Opera Deathmatch N. 01

Callas/Di Stefano/Karajan vs. Caballé/Carreras/Lopez Cobos.

Ring: Lucia di Lammermoor



Home

Well, well, I know it's a little funny to start out like this, with a ring fight, but being too serious sometimes drops the fun to 0...
Preamble: it's worth noting that Callas' Lucia is a live performance (expect a lot of screaming!!!), while the other is a studio one, and that the former is much older than the latter (so the sound quality is worse...).

First bout: Cuts...
If you are looking for a good Lucia for studio purposes, then the Karajan one is definitely not for you. There are a lot of cuts, even big ones. For example, the third scene of the second part, act one, the dialogue between Lucia and Raimondo, with his beautiful aria and cabaletta ("Al ben dei tuoi, qual vittima" - "To the well-being of your kins, as a victim/offer, Lucia, yourself"), or also the first two scenes of the second part, act two, with one of the most impressive (but not one of the most finely made: search Rossini's operas instead) storms the whole occidental musical history has ever seen. We must also take into account that the former cut has little or no impact at all on the plot and the music is also kind of boring, so the sacrifice of the storm is the price to pay for a slimmer and better-flowing opera.

Score: even. Even if I would advise against the reduced version, I understand that someone could find the "additions" quite boring, and pushing that damn skip button is quite an effort... 1-1

Second bout: Callas vs. Caballé
In the whole first part of the opera you could perhaps think that, unpredictably, the softness and the cleanliness of the latter will prevail over the more athletic vocality of the former... just wait until the madness scene: you'll find an absolute respect of the score, an unparalleled emotional intensity, some really stunning pianissimo and a really theatrical attitude. Also remember: the Callas' issue is not a studio one, so some degree of inaccuracy is admittable. Please refer to the studio recording of "Spargi d'amaro pianto" - "Spill with bitter weeping/My earthly form" (the music is really similar to a phrase in Donizetti's first opera, Pigmalione) made with the Orchestra of Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and Tullio Serafin for a practical demonstration of what she could do in studio: being more than perfect, decorating the da capo with crystalline agilities, exciting and moving.
Monserrat Caballé is really gentle in the first part of the opera, and "Quando rapito in estasi" - "When abducted in ecstasy" is really well-phrased, secure and precise, perfect regarding tempo, agile when it comes to scales and so on. A pity that she can't climb over that D flat, when we can hear Maria Callas' perfect E flat here and elsewhere.
Also the duet "Verranno a te sull'aure" - "Will come to you on gales/my ardent sighs" is well sung by José Carreras and Monserrat Caballé: the last acuto is perfect, they catch the note Hz-proof. No kidding.
I wonder how would Juan Diego Florez perform in this part... probably more "erotical" than "heroical", but I would really enjoy listening to him... don't know if he has already perfomed Lucia (as Edgardo, obviously:-).

Score: Emotion vs. Precision? something like that. Maria definitely wins the confrontation because she's a lot more musical, and music is, in the end, what we are looking for. Also remember: this is one of the roles that made her famous, and when it's time to go mad (see also her performance in Verdi's Macbeth), she's second to no one. 2-1

Third bout: Di Stefano vs. Carreras
Impulsive: that's what comes in mind when I think about Giuseppe Di Stefano, one of the greatest tenors in the whole history. Should I rate him in this performance (in fact, I do...), he will score 11 out of 10. He's a real actor when he breaks into Lucia's wedding, albeit always singing with a clean voice and not overdoing anything. When, before dying, he disconsolately sings "Fra poco a me ricovero" - "In a while will give me shelter/A neglected grave" he really is touching - and the audience in Teatro alla Scala, Milan, really appreciates it. I said he has been always controlled and clean: when he dies singing "Tu che a Dio spiegasti l'ali" - "You that unfolded your wings to God" he abstain from dying with an acuto (high-pitch).

Score: Exciting. Carreras is a solid and skillful singer, but no one can equal THIS performance. 3-1

Fourth bout: About Panerai
Sanguine, strong-tempered (even if something he overdoes it), well-singing, sometimes throws a couple of notes a little carelessly.
Beats Vicente Sardinero in many arias ("La pietade in suo favore" - "Pity to her/in vain dictates me a mild behaviour"), and the latter is less of an actor in "Se tradirmi" - "If you'll betray me", where Panerai manages to be really furious without penalizing word intelligibility.
A little better Sardinero in "Cruda... funesta smania" - "Crude... sinister agitation" near the beginning.

Score: another tie... 4-2

Fifth bout: Side roles
Alas, while Raimondo (which is performed by Zaccaria) is good enough to stand the role (even if his main aria and cabaletta were removed), Normanno (I veil the name of the singer in the Karajan's version for humanity's sake) sings terribly his narration in the beginning of the opera ("Ella sen gìa colà del parco" - "She was walking of the park/on the avenue where her mother/lies buried"), out of tempo and out of tune.
Much better the other version.

Score: No way, 4-3

Sixth bout: Orchestra and Chorus (and the conductor, of course...)
Can't really compare the Choir of Teatro alla Scala in those years (the 50's) with modern choirs, almost any modern choir.
Also orchestras improved, but for choirs the enhancement is perceptible also by beginners and profanes. I'm not stating that Lucia di Lammermoor's choirs are something particularly worth listening - in fact they're nothing special - but they're still a part of the opera.
Curiosity: the melody of the choir in the wedding scene, "Esci, fuggi, il furor che ne accende" - "Leave, run away from anger that light us", will be photocop... ehr... "quoted" by Giuseppe Verdi some 7 years later in Nabucco, becoming one of the main tunes in the opera - don't know if he was aware of it...:-)
On the conductor's side, I appreciate Karajan, as a lot of people does, but only in a certain repertoire.
Want to hear Karajan's Wagner, or Brahms, then go for it. But if you plan to hear something Italian (like Donizetti) or something older (like, say, J.S.Bach's Matthäus Passion, which he recorded a zillion times), then I'll say no, don't do it, you will not get what you should. Long story short, Karajan's Passions are beautiful, but (I will talk about it elsewhere) definitely not what Bach wanted.
One place where I really don't understand what is Karajan doing is at the beginning of the wedding scene (which is, as many of you probably know, one of the most important point of the plot), when Enrico tells Arturo that Lucia is still mourning her mother (while she is sad because she doesn't want to marry Arturo). Here the orchestra performs a ritenuto which is really ugly, mainly because the singers continue straight and also because the orchestra itself is not perfectly in sync. The overall impression of the passage is really bad.

Score: Oh, man, I think it's 4-4...

Summary
Nobody managed to knock the opponent out of the ring. Well, enough joking, we are talking about two top level performances.
If you want a complete, precise and also beautiful Lucia, one you could also use for studying, then take Caballé/Carreras/Cobos' one.
If you don't care a little worse registration (technology advances...) and the audience's screams, then listen to Callas/Di Stefano/Karajan's one, and you'll get perhaps sometimes less precision, but more passion and music.
If you really like this opera, buy both editions, and make your own comparison.

Paolo Del Lungo


Home

Unless explicitly specified otherwise, this page and all other pages at this site are Copyright © 2006 by Paolo Del Lungo.
Use of text, images, or any other copyrightable material contained in these pages, without the written permission of the copyright holder is strictly prohibited.
All Rights Reserved.