm vastly impressed ... and no little dismayed by how much better he was than I could ever hope to be.

This is a recording of a historic production which offers some remarkable performances. For that reason, I give it five solid stars. For those whose taste is limited to the mere mechanical reproduction of sound, it is probably a three- or three-and-a-half-star set.