Verismo recommendations, please!

[adriano]

Alan, you just complete what I wanted continuing to say but did not dare :-)

[Alan Howe]

The Strauss recording in particular has received far too much praise: it's as if the critics can't hear past her celebrity status. 

[adriano]

I heard this CD on the Radio - and found it a horrible pasta-making-like way of producing sound. I'd rather go back to a "knödeling" Schwarzkopf, even though one barely understands the words she sings on that beautiful old Szell recording - and the more beautiful old one (conducted by Ackermann?).
We use the vocal technique expression "knödeln" ("making dumplings") for what Mrs. Netrebko does (not only by singing Strauss). Not to speak about the stylistics and the German articulation! Barenboim seems not to be able anymore to decide/judge artistically.

[Alan Howe]

Janowitz would be my touchstone. Or Jessye Norman, if you want a Flagstad-sized voice...

[adriano]

Oh yes, and both Karajan recordings (Janowitz and Tomowa-Sintow) are my favorites! Jessye's version belonged to my very first CDs, together with Karajan's "Alpensinfonie" and "Die Zauberflöte". I've got these as a gift, after posing in costume as Mozart on a motorbike and a young girl with a walkman behind me for a brochures and poster advertising campaign of Polygram... Must have been in the erly 1980... A pity that Jessye did not approach verismo roles (did she any?) - just to come back to the theme...

[Alan Howe]

The nearest Jessye got was Carmen which has always been regarded as a mis-match. She'd've made a great Isolde...

[alberto]

Jessye Norman recorded Cavalleria Rusticana in 1991 in Paris under Bychkov (I own that recording).
I don't know if she sang the role on stage.

[adriano]

Am I wrong to remember that Solti was intending to re-record "Tristan und Isolde" with Jessye Norman and Placido Domingo? Thank God this never happened. Nothing against PD's voice, but please, no German repertoire!)

[Alan Howe]

JN in Cav? I'd forgotten about that one. What's she like?

And I agree about PD's German - it's not good at all (no consonants). But who, for example, has ever sung the Emperor in Frau ohne Schatten more gloriously?

[Alan Howe]

How about Pizzetti's early (1909-12) opera Fedra? Does anyone know it?

[adriano]

Yes, Piizzetti's "Fedra" is great. It is (also) available on the exciting ACCORD label as a concert performace from the 2008 Festival de Montpellier.
Don't forget Pizzetti's "Murder in the Cathedral" (after T.S. Eliot), which is available in an excellent Vienna Opera 1960 live performace on DGG, conducted by Karajan!! The only pity is, that the opera is sung in German - but by a bunch of stsars like Hotter, Dermota, Schöffler, Stolze, Kreppel, Zadek and Ludwig
I don't really consider Pizzeti averismo composer...

[Alan Howe]

I've ordered Fedra - sounds rather more advanced. What are the influences? Debussy, perhaps?

[adriano]

One should never ask about, or look for "foreign" influences before starting to know an unknown piece of music. Just listen and enjoy; then you may try to find out - but is this absolutely necessary? I love Pizzettis' music, the only thing I cannot forget is that he dedicated one (or two?) works to Mussolini. As far as that is concerned, Respighi was more courageous and avoided any contact with the Duce. He felt dreadful after having been nominated Accademico d'Italia, but his colleagues had insisted... The most horrifying this for him was, that for this insitution's reunions, he had to wear an uniform...

[alberto]

I have heard again (after a very long time) Cavalleria with Jessie Norman. I am a very poor "opinionist" (not judge) about voices.
Anyway JN doesn't suggest a vulnerable girl (but this is maybe my prejudice). In any case with a huge voice she contrasts effectively in the great duet his tenor , Giacomini (rather un-personal in timbre).
I am going in June to Milano to see and hear in Cavalleria Elina Garanca (on paper not associated to Cavalleria, but I see she has sung also La Navarraise).
I admire and like Fedra, which appears to me, sombre and austere as it is,  the antithesis of verismo. While it is a very personal opera, Debussy appears the main influence; in the much later "Assassinio nella Cattedrale" one may detect also the lesson of Mussorgsky. These are the only two Pizzetti operas I know.

[Alan Howe]

Thanks, alberto. I'll look forward to exploring Fedra.