Customer Reviews

Zandonai: Conchita

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

 

 

SOURCE: This is a September 19, 1969 live radio broadcast from Radiotelevisione Italiana, Torino.

SOUND: Opera d'Oro is, as always, economical with details. Based solely on what I hear, my guess is that this is an AM broadcast recorded off the air. Overall, the CD sound is listenable but compressed and a bit harsh for its date.

CAST: Conchita - Antonietta Stella; Mateo - Aldo Bottion; Conchita's Mother - Anna Maria Rota; Dolores - Giovanna di Rocco; Rufina - Rosina Cavicchioli; The Supervisor - Rosetta Arena; Estella - Rosetta Arena; A Woman - Emma de Santis; A Mother - Angela Rocco.

CONDUCTOR: Mario Rossi with the RAI Orchestra and Chorus, Turin.

FORMAT: Disk 1 - Act I, tracks 1-7, 34 min 13 sec; Act II, tracks 8-10, 19 min 36 sec. Disk 2 - Act III, tracks 1-3, 16 min 55 sec; Act IV, tracks 4-6, 20 min 09 sec.

DOCUMENTATION: No libretto. Seventy-eight word summary of the plot by Bill Parker. Brief essay on Zandonai and the history of the opera. Track list that identifies singers and provides timings.

COMMENTARY: Riccardo Zandonai (1883-1944) is a composer often regarded as a one-hit wonder. That hit is his 1914 opera, "Francesca da Rimini," which squats at the edge of the standard repertory and earns revival at some major opera house every decade or so. "Conchita" dates from 1911 and, though largely forgotten today, was the first work of Zandonai's to earn significant international attention.

Zandonai was a protege of the librettist-composer Arrigo Boito and a student of Mascagni. For some time, he was regarded as the heir to Puccini, just as Puccini was seen as the heir to Verdi. Today, however, he is a composer whose fame, such as it is, is mainly confined to Italy.

"Conchita" is loosely based on an 1898 novel by Pierre Louys called "Le femme et let pantin" ("The Woman and the Puppet.") For its time, the book was rather scandalous. Besides this opera, the book has spawned no less than four movies. The leading role has been played by stars of such magnitude as Marlene Dietrich and Brigitte Bardot. Perhaps the best known version for contemporary audiences--and by far the loosest adaptation--is Luis Banuel's "That Obscure Object of Desire."

The story involves a man's expensive and self-destructive pursuit of something of a bad girl who is, among other things, an exotic dancer. From this alone, it can be seen why the Dietrich of "The Blue Angel" fame was attracted to the part. For this operatic version, the story was given what the Italians of the day regarded as a happy ending: Conchita subordinates her own will and goals to give herself to Mateo, to whom she had been the obscure object of desire.

The cast on this recording boasts two very strong performers, Antonietta Stella and Anna Maria Rota. The rest range from pretty good to acceptably adequate. All I know about this opera is what I hear on this set, but the conducting and the orchestra seem to be entirely satisfactory. On the whole, I think this is as good a performance of "Conchita" that we are likely to get in the foreseeable future.

What problems I have with this set arise not from the performance but from the opera itself. Like "Francesca da Rimini," "Conchita" seems always to be in my face. Every number, every phrase in the orchestration seems to be blaring and agitated. I find no place of musical or dramatic repose anywhere in the piece. That is purely a personal reaction, of course, an others may well find virtues that entirely elude me.

This is a recording in fair (but no better) sound that offers a good performance of an opera that does not happen to appeal to me. On the basis of rarity and performance quality, I give it a shaky four stars.

It's always a pleasure to encounter an L E Cantrell review; they are always worth reading, always filled with valuable information and usually quite wise in their overall reaction to a recording.

So too here. His four stars seem overly generous; I'd be more inclined to give his review four stars, saving the fifth for the recording. Zandonai's FRANCESCA has always struck me as a very strange opera, hard to nail down. It moves at its own pace and rhythms, but in the final analysis it's not much of an opera. Still, it gets mounted occasionally, at the Met about 25 years ago. It's unlikely ever to make anything close to the standard repertory -- and we're not missing much for that.

Poor little CONCHITA; if only Dietrich were singing on this recording, she might make something of herself. What we have here is a lot of mother-daughter screeching at one another, interrupted occasionally by a chorus and a thin-voiced tenor. Sounds unfair, I know. But what can you expect when you make your "heroine" a cigarette-factory worker/floozie and you don't give her Carmen's arias to sing. Stella doesn't have much to work with here but makes a valiant effort, as does the mezzo.

But there is another aspect of this recording to consider and we owe both Opera d'Oro and Gala thanks for making this performance available. It's our only way to find out what this little chestnut "sounds" like -- and that's a real plus. The history of opera is replete with its many Conchitas vying for our attention, all struggling against that sea of anonymity, drowning in the flood of poor operas that have been made over nearly 400 years. When you consider the numbers, it's actually very few that have made it and have lasted before the public. It does us well, every once in a while, to hear what other composers were doing while the giants were creating their masterpieces. Doesn't Zandonai make Verdi and Wagner even more valuable?

And I'd still like to hear Marlene moaning and groaning her way through this one.