Leoncavallo - Pagliacci / Cura, Frittoli, Álvarez, Keenlyside, Concertgebouw, Chailly
Does the world need anotherPagliacci? Well perhaps, if  it amounts to something materially unlike the others on the market--and  this new recording fromRiccardo Chaillyis just that. Where Karajan's classic DG version goes for expansive grandeur andMuti's various Philips readingsfor rapid gloss, Chailly makes no particular stand on  tempi and avoids glossy effects. Instead, he gives you a dark and grainy-textured piece of drama with voices to match, the tone set by  Carlos Alvarez (Tonio) in a prologue that leaves no doubt about who'll  be the villain of the piece. You also get a shadow in the voice ofJosé Cura(Canio), who makes this disc a calling card for his credentials as a serious singer-actor and contains the bell-like potential of his  singing in an earthy desperation--more cinéma  vérité than conventional verismo. The sobs are there for  "Vesti la giubba," but not in the dimensions that come withPavarotti's hankie to attend them. You feel the private trauma of a man on the edge rather than the public histrionics of a performer playing to  the gallery.Barbara  Frittolimakes a slightly cool Nedda but registers in vocal coloring how differently she feels toward the three men in her operatic life. Among them,Simon  Keenlysidecuts an ardent, eloquently virile figure as her lover  Silvio. And the Concertgebouw almost counts as a lover too, with  brilliantly articulated playing that compensates for a soft-edged  chorus--and is seductive. A distinctivePagliacci?  Yes.--Michael White