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VIOLETTA IN LA TRAVIATA

--Geoffrey Riggs

[The enclosed was occasioned by a poster to an opera forum demurring at someone else's praise of Ileana Cotrubas's Violetta on the Carlos Kleiber set (DG) of Verdi's La Traviata]

Speaking for myself, while I don't regard Cotrubas as the best Violetta, I feel she is far from being the worst. And I sense that's the general feeling among many listeners. Cotrubas is certainly one of the decent ones, at any rate: Among at least forty reputable Violettas on disc, I do feel that Cotrubas is in the upper half rather than the lower.

And ultimately, it's all relative.

For instance, in absolute terms, Cotrubas remains perfectly fine. Yet when it comes to relative concerns, her

A) quality of vocalism leaves her in the shadow of arguably finer vocalists like Ponselle, Muzio, the very young Callas, Caballe, Sutherland, De Los Angeles, Freni, Sills ("live" at Naples, not the paler studio effort a year or so later), the very young Moffo, Zeani, and so on. At the same time, Cotrubas's vocalism remains perfectly strong in absolute terms, however more excelling these others may still be.

OTOH, when it comes to her

B) vividness as a communicator with a vocal "face", I find she somewhat overshadows -- IMO -- interpreters like Sutherland, Tebaldi, and so on -- at least, when judged purely by her aural impact on disc. And again, that's not to say that this latter group epitomized by Sutherland and Tebaldi (though in Cotrubas's shadow as communicators) are at all inadequate as authentic and sympathetic communicators of the part, since they are still capable of bringing plenty of warmth and sincerity to it. So, in absolute terms, they still remain effective interpreters, whatever the greater spark/variety in a few others, including Cotrubas.

I suppose at the end of the day -- and on this readers will have to agree to disagree -- I cannot help but bring certain expectations of my own to the part that not everyone here would necessarily bring. I view Violetta as extremely high-strung, to begin with. I expect a degree of both volatility and brio in the part. The vocal "face" I prefer is one of acute watchfulness and intensity.

There must, at the same time, be a suggestion of vulnerability that is only partially, however strenuously, concealed through a deliberately intermittent show of strength. The occasional failure to project strength even when clearly trying to do so constitutes a big part of the character. It is this inner conflict in presentation intrinsic to the part that is one of the hardest contradictions to pull off in terms of vocal expression. Yet the two faces of this contradiction are both undoubtedly there in Verdi's music. That both can be conveyed successfully is shown in an extremely rare Acoustic from 1911 of the young Claudia Muzio's "Amami, Alfredo": strength of spirit and almost painful vulnerability combined. That this need not be a paradox is only demonstrable through hearing this record. Such a multi-faceted gift at communication can barely be described. It really needs to be heard instead. And once heard, it may entice one to bring the unrealistic expectations surrounding that unique "sound picture" from nearly a hundred years ago to every other reading -- as it has me, frustratingly.

Setting aside questions of sheer loveliness in vocalism (or the lack thereof) altogether:

A) I always "hear" this double "face" (shades of Bottom the weaver: "I see a voice":-) in Muzio's all-too-few excerpts, in Bellincioni, in Albanese (the Dress Rehearsal particularly), in Callas, in Scotto, in Stratas, in Sills, in Freni, and in Zeani; that's it, IMO, when it comes to those who never seem to lack this rare quality at any point;

B) but I almost always hear this quality in Moffo and in Cotrubas; and

C) I hear this quality somewhat more than half the time in Ponselle, in Carteri, in De Los Angeles, in Caballe, in Lorengar, in Studer and in Georghiu; and

C) interpreters where I find chiefly vocal delight are Galli-Curci, Tebaldi and Sutherland.

To reiterate what I said further up: this is ultimately relative. After all, in poring over the four different groups here, it is perfectly possible to find lovely vocalism in, say, Albanese's studio cut ('45) of the duet with Germont pere, even though Albanese still belongs (IMO) with the invariably conflicted successful communicators primarily. And it's also possible to find sincere feeling in some of Tebaldi's singing, even though she still belongs (IMO) with the vocal marvels primarily. All I'm doing here is just showing how the range of emphasis seems to shift (in general) from group to group.

I'd be prepared to guess that it's possible that the greatest disagreements among listeners (disagreements on where certain Violettas belong along the communicator-to-vocalist continuum, that is, not on everyone's overall merits, on which one could find disagreements pretty much anywhere) may usually involve my second and third groups, where I've, in fact, already seen direct disagreements as to the intensity and involvement and imagination of each of their nine portrayals. This would seem to point to their occupying a "crossroads" territory, so to speak. I don't, OTOH, recall any disagreement on either the vividness of the first group as performers, whatever their vocal qualities, nor the loveliness of the third group as voices, whatever their stature as communicators.

Finally, within the first group, unfailing vividness is very occasionally combined with surpassing vocal beauty, and when that happens, one has the truest Violetta of all. Fortunate, then, that the Traviata discography does preserve a few examples where these boundaries are crossed completely. Muzio, the pre-Queens Sills, Freni, and Zeani seem the ones who cross them most successfully, IMO, although Moffo, the very young Callas, the pre-Toscanini Albanese, the young Scotto, Cotrubas and Ponselle can sometimes sound awfully close to that ideal on occasion. On the one hand, Muzio's "Amami, Alfredo" and her later Letter aria transcend these boundaries as isolated excerpts. And OTOH, the "live" Sills, Freni, and Zeani transcend them in the entire role. Even though Freni is compromised by inconsistent colleagues, and Sills's two sets offer an uncomfortable choice between uneven conducting, so-so sound and a vocalist at her peak (Naples, 1970) versus the same conducting, fine sound and a vocalist whose instrument is no longer fresh (studio, 1971), Zeani's studio recording, available on Vox, is all of a piece, in fine sound, led by the attentive and energized Jean Bobescu, featuring responsive colleagues and a heroine still in her vocal prime. I feel this is the most generally satisfying set of all.

 

VARIOUS VIOLETTE:

1. Claudia Muzio

2. Virginia Zeani

3. Beverly Sills

4. Mirella Freni

5. Maria Callas

6. Renata Scotto

7. Rosa Ponselle

Licia Albanese/Ileana Cotrubas/Anna Moffo

============================================================

Gemma Bellincioni

Montserrat Caballe/Victoria De Los Angeles/Amelita Galli-Curci/Angela Georghiu/Teresa Stratas

Rosanna Carteri/Pilar Lorengar/Cheryl Studer/Joan Sutherland/Renata Tebaldi

-- © 2005 Geoffrey Riggs

MARIA CALLAS (1923 - 1977) -- HER BEST RECORDINGS IN GOOD SOUND

CARMEN -- FROM COMEDY TO TRAGEDY

ENRICO CARUSO (1873 - 1921) -- A BRIEF APPRECIATION

FRANCO CORELLI (1921 - 2003) -- RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS

DON CARLOS -- RANDOM JOTTINGS

DONIZETTI AND BRINKMANSHIP

GREATEST SINGER?

THE TENOR AND RICHARD WAGNER (1813 - 1883)

MEISTERSINGER ON DISC -- THE STRONGEST ENTRIES

RECALLING ROBERT MERRILL (1917 - 2004)

PARSIFAL ON DISC -- THE STRONGEST ENTRIES

HISTORY OF OPERA IN MINIATURE

RICHARD TAUBER (1891 - 1948) -- A BRIEF APPRECIATION

PARTIAL OVERVIEW OF TRISTAN ON CD

IL TROVATORE ON DISC -- THE STRONGEST ENTRIES

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