Search - Giacomo Puccini, Orchestra E Coro Della RAI, Antenore Reali :: Puccini: Il Tabarro

Singers on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

Paul A. Dunphy | Bogota, New Jersey USA | 09/22/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"While there are recordings of this one-act opera which may be more musically interesting, there is none more dramatic than this 1949 Cetra recording.

The word that comes to mind while listening to Clara Petrella's classic Giorgetta is "desperation". This is a woman in a dead-end marriage looking for an escape. Her interpretation may be a little too earthy for some but we are talking about people in the lower ranks of Paris society.

Veteran baritone Antenore Reali sounds like the older, bitter man that Michele is. Glauco Scarlini doesn't quite catch the fire of his two co-stars but he is able to hold his own. Special mention must go to Ebe Ticozzi's Frugola. Her maniacal laughter at the end of her aria about her cat is chilling in it's revelation of a mind coming unhinged. Tinca is sung by Giuseppe Nessi who was in the original performance of "Turandot". Conductor Giuseppe Baroni keeps the drama moving.

The voices may be a little more forward than in current recordings but in "Il Tabarro" it is the drama which counts!"