Italo Montemezzi (1875 - 1952)

[Gerhard Griesel]

Amazon threw up a recommendation that I should buy Montemezzi's opera L'amore de tre re. On Amazon a search for Montemezzi does not show any other compositions (but see Wikipedia). They have more than one version of the opera available on disc.  Reviewers rave about the Moffo-Domingo recording of the opera, the only complaint being Moffo's voice supposedly in decline. However, it is not possible to listen to the any of the recordings of the opera on Amazon's site. Any suggestions where one can listen to any of Montemezzi's compositions?

[Alan Howe]

I can't answer your final query, Gerhard, but I can say that the Moffo-Domingo recording of the opera is definitely the one to get - with the caveat that Moffo's voice was in a parlous state by the time she made the recording. She has the characterisation, but the middle range of her voice finds it difficult to sustain the long lines required by the part. Domingo is just magnificent, however, as is that wonderful baritone Pablo Elvira, and Siepi, while clearly elderly-sounding (his was never the steadiest bass voice) is thoroughly in character for the old king. My recommendation: go for it!

There are a couple of excerpts here:
http://www.amazon.de/Lamore-dei-tre-Anna-Moffo/dp/B000009W7N/ref=sr_1_12?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1331831213&sr=1-12

[oldman]

I have a copy of broadcast acetates of the 1941 Metropolitan opera broadcast of L'Amore with Montemezzi himself conducting a fairly stellar cast.  I am not sure however if this is something that is kosher to upload.

Feedback would be appreciated.

[alberto]

The 1941 Met recording conducted by Montemezzi was surely released in Cd format by one label "Eklipse".
I don't know if "Eklipse" had really rights to reproduce that performance. I think the label has now disappeared.

[Alan Howe]

I would think that some more research needs to be done before such an upload could be approved...

[Revilod]

Apart from "L'amore dei Tre Re", Montemezzi's operas have not fared well on disc. "La nave", one of the best,  has never been recorded but the one acter "L' Incantesimo" is highly thought of and is available on "Souvenirs of Verismo Opera" Vol.4.

I agree with Alan that the Moffo/Domingo set is the one to have of "L'Amore". Moffo does have problems with vocal production but she is perfectly O.K.

If you don't know the opera at all there are plenty of excerpts on youtube to listen to.

[alberto]

I own two sets of "L'amore dei tre Re". While I agree about the superiority of the Moffo/Domingo, I would spend a good word about the second one. It is the Fonit Cetra turned Universal in Cd format (1950 -obviously dated-recording, RAI MIlano Orchestra and Chorus , cond. Arturo Basile ). The four principals were all young : Bruscantini (born 1919) and Capecchi (born 1923) , both later world famous mostly in different repertoires, stylish and never over the top. Clara Petrella (born 1918) is reported to have been a very impressive actress-singer (see the pictures on the web: the opposite of the commonplace soprano in 1950) slightly inflated, but with strong vocal presence. At least adequate the tenor Amedeo Berdini (1919-1965).
I saw "L'amore dei tre Re" some years ago in my city (Oleg Caetani conducting). I have never heard a note from another Montemezzi work.
I understand that at Torino Radio there was in 1936 a public performance of the one acter "La notte di Zoraima" (coupled to the brilliant, almost Gershwinian, ballet "Le Mille e una Notte" by de Sabata, recently recorded by Universal); in 1968 there were a recording just for the radio (no public) of a selection from the opera "Giovanni Gallurese".     

[BerlinExpat]

Montemezzi's operas have not fared well on disc. "La nave", one of the best,  has never been recorded

Premiereopera Italy has it listed from last year's concert performance in New York. I've ordered it as it's one of those tantalising titles you read about but have never heard a single note from. I've also gone for Thuille's Gugeline from Hagen which I made the effort to see at the time. They also have lots of other goodies!

[Alan Howe]

Perhaps you'll review both the operas when you receive them, Colin?

[Alan Howe]

I have now received my copy of La Nave from Premiereopera and I have to say I am a little disappointed. I am usually well-disposed to this sort of thing, i.e. early 20thC Italian opera, but there is precious little here that really sticks in the memory. For all the heaving late-romanticism, there's just no melody - which I would have thought was a sine qua non.

However, the performance (from New York, October 2012) is a gallant one and it has been captured in very good sound, so there's no need to hesitate on that score if you are attracted to this sort of thing. For me, it's just not a patch on L'amore dei tre re.

[eschiss1]

Hrm... ok, it wasn't Montemezzi who was killed in 1944 or 1945 by anti-Fascist partisans in Italy  - I seem to recall an Italian operatic conductor-composer was - does anyone remember which one and why? I don't remember, and I may be mistaken... (and it may have been a case of mistaken identity, or there may be a very interesting story there... but reading that did make me very curious- though much happens  in war, after all!)...

[museslave]

I'm a huge Montemezzi fan--for a long time based on "L'amore dei tre re" alone, but later strongly reinforced by a recording of his final opera--his 45 minute one-acter "L'incantesimo", which he finished while living in Beverly Hills, and premiered with the NBC Symphony in a live radio broadcast.  Teatro Grattacielo also did a performance of the work a few years back, and I have both recordings.  It features the same librettist (Sem Benelli) as "L.d.t.r.", and is, in my humble opinion, as good or better.  I have started uploading it to YouTube, with subtitles and illustrative pictures.  Have uploaded the first 18 minutes, and hope to do the rest in two additional parts.  Here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RAgR-vWZU8

I found the music originally on the release "Souvenirs from Verismo Operas, Vol. 4".  This may not still be available, but I'm not sure.  Oddly, the Montemezzi is not mentioned on the Amazon page for the site, so I got it sort of by accident, while wanting the other items on the CD.  It was far the best prize, though!

Recently I've added two more Montemezzi items to my collection:  The aforementioned "La nave", and 20 minutes of excerpts from Montemezzi's first performed opera, "Giovanni Gallurese", which did finally make it to the Met in 1925 as well.  Premiered in 1905, I expected something a little more traditionally veristic, but in fact, Montemezzi's mature voice is already well established.

While Alan was disappointed with "La nave", I must say that I was not.  I'm much addicted to it, and have listened repeatedly since I first got my copy in trade (didn't know it was commercially available!).  It is a bit different from "L.d.t.r".  It is a far more difficult and ambitious opera.  Writing big tunes was never Montemezzi's approach.  His orchestral technique is very Wagnerian.  In fact,  I recently read a commentator who said "Montemezzi's musical language is that of the 'Ring of the Nibelungs'", and there's something to that, although it is also far more Italianate, and has perhaps some impressionist touches (though only touches).  In "Nave", there is also a clearly Straussian component.  The love (hate?) duet at the end of the first "episode" is occasionally interrupted with a passionate orchestral theme which sounds remarkably like the swooning of "Rosenkavalier" or even some of Strauss's later works (which were yet unwritten at the time). 

As far as places to listen to "L'amore dei tre re", there are some recordings on YouTube, in fact there's a complete one in English!:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36BPVGvVkJU

[Alan Howe]

There's far more memorable material in Wagner and Strauss than in La nave, I'm afraid. As with Schreker I find much to revel in (in terms of gorgeous orchestral colour), but there's just no melody, certainly not the memorable sort of stuff you find in L'amore dei tre re. And it's surely an absolute pig to sing - the tenor in the NY performance must have burst several blood vessels!

No, this is an interesting opera, but no more than that. It just doesn't have the distinctiveness to be anything more than a curiosity - even if it is often a gorgeously-clothed one.

[museslave]

Well, as Wagner is my favorite composer, I wouldn't argue that Montemezzi is greater than he.  But great music doesn't always drop every veil at first hearing.  I didn't like lots of stuff at first hearing that I now regard as desert island stuff!

But I have one legendary figure in my corner.  Tullio Serafin--a conservatory classmate of Montemezzi's and a close personal friend, who conducted the world premieres of many of the composer's operas (including "L'amore dei tre re" and "La nave"), wrote a eulogy to Montemezzi upon the composer's death which appeared in Opera News in early 1953.  In it he wrote this:

"La nave was received as well as—perhaps better than—L'Amore. To me it seems the greatest of Montemezzi's operas; it was received with warm enthusiasm by the critics of all the Milan papers, but it has been ignored by many of the big theatres. Probably, I believe, because of the difficulty of staging it. A ship, the "nave" of the title, has to go down in the last act, on the stage, in front of the eyes of the public. As any impresario knows, this requires enormous financial resources to stage. Also the principal roles are almost impossible to cast because of the complicated and difficult quality of the music.  In Chicago, La nave opened the 1919 season with Rosa Raisa, with Montemezzi directing; it was well received, but no other theatres could put it on. L'Amore is the most teatrical, the most dramatic, and, in addition, the most easily cast and staged. It lacks the enormous difficulty of La nave, which is, I believe, just as beautiful."

[X. Trapnel]

eschiss, I've read this assasination story about Gino Marinuzzi (who has a very interestingly overwrought symphony), but it appears he died of natural causes in 1945. The few bits of Montemezzi's orchestral pieces I've heard sound promising.