L’ELISIR D’AMORE
To the younger generation I would especially recommend the DVD with Renata Scotto, Carlo Bergonzi and Giuseppe Taddei (Hardy Classic Video HCD 4014). It is not only the beautiful voices of the past that impress (Scotto, Bergonzi, Taddei – who can still sing like them?), the eye is also given a lot to enjoy.
Do not think that they just enter the stage, sing an aria facing the audience and then take a bow. It is theatre pur sang and a better acting singer than Scotto has yet to be born.
The picture is black and white (the recording was made during Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in 1967) and the scenery is cardboard, but who cares?
LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR
Renata Scotto 1967
This production of Lucia di Lammermoor was recorded in Tokyo in 1967 and is available on DVD (VAI 4418). It circulated for years on pirate video, but since the sound and picture quality was particularly poor, the commercial release has made many opera lovers very happy. The sound is a little sharp, making Scotto’s high notes sound even more metallic than usual, but who cares?
Her interpretation is both vocally and scenically of an unprecedented high level. With a childishly surprised expression (my brother does this to me?) on her face, she agrees, albeit not without grumbling, to the forced marriage with Arturo (an Angelo Marchiandi who is hideous in every way).
After her mad scene, you tend to pull the plug, because everything that comes after it can only feel like a cold shower. But you are wrong about that. Edgardo’s two arias, sung by Carlo Bergonzi, will take you straight to (singer’s) heaven.
Afterwards, you can’t help but be a little sad, because where have they gone, yesterday’s singers? Small, tall, fat, skinny, with or without acting talent… None of them was a ballet dancer, but could they sing! And it was through their voices alone that they were able to convey all of the feelings that now require a whole ‘artistic team’. In spite of the cuts that were common at the time, this is an absolute must.
Below, Bergonzi sings ‘Fra poco a me ricovero’
Beverly Sills 1970
Sills’ Lucia (Westminster 4712502) for me remains one of the best interpretations ever, especially talking about studio recordings. Her portrayal unites the best of Callas and Suitherland: the virtuosity, vocal beauty and pure intonation of la Stupenda and the great acting of la Divina. Not really a great tragédienne (but then, neither is Lucia), she is more of a passive child-girl who just lets it all happen. Carlo
Sills’ Lucia (Westminster 4712502) for me remains one of the best interpretations ever, especially talking about studio recordings. Her portrayal unites the best of Callas and Suitherland: the virtuosity, vocal beauty and pure intonation of la Stupenda and the great acting of la Divina. Not really a great tragédienne (but then, neither is Lucia), she is more of a passive child-girl who just lets it all happen. Carlo Bergonzi sings an elegant and outraged Edgardo and Piero Cappuccilli a brutal and cruel Edgardo and Thomas Schippers conducts very firmly.
But what makes this recording really special is the use of a glass harmonica in the madscene, exactly as Donizetti had originally prescribed it
LA BOHEME
Renata Tebaldi 1958
Actually, I also find Tebaldi’s voice a bit too heavy for Mimi, a tad too dramatic too, but there is no denying that her interpretation is very exciting. You have to keep listening to it.
Carlo Bergonzi is an insanely beautiful Rodolfo; secretly, I think he is the real star of the recording. Ettore Bastianini is a very charming Marcello, but Gianna d’Angelo is not a beautiful Musetta. Her singing has nothing sensual and is vulgar at times.
Tulio Serafin conducts more than superbly and the orchestral sound is brilliant. Remarkable actually how wonderful that recording still sounds! (Decca 4487252)
Licia Albanese 1958
A warning is in order: the sound is not great. It is sharp and dull and occasionally the radio waves are humming rebelliously, but it also has something quite endearing. As if a time machine takes you back to the afternoons of yore, when the whole family settled down in front of the radio to listen to the latest invention, the live broadcast.
The performance, too, is old-fashionedly delicious. Not that the voices are all that exceptional, apart from Carlo Bergonzi who is at his finest, the other roles could have been better cast.
Licia Albanese (almost fifty by then, which is not at all audible) was a real crowd pleaser, especially in New York. Thomas Schippers conducts very vividly (Sony 8697804632)
MADAMA BUTTERFLY
For me an absolute ‘numero uno’ is the 1966 recording by EMI (now Warner 0190295735913) under Sir John Barbirolli. One might imagine a more lyrical or alternatively a more dramatic Cio Cio San; one with less metal in her voice or maybe one with a more childlike voice. But no other singer was able to grasp the complex nature of the girl so well and to characterise her change from a naive child into an adult woman, broken by immense grief, so impressively
Carlo Bergonzi is a beautiful, lyrical Pinkerton, singing with glorious, golden ton and Rolando Panerai a very warm Sharpless.
Basia con fuoco 
