From: conrad@brahms.udel.edu (Jon Conrad)
Subject: Re: La Traviata
Organization: University of Delaware
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 13:37:03 GMT

Ken's comments are too good to ignore.  Herewith another round.

In article <92240.174354KSSHC@CUNYVM.BITNET> Ken Sherrill <KSSHC@CUNYVM.BITNET> writes:

>1. Milanov and coloratura. I did not write as clearly as I should have. Surely,
> no one would say that having to negotiate Leonora's Act I and  Act IV cabalet-
>tas requires casting a coloratura in the part. 

No one says it about Traviata any more either, do they?  The part used
to belong to the likes of Hempel and Galli-Curci, but the standard since
the 1950s has been the like of Steber, Moffo, Sills, Sutherland,
Malfitano.  Not a teeny chirper among them.  But I do take your point
that none of these are what we think of as Leonora weight.  That's true.

>Yet, we    tend to say that ne-
>gotiating Violetta's Act I cabalettas (really just Sempre Libera and the caden-
>za in Un di, felice) requires casting a lighter voice in the part than the rest
>of Violetta's music demands. 

Could it be because it ends the act and directly precedes the lady's
curtain call?  Leonoras can just indicate their their Act I coloratura
(and cut the Act IV aria, of course) and we probably will have forgotten
the pain by the time the curtain descends.

>Forty years ago, Milanov set the world standard
>for Leonora. Today, her recording sounds sloppy. The funny thing is the way we
>forgive bad coloratura in Trovatore, 

Did, I would say.  I think ears have changed in this respect.  I've
talked to old-timers about Milanov's Leonora (people whose ears I am in
awe of), and they genuinely can't hear anything wrong with it.

>but not Traviata. Can anyone recall Eva
>Marton's Trovatore? Would anyone let her do Traviata? 

No, but I wouldn't have let her do Trovatore either.  On the other hand,
I might once have let Anna Tomova-Sintow do both (can't quite see her as
a Gilda though).  I know she's done Violetta at the Met, and at the
Centennial Gala she displayed a stunning florid command (along with the
big voice) that I wish she'd shared with us more often.

>I want the passagework
>to be cleanly and accurately sung in both parts. The same goes for Gilda, Elena
>in Vespri, and other Verdi operas of that time period. We accept lighter weight
>than we should in Traviata and Gilda and this diminishes the opera.

On this point we're agreed.  Close to the most satisfying voicing of the
whole role of Violetta that I've heard is the Met broadcast with
Ponselle.  Now there's a grown woman with some depth.

>2. Alfredo is not Manrico, 

Manrico need not be hochdramatisch either.  Here it's the opposite
problem; people think Di quella pira defines the role.  I'm not saying
Manrico is for a light voice, but let's say a juicy lyric like
Bjoerling.

>but his music is as heavy as many other Verdi tenor
>parts. All of his music in Act II scene 2 requires a level of power and thrust
>beyond otherwise wonderfully elegant tenors, such as Valetti (and -- here we
>disagree -- Kraus). I had the opportunity to see Valetti sing several Alfredos
>at the Met. Everytime, he ended up pushing for volume and singing sharp. I can-
>not recall his having pitch problems in any other role -- but my memory may be
>going. Add to the Act II scene 2 music "O mio Rimorso", and you cannot get away
> with a voice lighter than -- say -- the Duke in Rigoletto's.

Also a specialty of Kraus, no?  I'll accept your correction about
Valetti.

>I have always found it curious that Trovatore attracted conductors such as Von
>Karajan, Levine and Mehta and brought out the best in them -- a wonderful sense
>of energy, rythmic drive and precision, nuances in orchestration, etc. They
>seem to be willing to let Trovatore play itself in a way that they won't for
>Traviata. 

That IS interesting (I agree with your basic point).  Maybe because
those conductors (dare I say) respect Trovatore less, they are more
willing to just go with it?  Whereas everybody knows that Traviata is
this exquisite gem of an opera, so they fuss with it too much.

>"Major" conductors can't resist the urge to desecrate Travia-
>ta; house conductors respect the work. The fact that Monteux and Toscanini
>did wonderful Traviatas makes me wonder if there is a generational aspect to
>this issue.

I think there is, and not just for this opera.  Opera conductors,
however gifted, need to learn again that their job is accompanying most
of the time.  Toscanini, for all his autocratic ways, understood this,
as did Monteux.  They took great care with the orchestra in every way,
but all in the name of setting up the voices and helping them make their
best effects.  There's nothing demeaning or second-rate about this role,
but perhaps present-day conductors think it so.

I have to say though, that for me Toscanini's Traviata would not be the
best illustration of this.  Here, uniquely among his opera recordings, I
hear him enforcing an unwanted pace on his singers, decreeing that it
MUST be this way, and if they can't hack it, too bad.  We genuinely
disagree on the quality of this performance, I guess.

Jon Alan Conrad