Ralph Moore's survey of Leoncavallo's Pagliacci
Posted by Göran Forsling on May 15, 2020, 3:06 pm
Thanks, Ralph, for yet another of your illuminating surveys. As usual you make me think, and react, and as usual I don't agree completely, but that's just stimulating. Just a few random comments. The Cetra recording with Bergonzi was my first recording back in the early 60s, the sound was terrible then but the singing, not only by Bergonzi, had me fascinated. When I disposed of the majority of my LP collection I copied this one to CD and occasionally take it out and enjoy. I got the Del Monaco MacNeil recording some years later and this has more and more become my real favourite. This is muscular singing, almost to a fault, but it is what Leoncavallo needs to cover a certain blandness in the music. Of course I treasure the Cellini set with the four greatest voices of that era. Björling unbeatable and los Angeles the loveliest voice in history. They may not be muscular in the common sense of the word but they ennoble the partly rather crude music. I can't really accept your mayonnaise metaphor since I hate mayonnaise but if you can accept that los Angeles and Björling are the musical equivalent of pâte de foie gras, we can still be on the same wavelength. I think Karajan also ennobles the score through his royal conducting but I admit that Taddei, one of my great favourites, is far below his best. Of later studio recordings you left out the most recent, Bocelli from 2002, probably intentionally. I reviewed it when it was released in 2007, and the best thing I could say was that the baritone who sang Tonio was very good. In that recording he also got the last word, as Leoncavallo obviously intended, speaking La commedia è finito. I have a handful of other recordings as well but here is no need to spend more time on this issue. Now I'm eagerly looking forward to Cavalleria rusticana, the nobler of the twin-couple Cav/Pag. Kindest regards Göran
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