I followed the French performances with a piano vocal score I downloaded from the IMSLP Petrucci Music Library. Their website indicates that the score was published in Paris by Mesdemoiselles Erard, circa 1808. The Bru Zane recording uses the critical edition of the score published by Ricordi in 1993. I believe this is the same edition Riccardo Muti used when he conducted the opera at La Scala in December 1993. The recordings conducted by Rousset and Muti contain music not in the printed vocal score. The other recording in French, conducted by Gustav Kuhn conformed to the printed score. The two recordings in Italian present heavily cut performances of the Italian language piano vocal score published by Ricordi.
The first studio recording of this opera was issued on the Orfeo label, conducted by Gustav Kuhn. This is performed in French and follows the vocal score I consulted. I regret to say that it’s just about twice as dull as ditchwater. Even Rosalind Plowright’s Julia can’t breathe any life into the glacial tempi taken by Kuhn. This plays nearly 15 minutes longer than the Bru Zane recording and contains less music. The rest of the cast vary from acceptable (Francisco Araiza as a dry-voiced Licinius) to mediocre (Gisella Pasino as the Grand Vestal) to outright awful (Pierre Lefebvre as Cinna). This set is best avoided.
The recording conducted by Riccardo Muti has a lot going for it, with one major drawback, the soprano. Muti opted to cast a baritone as Licinius and a tenor as Cinna. This required a few downward transpositions of Licinius’s vocal lines, and I noticed that Licinius and Cinna switch lines in the ensembles. Anthony Michaels-Moore sings Licinius with great beauty of tone. J. Patrick Raftery and Denyce Graves are also very good as Cinna and the Grand Vestal. The singers in the smaller parts are capable, if not remarkable. The real problem with this set is the leading lady. A search on Amazon for Karen Huffstodt reveals very little other than this recording. Having sat through this recording again, I can understand why. Her tone is unfocussed and unsteady and notes above the staff usually come out as shrieks. There are a few sixteenth note figures that she simply doesn’t attempt to sing. I’m surprised such a stickler as Muti put up with this. This is the only recording to include the extensive ballet music, 17 minutes in the first act finale and another 15 minutes tacked on at the end of the opera. Even the stylish singing of Anthony Michaels-Moore and the completeness of the performance can’t make up for the train-wreck of the soprano.
The two recordings in Italian that I own both date from the early 1950s.
The first recording of this opera I purchased back in the 1970s was a private/pirate LP recording the opening night at La Scala on 7 December 1954. This is still probably the best-known recording of this work for its cast of Maria Callas, Franco Corelli, Ebi Stignani and Nicola Rossi-Lemeni. I admit that I have a limited tolerance for the sound of historical recordings. The old LPs made for rough listening and the remastering by Warner a few years ago didn’t improve on my recollection of the long-discarded LPs. I find it hard to appreciate Maria Callas at the height of her powers or Franco Corelli in the early days of his career though the constant hiss and crackle. Choruses and ensembles are just overloaded, oversaturated aural muck. I didn’t even bother to listen to the portion of the ballet included in this performance. I know this recording is generally admired, but it’s not for me. If I want to hear Callas as Giulia, I can listen to her commercial recordings of the arias that cover most of the role. I really couldn’t get an idea of what the opera was like from this set, so I purchased the only other recording I could find in 1970-something.
This is another live recording, this time of a concert by the Roma RAI on 27 March 1951. Like many other concert performances of opera by the RAI in the early 50s, this was issued on LP by Cetra. I owned the original LPs which I replaced when Warner briefly reissued these recordings in the early 2000s. (I have a particular fondness for the generally blood-and-guts-take-no-prisoners approach of these concerts.) This performance is still available on other labels on Amazon. The cast on this set consists of names that are, for the most part, forgotten nowadays: Maria Vitale as Giulia, Renato Gavarini as Licinio, Alfredo Fineschi as Cinna, and Elena Nicolai as the Grand Vestal. I took a great deal of pleasure in the full-throated singing of all of them, especially Maria Vitale who shows a real understanding of Giulia's conflicting feelings. Fernando Previtali keeps things moving along. A greater sense of the drama comes across on this recording than through the occluded sound of the performance from La Scala. The sound of all the recordings in the Cetra series is undeniably gritty, but it’s still decent, clear mono, especially when one considers that this was set down over 70 years ago.
I know there are other live recordings available, but I haven’t sufficient interest in this opera to explore them. I purchased these four recordings trying to understand the appeal of this opera. Indeed, until I heard the Bru Zane recording, I never found much interest in this work, full stop. I’m sure I’ll return to the Bru Zane set. The others will probably languish on a shelf, to be touched again only by a duster.
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