Maria Stuarda
Donizetti- Sung in English.
With: Janet Baker. Pauline Tinsley Dir: Charles Mackerras
English National Opera Orchestra & Chorus.
English National Opera 1982.
This production could not be dearer to me as I saw it in 1982, my second time to the opera at just 18 years old. Janet Baker blew me away with her majestic artistry. I came out of the ENO flying!!
In 1982, Dame Janet Baker made a highly regarded studio recording of Donizetti?s Maria Stuarda , sung in English. Featuring Rosalind Plowright and David Rendall, and also conducted by Mackerras, that EMI set has always garnered praise, and deservedly so. The English language makes it, of course, sui generis , and many listeners have found the English more of a distraction than a benefit. The diction of the singers, particularly the women, was not always clear?given the stress that Donizetti?s florid writing already put on them. When the words were clear, more bel canto opera in their comedies). But Baker?s compelling performance of the title role received almost unanimous praise. In Fanfare 13:1,
Robert Levine wrote: She handles the fioriture beautifully, gives each word and phrase (those which can be understood) proper weight, and she makes us understand this proud, bruised, complicated woman as no other singer does on discs, save, perhaps, Beverly Sills. There is a warmth to her tone . . . which is unmatchable, and she rises to the vitriol of the confrontation scene with surprising strength (although no one can touch Leyla Gencer here).
What this has, however, is the smell of the theater about it. Baker?s inflections, outbursts, tenderness, tragic utterances, all have that extra intensity that happens in live performance, and the singing, captured almost a decade earlier, is vocally more secure, more even. This is a truly magnificent performance, by one of the greatest singers of the second half of the 20th century, captured in her prime. Baker fans, and those interested in great Donizetti singing, should snap this up.
Der Rosenkavalier
Strauss
With: Montserrat Caballé, Otto Edelmann, Teresa Zylis-Gara, Edith Matthis Dir: John Pritchard, London Philharmonic Orchestra, The Glyndebourne Chorus
Live from Glynebourne 1965
Recorded in the 1965 Festival, this production of Der Rosenkavalier was the last directed by Carl Ebert and was hailed as one of his finest achievements. Conducted by John Pritchard this recording features a notable Glyndebourne debut by Montserrat Caballé as the Marschallin with Edith Matthis as Sophie, Teresa Żylis-Gara as Octavian and Otto Edelmann as Baron Ochs.
“The performance provides the kind of enchanted evening which Glyndebourne exists for - when the opera, however familiar, is experienced with a new intensity; when all one’s senses are alive and alert; when it seems that the work can never have been better done. In short, the Glyndebourne miracle - produced by the intimacy of the house, sensitive casting, dedicated loving rehearsal, and brilliant direction in every department.”
- Financial Times, 1965
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