Collectible masterpieces
Record Review’s Andrew Mcgregor explores five glossily repackaged archive operas from Warner Classics
This month I’ve been listening to five great operas in five classic recordings. But after they’ve been reissued multiple times and digitally remastered, is there really any more ‘added value’ to be squeezed out of them? For the record company, certainly – but this time around Warner Classics hasn’t gone the cheap’n’cheerful route. These editions scream quality and collectability: handsome hard-backed books with contextual essays, full libretto and translations, complete with dust jackets on the folds of which the Abbey Road engineers describe the challenges of remastering each opera in HD from the original masters.
The earliest features Victoria de los Angeles as a sultry and seductive Carmen in Bizet’s opera, conducted by Thomas Beecham in Paris in 1958 and 1959 (2564699448; 3 CDS). Part of the problem was the difference in sound between the sessions; there’s some residual hiss, but the depth and immediacy is striking. Beecham’s feel for Spanish colour and the swagger he gets from his French players is still wonderful.
Mozart’s Don Giovanni is Carlo Maria Giulini’s Abbey Road recording from 1959 (2564699405; 3 CDS), casting dangerous shadows right from a menacing e overture. The pacing is a little deliberate, but every phrase has time to speak. Eberhard Wächter makes a grim, gritty Giovanni, Joan Sutherland is an affecting Donna Anna and, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf’s Elvira is marvellously haughty.
Mozart’s Magic Flute is the 1964 Otto Klemperer recording (2564699436; 2 CDS). It feels oldfashioned now: no dialogue, stately speeds but the cast is stunning – from Lucia Popp’s stratospheric Queen of the Night to Nicolai Gedda’s ardent Tamino there’s not a weak link.
It’s the last two I have most issues with. Puccini’s Tosca (9029598937; 2CDS) was always a special role for Maria Callas, but this is the 1965 Paris recording conducted by Georges Prêtre, who’s disappointingly prosaic.
And finally, Verdi’s La traviata is Riccardo Muti’s digital 1980 recording (2564648318; 2 CDS), hard-driven and short on romance, as Renata Scotto and Alfredo Kraus could never be mistaken for young lovers.
Here are five great operas in five classic recordings