La favorite (review)

La favorite. Gaetano Donizetti
Alphonse XI: Anthony Michaels-Moore	Munich Radio Orchestra
Léonor de Guzman: Vesselina Kasarova	Bavarian Radio Chorus
Inès: Abbie Furmansky	Live recording, Munich, 11 April 1999
Fernand: Ramón Vargas	Marcello Viotti, conductor
Balthazar: Carlo Colombara	RCA Victor (distributed by BMG Classics) 66229-2 (2 CDs)
Don Gaspar: Francesco Piccoli
A Gentleman: Lorenz Fehenberger

Reviewing the 1912 Pathé La favorite (Marston 52010-2) in the summer 2000 issue of this journal, I wrote that "a new French-language studio recording [of this opera] is long overdue." ¹ I wasn't being coy; at the time, I was not aware that RCA was planning this most welcome release.

In fact, this is not a studio recording, although it might as well be. In my eagerness to hear the performance, I tore open the package, put the discs in the player, and auditioned the entire opera. Only afterward did I notice the small print on the back of the slipcase: "Recorded Live." Presumably, since the recording was made in a single day, what we have here is a straight run-through of the score, for the benefit of the microphones. If there was an audience present, it must have been the quietest such aggregation that ever drew breath.

I will not belabor the language issue: this recording, like its distinguished 1912 predecessor, demonstrates how much better the opera sounds when sung in its original French text. If we are going to insist on performing it in Italian, then the clumsy old Italian singing translation ought to be scrapped, and a new one commissioned from scratch—to preserve the dramatic subtleties of the original, and to fit the vocal lines more comfortably.

Ironically, none of the Italian-language recordings is really distinguished enough to be a clear first choice. Those sets do contain noteworthy individual performances: Fedora Barbieri's Leonora (on the old Cetra/Everest set); Giulietta Simionato's Leonora and Ettore Bastianini's Alfonso (on the old Decca/ London set). But none of them makes a strong case for the opera as a whole. The most recent recording of La favorita, conducted by Richard Bonynge and starring Fiorenza Cossotto and Luciano Pavarotti (again on Decca/London), was a particular disappointment: for whatever reason, it is one of those stillborn opera sets that vividly evokes not the drama implicit in the given work's libretto but visions of singers lined up in front of music stands, dutifully "reproducing" what they see in the printed score.

Neither EMI nor RCA showed any interest in recording this opera, in either of its two languages, during those periods when both labels had some suitable singers under contract. Thirty years ago, for example, RCA could have done the work in Italian and drawn upon a pool of singers including Cossotto or Shirley Verrett; Plácido Domingo, Alfredo Kraus, or Carlo Bergonzi; Sherrill Milnes; Ruggero Raimondi . . . an opportunity was definitely missed.

The new recording makes use of the critical edition of the score by Rebecca Harris-Warrick. There are minor discrepancies between the text as sung here and as printed in older librettos and scores (and as sung on the 1912 recording): in the act 2 finale, for example, Balthazar refers to Léonor not as "Jezebel," but simply as "cette femme."

The opera is, unfortunately, not performed complete—there are two cuts, both in act 2. The first cut (a standard one) eliminates eight bars near the end of the Léonor/Alphonse duet. These eight bars are clearly marked "coupure" in the original French full score, as reprinted by Garland Publishing; lacking access to the critical edition, I suspect that their omission represents the composer's final intent (as far as that can be discerned). Even if it could be proven beyond doubt that Donizetti wanted these eight bars performed, their presence or absence is not going to make or break a performance.

Much more serious is RCA's decision to include only half of the act 2 ballet, presumably in order...