Verismo recommendations, please!

[edurban]

Thanks, Alan, all bad reviews should be this entertaining!  Have to admit it made me want to hear it....once....

David

[Alan Howe]

Once is enough. Mind you, if it were sung really well..............
...............and pigs might fly.

[adriano]

Alan, and what about Mascagni's "Parisina"? There is an excellent Montpellier/Radio France recording issued in 1999 on the Actes Sud Label - wonderfully presented and with reproductions of a painting by Alexander Cabanel with perfectly suits the music :-)

[Alan Howe]

...and the singing? I've read that the tenor is pretty awful...

[adriano]

Well, the tenor is not good enough, but, frankly, Denia Mazzola Gavazzeni isn't such a great voice either. She tries desperately to imitate the vocal tricks of her teacher (Leyla Gencer), but in vain. But she is an excellent musician and artist - thanks to what she could learn from her husband.
Tenor Vitaly Taraschenko is still better than many of those Bongiovanni tenors (except, of course, the ones from the Netherland Radio recordings)
Still, this "Parisina" recording has more - and many more - positive aspects that it should be appreciated.

[Alan Howe]

My point is this: I would probably listen to this once to find out what the music is like and be so disappointed with the standard of singing that I wouldn't play it again. What's the point of organising an opera recording with singers who aren't up to the job? You wouldn't put out a recording of an orchestral work with wind soloists who can't play properly....

[BerlinExpat]

There is an excellent Montpellier/Radio France recording issued in 1999 on the Actes Sud Label - wonderfully presented...

I'm afraid I'm no fan of these fold out digipacks where the libretto is on the last flap, in this case the fourth.

The cover states it's a first world recording, but it doesn't say that it's cut. I have the Editions Curci vocal score and can say that there are several pieces missing, including the whole of the 4th act. The Actes Sud recording's let out is that it follows Mascagni's cut, but this was only done at the insistence of the theatre management after the première. I read somewhere recently that the fourth act should in fact be twice as long as in the Curci V/S. Sorry, I can't remember where.

I have a recording from RAI Milan (conducted by Pierluigi Urbini) which is more complete (51 minutes longer) and despite its age (1976) is IMHO quite digestible.

Parisina isn't verismo at all. It's a music drama and I've always considered this wonderful work to be an Italian Tristan.

[adriano]

You are right, Alan, but you talk of yourself, forgetting that there are many other music lovers who have other criterias, or an inferior musical education. The show must go on: during my 25-year's career as an assistant at the Zurich Opera, I had to witness so many performances with bad singers, but the audiences applauded, and but one or two reviewers complained :-)
And there are also many orchestra recordings with players who are not completely OK. Even myself I had to cope with such situations and make concessions, or use all kind of tricks to make it sound better!
At the times of Ernest Ansermet I could attend to some of his recording sessions: the studio staff often shook their heads and asked themselves why on earth he could never get a better wind section. And look at the many recordings they have done and how they were appreciated.
BerlinExpat: you are right too, but in this forum there are many other operas mentioned whom I too would ot consider verismo pieces :-) And why could a verismo opera not be a music drama?

[Alan Howe]

I have never (knowingly!) bought an Ansermet recording - for the reasons you yourself give. I didn't buy them back in the day and I wouldn't buy them now.

Sounds like the Parisina recording is barely recommendable - poorly sung and badly cut as it is. If someone cares to donate me a copy, fair enough. Otherwise, I just can't put myself through the torture...

By the way: I think there's a huge difference between a live performance and a recording. After all, a recording is intended for repeated listening. One might forgive a strangulated tenor on the night, but after repeated hearings one might be inclined to throw the recording off the nearest mountain. (Very verismo!)

[BerlinExpat]

And why could a verismo opera not be a music drama?

I really don't feel qualified to answer this question.
Mascagni calls Parisinaa "Tragedia lirica" and as it's set in 1425 it doesn't really fullfil the parameters that are normally used to my knowledge to describe versimo operas. My understanding of the term is that the operas usually deal with "everyday occurences" around the time of the composition. A new one to me I found on YouTube recently is Canteloube's Le mas which he describes as a "Piece lyrique".
I guess it has become accepted to understand the appellation "music drama" in terms of Wagnerian opera, but when one considers Donizetti used the term "Melodramma" to describe Torquato Tasso and Porrino used "Dramma musicale" to describe his I Shardana, then I suppose the term can be more universally applied.

For those who may wish to sample the Urbini 1976 recording of Mascagni's Parisina, I have uploaded the fourth act which is missing from Diemecke's 1999 recording.

[Alan Howe]

The term "Verismo" applies to the style of the writing as well. Wikipedia has this explanation:

The term verismo can cause confusion... For most of the composers associated with verismo, traditionally veristic subjects accounted for only some of their operas. For instance, Mascagni wrote a pastoral comedy (L'amico Fritz), a symbolist work set in Japan (Iris), and a couple of medieval romances (Isabeau and Parisina). These works are far from typical verismo subject matter, yet they are written in the same general musical style as his more quintessential veristic subjects. (emphasis added)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verismo_%28music%29

[adriano]

That's it exactly, Alan - and that is why I tried to start questioning and doubting. Musical dramas they may still be most of them - and with Mascagni in any case we must forget the music and just look at the story, if it's veristic or not.

[eschiss1]

I recall a review of Giordano's opera Madame Sans-Gêne making something the same point, I think...

[BerlinExpat]

Many thanks for the quote from Wikipedia, Alan. It's a pity though you didn't include the next sentence in the extract, namely:

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In addition, there is disagreement among musicologists as to which operas are "verismo" operas, and which are not
I'm afraid I can't agree with the statement that Parisina is

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written in the same general musical style as his more quintessential veristic subjects I feel Parisina stands alone in Mascagni's output. One can detect Mascagni's mannerisms in the score but in my very humble opinion they don't turn the opera into what is generally accepted as verismo. At over 200 minutes with cuts, Parisina is at least twice as long as the versimo operas I know.
According to Stivender, Mascagni promised d'Annunzio that he would set every word of the poet's text, but when Mascagni had finished the score he recognised the opera was too long. Before the first night Mascagni made cuts in acts 2 & 3 and after the première negotiated the cutting of the 4th act with d'Annunzio, a fact which the poet later refuted.
Nevertheless, Parisina is not so enormous as Mascagni thought. There are longer operas by Meyerbeer and Wagner, so there is really nothing to stop some enterprising opera house producing the opera in its entirety so that an objective judgement may finally be made. As Opera Rara are venturing into twentieth century opera with Leoncavallo's Zaza, may be it's something for them!

[Jor]

As suggested by BerlinExpat, the Parisina directed by Urbini is overall the best recording available yet.
Also respect for citing Porrino, a composer I like.

Depend on what you mean with "general" but in operas like L'amico Fritz, Iris and Parisina there are marked differences in the musical style.