Tito Gobbi Giacomo Puccini Gabriele Santini - Il Trittico (71 tracks) +Album Reviews

Black, impish, and glorious!

Michael Newberry | Santa Monica | 11/30/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"No doubt about it this compilation of Puccini's Il trittico, three one-act operas, is the one to have for several reasons: Tito Gobbi, the baritone, is nothing short of magnificent in the radically different characters of Michele in Il tabarro and as Gianni Schicchi in the opera of the same name. In Il tabarro he plays the desperate and loving husband to a despondent, unhappy, and unfaithful wife, richly sung by Margaret Mas. He weaves effortlessly and dramatically from the warmly sensitive and sensual lover to beyond the depths of despair and jealously. He leaves technique far behind and I feel every shift of his emotions. And he is extremely musical--beautiful arching line. Both Mas and Giacento Prandelli are unexpectedly very good and so is the small role of La Frugola, Miriam Pirazzini. I think the conducting of Bellezza is excellent.I have also Il tabarro with Price, Domingo, Milnes and Leinsdorf conducting. Price touches a cord in me like no other artist, Domingo is great but Milnes sings beautifully with, by comparison with Gobbi, no character. Leinsdorf conducting sounds wagnarian to me and with all the minor characters he creates a really ugly sound and atmosphere. This CD comes with Pagliacci--and I don't like to hear this music adjacent to Puccini's glorious sound and structure.Victoria de los Angeles, a very great Butterfly, sings Suor Angelica. The role is perfectly suited to her romantic and young sound. Her voice has a particular sound, as does Price, Sutherland, and Callas, and it might not be to all tastes. But she is an artist both musically and in character. She makes me sit up and take notice of her feelings and she creates a great deal of anticipation around her climatic notes--and, of course, she delivers! Fedora Barbieri is excellent as La zia principessa. Perhaps the conducting of Serafin is less atmospheric as I would like but it is nonetheless very, very well structured. He tells us a powerful story. My all-time favorite Angelica is with the most angelic performance of any role I have ever heard by Richarelli and the most wicked, sick, frigid, and black singing by Cossotto. WOW! It is out of print! ^%$#^*!!!The capstone is the hilarious comic opera, Gianni Schicchi. Gobbi has a field day. De los Angeles shines, the cast are beautifully hammy, and the conducting is brilliant by Santini. Puccini is an amazing genius and these three operas mark that. He is black in one, glorious sentimental in another, and rip-roaring impish in the last; yet in all of them they are filled with passionate and beautiful music. Amazing.Last note: Even though three different conductors conduct these, they go extremely well together."

Victoria de los Angeles at her finest

R. M. Simmons | Mississippi | 05/17/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"To say that a particular artist is a great singing actor or actress often sounds like a dubious compliment, as if the reviewer is saying that the singer has compensated for inadequate vocal resourses by vocal acting. But Victoria de los Angeles was a great singing actress in the truest sense of the word.

Her Suor Angelica is outstanding, one of the most fragile, tender accounts of an operatic heroine ever recorded. The beautiful sheen of that voice could suggest vulnerability, pathos, pain, grief, loss--you name it--like no other. Whether the emotions were striking contrasts or subtle shades of the same hue, she had the vocal palette and acting skill to clearly differentiate them all.

Consider for a moment her vocal peers among sopranos: Tebaldi, Callas, Price, Nilsson, Caballe, Moffo, Sutherland, Sills, just to name a few. One phrase of one aria by any of them, and you'd never mistake them for anyone else on earth. That they were able to distinguish themselves among such distinguished company is further evidence of both their individual and collective greatness.

While striving for something profoundly human in her Angelica, in the end de los Angeles achieves something profoundly spiritual and transcendent, and the glowing sound of her voice alone is its own kind of benediction, its own kind of halo over this poor, tortured soul."

The best of all three operas

Larry A. Verdugo | Pasadena, CA USA | 03/18/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"None of these recordings are new and, unfortunately, two of them were recorded before the advent of stereo. Thus, "Il Tabarro" and "Suor Angelica" lack the richness, depth and sense of perspective that a good stereo production would have provided. Nevertheless, all three of these performances are wonderful interpretations, each with at least one contribution that moves it into the inspired category.

"Il Tabarro" is a well conducted performance that is well sung by almost all of the participants. There is a sense of drama that is riveting and missing from most of the competing versions. The singers here cannot provide the richness of sound provided by Decca's Tebaldi/del Monaco or RCA's Price/Domingo but neither Merrill or Milnes can match EMI's Tito Gobbi. This is the kind of role in which the baritone made the most impact, characters not entirely sympathetic but with a streak of pathos that move the heart. Listen to his recording of Rigoletto for an apt comparison. ]

In "Suor Angelica" the great Victoria de los Angeles gave one of her finest performances. From her first entrance which she presents with limpid tone and secure intonation to her truly harrowing account of her character's last moments, she is totally in command of every nuance and emtional shift. Listen to the abrupt changes in mood she offers in the duet with her aunt. This is truly great singing/acting. She is partnered in the latter scene by Fedora Barbieri who provides all the chill and coldness called for but without the somewhat vulgar booming of, say, Marilyn Horne in the Scotto version. All of the comprimari are varied and characterful.

"Gianni Schichi" is a romp with vibrant singing from de los Angeles, a rich and humorfilled characterization from Gobbi and a host of Italian character singers who sound like their having the time of their lives. This is probably the oldest of the stereo versions of this score but it remains the most theatrical and enjoyable. One stipulation: the sound is a might shallow and "blasts" or distorts during some of the complex ensembles. Otherwise, the sound is adequate.

All in all, this a treasurable recording."

Two classic 'Il tritticos' -- which to choose?

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 09/18/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"sets. both deserve fie stars, I think, even though they have matching strengths and weaknesses. I'm referring to this Decca set from the early Sixties in stereo, taped in Florecne, and a mostly mono set on EMI taped in Rome almost a decade earlier (the one installment of the trilogy in stereo is Gianni Schicchi). If you're deciding between them, here are some comparisons.

"Il tabarro' - Beginning with the least popular of the trilogy, the rivalry isn't close. The Decca set is in atmospheric stereo, well conducted by the reliable Gardelli, and boasting a thoroughly stellar cast in Tebaldi and Del Monaco as the ill-starred lovers and Robert Merrill as the murderous avenging husband, Michele. The EMI set is in boxy mono with lots of audible distortion -- the singers are suffocatingly close to the mike -- and mediocre conducting, when you can hear it. Tito Gobbi gives a charismatic reading of Michele, one of his greatest, in fact, but the forgettable Margaret Mas as Giorgetta and Giacita Prandelli as the hapless Luigi were poor choices to fill out the cast.

Suor Angelica -- In this lachrymose example of Catholic kitsch, Tebaldi is in prime territory and gives an affecting performance, but she's up against Victoria de los Angeles giving a great one. Touching as she s, Tebaldi can't approach de los Angeles for humility and humanity. In other respects the cast and conducting seem to be on a par -- neither matters all that much -- although the esteemed Tulio Serafin may be a draw on EMI to some listeners. Once again Decca's stereo far surpasses EMI's limited, boxy mono. Both Angelicas are worthy contributors to their respective sets.

Gianni Schicchi -- Here the balance of musical values goes to EMI because of a dominating performance by Gobbi as a wily, witty Schicchi, whom no one has surpassed in six decades. De los Angeles makes an incomparable Lauretta, but this is a one-aria roe, and Tebaldi scales down her voice to give us a magnificent "O mio babbino caro" in her own right. Here the imbalance has to do with comic presentation. The Decca set is cartoonish, with a buffo Schicchi from Fernando Corena that is cut from the same cloth as his vaudeville Sacristan in Tosca. EMI is far preferable in its more sophisticated, less broad comedy. Too much mugging ruins this opera, I think, and EMI gives us serviceable stereo, so the superiority of Decca's sound isn't so pronounced.

You cannot easily find the various operas by themselves, so plumping for either the EMI or Decca set is mandatory if you want these singers. At amazon Marketplace the Decca Trittico is selling at a very cheap price while the reissued EMI set has reappeared at mid-price, in case economics is your main consideration. If not, only die-hard Tebaldi fans can make a simple choice. Everyone else is stuck with two rivals that are excellent in their own right but with corresponding weaknesses in EMI's lackluster Il tabarro and Decca's overly bumptious Gianni Schicchi."

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