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Reviewed by:
  • Aida
  • Robert Baxter
Aida. Giuseppe Verdi

Covent Garden celebrated the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II with a glamorous season of opera. In addition to the world premiere of Benjamin Britten's Gloriana, [End Page 176] the gala 1953 season boasted performances by Maria Meneghini Callas in Il trovatore and Aida, her first Covent Garden performances since her debut as Norma in the fall of 1952. For Aida David Webster placed John Barbirolli on the podium and surrounded Callas with a strong cast—Giulietta Simionato, Kurt Baum, Jess Walters, and Giulio Neri, with Joan Sutherland, then in her first Covent Garden season, as the priestess. The 10 June Aida was broadcast, but for years only the third act was believed to have survived, released on vinyl in the mid-1960s by FWR. The complete recording first appeared in 1995 in a CD release by Legato Classics. The 1953 Aida was subsequently issued by Melodram, but these Testament CDs mark the first official release, sanctioned by the Barbirolli Society.

This recording deserves to be called "the Barbirolli Aida," so cogently and stylishly does the maestro shape Verdi's score. Barbirolli left sterling studio versions of Madama Butterfly, Otello, and Dido and Aeneas. This live Aida thus extends the meager discography of an important conductor. Barbirolli's mastery of the score is evident from the opening measures of the first-act preludio. The maestro summons lustrous, refined playing from the Covent Garden orchestra as he meticulously observes the transition from pp to ppp and manages the crescendos and decrescendos with skill. Injecting tension into this delicate music, he builds the final crescendo to a fortissimo climax and then pulls it back to a slowly fading pianissimo that dies away morendo, as Verdi's score specifies.

From that luminous start, Barbirolli shapes a splendid performance. With an alert eye for Verdi's dynamic markings and interpretive specifications, he molds vivid, pliant accompaniments for the soloists and builds the concertati to impressive climaxes. Barbirolli tightens the musical screws in the Gran finale secondo. The march proceeds with a brazen tread. The ballabile sounds lithe and tensely sprung. And the ensemble builds to an impressive climax. At the opening of the third act, Barbirolli conjures up the atmosphere of an exotic night, filled with the scent of mystery and magic. He spins a web of lovely sound around Callas's "O cieli azzurri" and underpins the drama in the two duets. Only at the end of the Amneris-Radames duet in the final act does Barbirolli lose control of the orchestra—momentarily—as he presses the music a bit too urgently.

If the sonics of this live performance were better, Barbirolli's reading would claim an honored place in the Aida discography. But the broadcast tape is loaded with hiss and degenerates at the opening of the second act. The deterioration obscures the orchestra and chorus until things clear up in the danza following Amneris's "Ah! Vieni." The performance is also afflicted with the usual distracting stage noises. The microphone placement obscures some of the offstage music and also creates imbalances among the soloists, chorus, and orchestra.

The recording enshrines more than the reading of a great conductor. Dramatic sparks fly between Callas and Simionato, always vivid partners in their stage performances. Both singers had voices that shined fiercely on top and opened up [End Page 177] with thrilling intensity in the chest. They also shared similar musical and dramatic instincts. Callas and Simionato challenged each other to reach for the heights in their joint appearances, and they certainly do so in this Coronation Aida. The second-act scena e duetto finds both singers in peak form. As Amneris toys with Aida's emotions, Simionato voices "Fu la sorte" with an insinuating, feline tone. Callas retorts with a cutting attack as she boldly retorts, "Felice esser poss'io," in a dark tone surging with defiance. From that exchange, the singers duel with two vocal swords that flash keenly as they parry and attack. Singing with precision, they strike the notes keenly, voice the words distinctly, and observe carefully the note values and dynamic markings. True, Callas cannot float Aida's "pietà" softly, but...

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