I Puritani, and: La vestale (review)

Why would anyone want to listen to live recordings—in congested and sometimes distorted sound—of operas disfigured by brutal cuts and uneven singing? Maria Callas and two tenors supply the answer. Callas sang Elvira in Venice, Catania, Florence, and Chicago, but this 1952 Mexico City I Puritani was the only broadcast of Bellini's opera documenting the soprano in one of her key bel canto roles. The performance also commemorates Giuseppe Di Stefano's debut in an opera he later recorded with Callas in EMI's Scala series. The broadcast of Spontini's La vestale on the opening night of the 1954 season at the Teatro alla Scala also claims a historic place in the soprano's discography. Callas recorded three selections from the opera for EMI and often sang the grand second-act aria in concerts—at least four performances of "Tu che invoco" were taped off the air or in the house—but this recording, although truncated, remains the only document of her portrayal in a stage performance. Adding interest to this live recording is Franco Corelli, making his Scala debut as Licinio, a role he never sang again.

Despite their historical significance, these recordings can be recommended only to connoisseurs and collectors. Both are riddled with disfiguring cuts. Guido Picco and Antonino Votto share the blame for mutilating the music. Picco excises a large chunk of the duet for Giorgio and Elvira and omits so much of the quartet that what remains almost turns into a solo for Elvira. He also trims nearly half of the first-act finale and accepts the standard cut that eliminates the voices of Giorgio and Riccardo from the Mad Scene. The third act also suffers from more senseless cuts and the rewriting of "Credeasi, misera!" Votto takes a butcher's blade to Spontini's opera. After the overture, every musical piece suffers from minor excisions to major deletions—Cinna's third-act aria, for example, is blotted from the score. For a complete Vestale, the collector must turn to another Scala performance recorded on the opening night of the 1993 season, but that recording—sung in French, unlike this Italian Vestale—suffers from mediocre singing and Riccardo Muti's relentless conducting.

When these two performances were first released on LP (Puritani on MRF-28 and Vestale on Raritas 405), compressed and distorted sonics made them almost unlistenable. Subsequent releases on CD improved the sonics. Both have gained further clarity in these digital remasterings from the Istituto Discografico Italiano. Spontini's opera, in particular, sounds reborn. The Callas Vestale heretofore has been available only in editions that were afflicted with overload in the climaxes. This new remastering, although still shallow sounding, has diminished or eliminated most of the imperfections.

The Puritani sounds better, too, although the sonics are still muddy at times, and the balances between chorus, orchestra, and principals are imperfect. Like most of the Mexico City broadcasts from the early 1950s, this one features messy choral singing and imprecise orchestral playing. The performance turns into a musical jumble in the opening chorus. Then Piero Campolonghi takes the stage. In Riccardo's entrance recitative and aria, his voice is afflicted with an uneven vibrato and a lack of support in its lower reaches. Simplifying the end of "Ah! per sempre," Campolonghi simply omits the testing series of runs Bellini asks the baritone to sing. A substantial cut also disfigures "Bel sogno beato." Musical order is established with the entrance of Elvira. Callas sings incisively, even if her tone sounds dark and bottled. Her big voice soars through the scales and dazzles in the full-voiced trills. The mealy-mouthed Giorgio (Roberto Silva) adds no luster to the performance, but Callas caps the scene with a boldly attacked high D.

With meager support from Silva and uneven singing from Campolonghi and the comprimarios, the Mexico City Puritani belongs to Callas and Di Stefano. Although the tenor mistakes Arturo for Turiddu in his extrovert "A te, o cara," his luscious voice—sweet-toned and firm—beguiles the ear. He executes a lovely...