GIORDANO: Andrea Chenier (La Scala) (1928-1931) (Anna Masetti Bassi/ Aristide Baracchi/ Carlo Galeffi/ Giuseppe Nessi/ Ida Conti/ Lina Bruna-Rasa/ Lorenzo Molajoli/ Luigi Marini/ Milan La Scala Chorus/ Milan La Scala Orchestra/ Natale Villa/ Salvatore Bac

A drammaislorico in four acts, to a libretto by Luigi Illica

 

Umberto Giordanohas long suffered from the reputation of being a one-opera composer, which is bothunjustified and untrue; but it is fair to say that never again did he repeatthe success of Andrea

Chenier. One must not forget his Fedora,Siberia, Madame Sans-Gene and La cena delle beffe, which were allacclaimed by the audiences of their day - those operas dating from 1898 to 1924- but they are hardly familiar to modern ears, and productions are very few andfar between. Even Chenier is not frequently seen in the world's opera housesnowadays; but it has a loyal following and many of the twentieth century'sgreatest singers have tackled - and triumphed in - the leading roles, both onstage and disc. It is an exact contemporary of Puccini's La Boheme (theywere both first staged in 1896), and is a classic example of an opera from the giovanescuola or 'young school' of Italian composers, who came to prominenceduring the last decade of the 19th century.

 

Chenier is very much the tenor's opera. The herois given three splendid arias - for he is patriot, lover and poet - and aproduction's success depends on his ability to thrill. In this performance wehear Luigi Marini, who had already enjoyed a 25 year career when the recordingwas made. Memories of other great Cheniers were still fresh in people's minds;Gigli and Martinelli had both recently triumphed in the role and Caruso's performanceswere not so long past. Marini could not hope to rival them in terms of vocalardour or waves of golden tone, but he acquits himself with some credit whennot overstretching in the great set pieces. Try 'Un dl all' azzurro spazio'

in Act I; it is fervently attempted but does not achieve the exultantoutpouring that suits it best; but then listen to the final duet of Act 4,where Chenier and Maddelena approach the guillotine with defiant resolve. Thisis heroic singing, and cannot fail to thrill. In the many 'conversational' passages,too, Marini is fine, good with the words, a tenor with 'face' and personality.

Lina Bruna-Rasagives an extraordinarily mature performance - she was only 23 at the time - andshe is better served by the recording than is Marini, (whose notes sometimes'blast' in loud passages). Clearly hers was a freely produced, gloriously freshvoice and she rides most of the taxing passages with ease; but she has atendency to add emotional catches to the musical line, which are intrusive andcertainly unnecessary (though it is a fault not without modem perpetrators). 'Lamamma morta', the soprano's principal aria, does not unduly suffer fromthis problem and is superbly done, with some fine soft singing. She isinteresting too in the additional arias included on CD2 which all pre-date the Chenier

recording by three years. Some betray an unexpected vibrato, but the Aida duetwith Galeffi (in superb sound, recorded in a more sympathetic acoustic than Chenier)brings out the best in both singers; sparks really fly here. A comparison betweenthe two versions of 'La mamma morta' shows a freer, less affectedearlier performance, but the interpretation is better integrated, with a lessobvious break between head and chest voices, in the later one.

 

Of all the soloistsit is Galeffi who is the star of this set. How well his voice records and whata wealth of colour he brings to ther61e of Gerard Every musical point is made,but not forced, his whole performance is 'natural ' and lives within the drama.

What a pleasure to hear his rich, warm tone so well used. It is not surprisingthat he was greatly admired in ills own time; he should surely be regarded asone of Italy's finest recorded baritones. The wholeperformance is kept taught by the enigmatic Maestro Molajoli, as he discreetlyreins in Lina Bruna-Rasa who, (as some of the individual arias show) sometimesseems eager to hurry along.

 

 

The firstcomplete recorded Chenier is a performance of mixed qualities and somevery exciting moments; but most importantly it is a document of the performingstyle of the time -noticeably different from that of our own day - and based onthe very theatre of the opera's premiere 35 years earlier.

Andrea Chenier was first performed on 28th March 1896 at La Scala, Milan.

Luigi Marini was born in Ascoli Piceno, Italy, in 1884. Following his debut in 1905 hesang at many important opera houses, notably the Teatro Donizetti, Bergamo (1909 in Gioconda), the Costanzi, Rome (1912 in La Wally and Boheme) and LaScala, Milan (1915 and 1924, again in Gioconda).

He appeared regularly in Turin and Genoa, at Covent Garden in 1924 (Boheme and Traviata)and visited Zurich, Lisbon, Barcelona and South America with success. Marini made cylinders for Edison in 1912 and recorded La Boheme complete for Columbia seventeen years later. He died in his home town in1942.

LinaBruna-Rasa, a native of Padua, was born in 1907. Engaged by Toscanini for Helen inMefistofele at La Scala in 1926, she subsequently sang in two world premieresthere - Wolf-Ferrari's Sly (1927) and Mascagni's Nerone (1935),as well as many verismo repertory roles. She also appeared in Milan in William Tell and the Italian premiere of TsarSaltan and as guest artist elsewhere in Italy and South America, in Monte Carlo, Frankfurt, Zurich and The Hague. Bruna-Rasa sadly suffered fromdebilitating psychiatric illness and retired at an early age. She died in Milan in 1984.

 

Carlo Galeffi was born in 1882 near Venice. His first major successes in Naples in 1912 (Aida and Rigoletto) werefollowed by a visit to the USA; Boston and a single performance of La Troviata at the Met. He began hislong and distinguished career at La Scala in 1913 (Don Carlos) and thefollowing year made the first of many appearances at the Colon in Buenos Aires. As the possessor ofa warm, elegant yet stirringly dramatic voice, (particularly fine in Verdi)Galeffi continued to sing to great acclaim until 1952. He died in Rome in 1961.

The career ofLorenzo Molajoli is a mystery in the history of opera. Nothing seems to beknown of his work except that he conducted many recordings in the 1920s and1930s, mostly for Columbia in Milan. From the evidence of those discs he was clearly a very competentmusician, experienced at handling large orchestral and vocal forces - and yetwhere, apart from the recording studio, did he conduct? Was Lorenzo Molajolihis real name? If so, why can more not be discovered about him? If not, who washe, and why did he need to conceal it?