More Caballé: as Lauretta, Luisa, Violetta, Lucia, and Elisabeth

Montserrat Caballé (1933-2018) as Violetta

by Ken

A couple of weeks ago we began taking note of the passing of Montserrat Caballé, and we began by perusing the Sunday Classics archives, which not that surprisingly held a fair amount of Caballé. So we started by hearing both arias from Caballé's extraordinary performance of Fiordiligi in Colin Davis's Philips recording of Mozart's Così fan tutte, followed by two of Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs and two recordings of "Casta diva" from Bellini's Norma.

There's still a lot to explore, both from the existing Sunday Classics archives and from newly added material. I thought we'd start today with this recording of that most beloved of soprano arias, "O mio babbino caro" from Puccini's delicious one-act opera Gianni Schicchi, which we spent some time exploring back in July-August 2010.

PUCCINI: Gianni Schicchi: "O mio babbino caro"

O my dear little daddy,
I like him. He's lovely, he's lovely.
I want to go to the Porta Rossa
to buy a wedding ring!
Yes, yes, I want to go there!
And if I were to love him in vain,
I would go to the Ponte Vecchio,
but to throw myself in the Arno!
I'm pining and I'm tormented!
O God, I'd like to die!
Daddy, have pity, have pity!
Daddy, have pity, have pity!

Montserrat Caballé, soprano; London Symphony Orchestra, Charles Mackerras, cond. EMI, recorded c1969


CABALLÉ AS LUISA MILLER AND VIOLETTA VALÉRY

When the Met revived Verdi's Luisa Miller in 1968, after an absence of nearly 40 years, the Luisa was Caballé, and while she eventually recorded the role for Decca, the Met broadcast performance is better, the voice sounding freer and suppler, and substantial and beautiful in both delicate soft singing and, naturally, ampler and more radiant at full voice than any other Luisa I've heard.

I have enormous affection for both the opera and its enormously lovable heroine, so I thought we'd listen again to her entrance in the opening scene, as the entire village gathers outside her house to celebrate her birthday, and she awaits anxiously the appearance of her new boyfriend, whom her father doesn't have to meet to know he doen't like him. When Rodolfo finally arrives, he turns what by rights should be the cabaletta to Luisa's aria "Lo vidi e il primo palpito" into a duet, for me one of the happiest-and-lovelist things Verdi wrote.

VERDI: Luisa Miller: Act I, Recitative and aria, Luisa,
"Non giunge ancor" . . . "Lo vidi e il primo palpito"

Recitative and duet, Luisa-Rodolfo, "Mia diletta" . . . "T'amo d'amor"

Montserrat Caballé (s), Luisa Miller; Sherrill Milnes (b), Miller; Richard Tucker (t), Rodolfo; Nancy Williams (s), Laura; Metropolitan Opera Chorus and Orchestra, Thomas Schippers, cond. Live performance, Feb. 7, 1968

It was as a bel cantist that Caballé made her first big New York splash, and RCA quickly got her into the recording studio to document some of her bel canto credentials. (We heard the "Casta diva" from that LP last week.) Naturally when Mr. Bing deigned to shoehorn her into the Metropolitan Opera schedule, it was as Gounod's Marguerite. And her first complete-opera recording was even more mainstream. But that Violetta seems to me to have held up quite well. Let's listen again to the great Act I climactic scene. (You can find an Italian-English libretto here.)

VERDI: La Traviata: Act I, Scene, Violetta, "È strano" . . . "Ah, fors'è lui" . . . "Sempre libera"

Montserrat Caballé (s), Violetta Valéry; Carlo Bergonzi (t), Alfredo Germont; RCA Italiana Opera Orchestra, Georges Prêtre, cond. RCA, recorded 1967


AND CABALLÉ AS DONIZETTI'S LUCIA

One big surprise among the archive holdings was a set of three clips from Caballé's 1976 recording of Lucia di Lammermoor: the Lucia-Edgardo meeting from the Fountain Scene (Act I, Scene 2) and, from Act II, Scene 1, Lucia's great confrontation with her brother, Enrico, over his plan to marry her off to the hapless Lord Arturo Bucklaw (because of his desperate need for access too Lord Arturo's fortune) and also the succeeding scene in which the family chaplain, Raimondo Bide-the-Bent, piles the pressure on her.

I didn't remember anything about these audio clips -- not even how they were made (they don't seem to be from LP, but I've never owned a CD edition), let alone why. However, I did finally track down the scene with Edgardo, which was used in a June 2015 Sunday Classics snapshots post, "Lucia's last happy snap," which followed a "snapshot" from the week before, "A fountain, a harp, and a mind in distress," devoted to the first half of the Fountain Scene, Lucia's haunted "Regnava nel silenzio."

At a guess, I had in mind additional Lucia "snapshots," which never got snapped. At the time we first heard the Lucia-Edgardo scene, I noted:

[T]he Philips recording uses a critical edition prepared by conductor Jesús López Cobos commissioned by the publisher Ricordi, restoring the text of the composer's autograph manuscript, stripping away the coloratura encrustations added after the composer's death, including restoring the pitches of several of Lucia's numbers -- including this duet -- which had been raised to facilitate the insertion of unwritten upward options. López Cóbos insists that the restoration of the original keys brings the role of Lucia within the compass of a heavier-weight soprano than the bird-flight coloraturas who have taken the role over -- cf. la Caballé, though she could of course have ripped off plenty of coloratura gyrations. The Philips recording also features the pre-illness José Carreras.

(I gather from online comments that the CD edition of the recording contains no mention of the text performed, which occasioned so much ballyhoo in the LP booklet.)

DONIZETTI: Lucia di Lammermoor: Act I, Scene 2, Alisa, "Egli s'avanza" ("He's approaching") . . . . Edgardo, "Lucia, perdona" ("Lucia, forgive me") . . . . "Sulla tomba che rintrasse" ("On the tomb that contains") . . . . "Qui, di sposa eterna fede" . . . . Lucia, "Verranno a te sull'aure" ("Let come on the breezes")

ALISA: He's approaching.
EDGARDO: Lucia, forgive me
if at an unaccustomed hour
I asked to see you:
A powerful reason forced me to it.
Before the new dawn grows pale in the sky,
from my native shores, I shall be far away.
LUCIA: What are you saying?
EDGARDO: For the friendly shores of France
I unfurl my sails:
There i have been assigned
to negotiate the fate of Scotland.
LUCIA: And me in tears
you abandon thus?
EDGARDO: Before leaving you
I would see Ashton . . .
I would extend him in appeasement
my right hand,
and your right hand
as a pledge of peace I would ask.
LUCIA: What do I hear?
[Agitated] Ah no!
Let our hidden love
remain buried in silence for now.
EDGARDO: I understand . . .
The evil persecutor of my family,
of my wrongs,
he is still not satisfied!
He killed my father,
stole my ancestral heritage . . .
is that not enough?
What more
does that cruel, evil heart desire?
My entire ruin? My blood?
He hates me . . .
LUCIA: Ah no! . . .
EDGARDO: He abhors me!
LUCIA: Calm, o heavens, your extreme anger!
EDGARDO: A burning flame courses through my breast!
Hear me!
LUCIA: Edgardo!
EDGARDO: Hear me, and tremble!
On the tomb that contains my betrayed father,
on your bloodline in my fury I swore eternal war.
LUCIA [a shreik]: Ah!
EDGARDO: But I saw you, and in heart was born
another emotion, and my anger was stilled.
Yet that oath has not been canceled.
I could, yes, yes, yes, I could fulfill it yet.
LUCIA [affectionately]: Ah, calm yourself!
Ah, restrain yourself!
EDGARDO: Ah, Lucia!
LUCIA: We can be betrayed, we can be betrayed
by a single word!
Is not my suffering enough for you?
Do you want me to die of fright?
EDGARDO: Ah, no, no, no, no!
LUCIA: Give up all other feelings.
Let love alone inflame your breast.
Nobler, holier than any oath is a pure love.
Ah, let love alone inflame your breast!
EDGARDO [overlapping]: Yet that oath has not been canceled.
I could, yes, yes, yes, I could fulfill it yet.
LUCIA: Yield, yield to me.
EDGARDO: Yes, I could fulfill it yet.
LUCIA: Yield, yield to love.
EDGARDO [with sudden resolve]:
Here, your eternal faith as a spouse
her swear it to me before heaven.
God hears us, God sees us.
A loving heart is both church and altar.
to your fate I unite my own.
[Placing a ring on LUCIA's finger]
I am your spouse.
LUCIA: And I am yours.
[In turn places her own ring on EDGARDO's finger.]
EDGARDO and LUCIA: Ah, only the chill of death
will put out our fire.
With my oaths I call on love,
with my oaths I call on heaven.
EDGARDO: Now we must separate.
LUCIA: Oh word, fatal to me!
My heart goes with you.
EDGARDO: My heart remains with you here,
my heart remains with you here.
LUCIA: Ah, Edgardo! Ah, Edgardo!
EDGARDO: Now we must separate.
LUCIA: Ah, sometimes from you let a letter come,
and my truant life I will feed with hope.
EDGARDO: A living memory of you
I will always retain, my dear.
LUCIA: Ah! On the breezes will come
my ardent sighs.
You will hear in the murmuring sea
the echo of my grieving
Thinking that I feed on sighs and grief,
she a bitter tear then on this ring.
Ah, on this ring then!
Ah, on this ring then!
Ah, on that ring then!
EDGARDO: On the breezes will come etc.
LUCIA [overlapping]: Ah! Yes, on that ring then, Edgardo!
EDGARDO: On that ring.
LUCIA: Your letters will always keep . . .
EDGARDO: Dear one!
LUCIA: . . . your memory alive in me.
EDGARDO: Yes, Lucia, yes!
LUCIA and EDGARDO: Ah! On the breezes will come etc.
[Much repertition of the above.]
EDGARDO: I am leaving.
LUCIA: Farewell.
EDGARDO: Remember, heaven binds us to it.
LUCIA: Edgardo!
EDGARDO: Farewell.
[EDGARDO leaves, and LUCIA retires into the castle.]

[critical edition, ed. López Cobos] Ann Murray (ms), Alisa; José Carreras (t), Edgardo; Montserrat Caballé (s), Lucia; New Philharmonia Orchestra, Jesús López Cobos, cond. Philips, recorded 1976
["Sulla tomba" at 2:49, "Qui, di sposa" at 6:19, "Verrano a te" at 8:53]

It's a shame we didn't get to the Lucia-Enrico scene sooner, because Caballé stands up to her brother -- portrayed here, like her lover, by a fellow Spaniard -- more forcefully than any other Lucia I've heard. I'm not sure what I had in mind when I made the clip of the Lucia-Raimondo scene. Maybe it was just the quality of Samuel Ramey's Raimondo? (Again, you can find an Italian-English libretto of Lucia here and here.)

DONIZETTI: Lucia di Lammermoor:
Act II, Scene 1, Lucia-Enrico scene

Act II, Scene 1, Lucia-Raimondo scene

Montserrat Caballé (s), Lucia; Vicente Sardinero (b), Lord Enrico Ashton; Samuel Ramey (bs), Raimondo Bide-the-Bent; New Philharmonia Orchestra, Jesús López Cobos, cond. Philips, recorded 1976


THE MOST INTERESTING THING I FOUND, THOUGH . . .

. . . is this excerpt from Don Carlos: Queen Elisabeth's dramatic post-dawn intrusion into the study of her husband, King Philip II of Spain. Hard upon the departure of the Grand Inquisitor following his shakedown of the king, Philip finds himself under attack from the queen for "justice."

This clip is from a March 2014 post, "Preview: Poor King Philip receives yet another unwelcome early-morning visitor," that picked up where a series of posts from a year before had left off in the great scene in Philip's study, following the sleepless king's pre-dawn monologue and the confrontation with the Grand Inquisitor.

Don Carlos: Act IV, Scene 1, Elisabeth-Philip scene
(from the Grand Inquisitor's move to exit)

[The GRAND INQUISITOR starts to leave.]
KING PHILIP: My father, may peace be restored between us.
GRAND INQUISITOR [continuing to move off]: Peace?
KING PHILIP: Let the past be forgotten!
GRAND INQUISITOR [at the door, as he leaves]: Perhaps!
KING PHILIP: The pride of the King withers before the pride of the priest!
[ELISABETH rushes in and throws herself at the KING's feet.]
ELISABETH: Justice! Justice, sire!
Justice, justice, justice!
I have faith in the integrity of the king.
In your court I am cruelly treated,
and outraged by mysterious, unknown enemies.
The casket, sire, where I kept
all my treasure, my jewels . . . other objects
still dearer to me,
they have stolen from me!
Justice, justice!
I claim it of Your Majesty!
KING PHILIP: What you're looking for, here it is!
[He produces the casket from his desk.]
ELISABETH: Heavens!
KING PHILIP: May it please you to open it.
[She refuses.]
Well then, I'll open it.
[He breaks open the casket.]
ELISABETH [aside]: I feel like I'll die.
KING PHILIP: The portrait of Carlos!
You don't find any words?
The portrait of Carlos!
ELISABETH: Yes.
KING PHILIP: Among your jewels?
ELISABETH: Yes.
KING PHILIP: What! You dare to confess that to me?
ELISABETH: I dare it! Yes!
You know it well: Once my hand
was promised to your son.
Now I belong to you, submissive to God,
but I am immaculate as the lily.
And now there is suspicion
of the honor of Elisabeth . . .
there is doubt about me . . .
And the person who commits the outrage is the king.
KING PHILIP: You speak to me too boldly!
You think me weak
and seem to defy me;
weakness in me
can turn to fury.
Tremble then,
for you, for me!
ELISABETH: What is my guilt?
KING PHILIP: Perjurer!
If so much shame has overflowed my cup,
if by you I was betrayed,
I swear it before heaven,
blood will flow!
ELISABETH: You make me feel pity.
KING PHILIP: Ah! The pity of an adulterous consort!
[She faints. PHILIP opens a door.]
KING PHILIP: Help for the queen!
[Enter PRINCESS EBOLI and the MARQUIS OF POSA.]
PRINCESS EBOLI [to herself, on seeing ELISABETH unconscious]:
Heavens! What have I done? Alas!
MARQUIS OF POSA [to PHILIP]: Sire!
Half the world is subject to you;
could you be then the only one in your vast empire
whom you are unable to command?

Cesare Siepi (bs), King Philip II; John Macurdy (bs), Grand Inquisitor; Montserrat Caballé (s), Elisabeth; Grace Bumbry (ms), Princess Eboli; Sherrill Milnes (b), Marquis of Posa; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Francesco Molinari-Pradelli, cond. Live performance, Apr. 29, 1972

I don't know about you, but what this clip does for
me is make me want to continue on into the quartet

Because what struck me most about the clip is how good it is, with all the soloists making big-league contributions and conductor Molinari-Pradelli holding the proceedings together in exemplary fashion. So let's back up just a little and then, you know, continue on< into the quartet. Don Carlos: Act IV, Scene 1, King Philip, "Soccorso alla Regina" . . . Quartet (Philip, Eboli, Posa, Elisabeth)

KING PHILIP: Help for the queen!
[Enter PRINCESS EBOLI and the MARQUIS OF POSA.]
PRINCESS EBOLI [to herself, on seeing ELISABETH unconscious]:
Heavens! What have I done? Alas!
MARQUIS OF POSA [to PHILIP]: Sire!
Half the world is subject to you;
could you be then the only one in your vast empire
whom you are unable to command?
PHILIP [to himself]: Oh, accursed by the fatal suspicion,
work of a devil -- a devil from hell!
EBOLI: I have ruined her! I have ruined her!
Oh fatal remorse!
PHILIP [continuing his bitter reflectons]: No!
EBOLI [consumed in bitter self-recrimination]: I have committed . . .
PHILIP: No!
EBOLI: I have committed . . .
PHILIP: She has not sullied . . .
EBOLI:. . . a damnable crime.
PHILIP: . . . her plighted troth.
EBOLI: I have ruined her!
PHILIP: Her proud bearing tells me so.
EBOLI: I have ruined her!
POSA [to himself]: The hour for action has struck,
the dread lightning has flashed in the sky!
The time for action, etc.
If a man must die for Spain,
I will bequeath her a happy future!
Let a man die for Spain!
EBOLI [overlapping]: I have ruined her!
Fatal remorse! I have ruined her!
PHILIP: This woman has not been unfaithful to me!
POSA: I will bequeath her a happy future!
[They continue in this vein.]
ELISABETH [regaining consciousness]:
Oh heaven, in tears and grief
everyone has forsaken me, o Mother!
EBOLI [overlapping]: O misery!
ELISABETH: I am a stranger in this land . . .
I have no further hope on earth!
EBOLI [overlapping]: Remorse, fatal remorse!
[CONCERTED PASSAGE: in which, singing all together, not in unison but in disjointed phrases, each continues his/her train of thought, the characters being set down in order of entry into the ensemble.
PHILIP: No, she has not tarnished her sworn vow --
she has not been unfaithful to me.
POSA: At last the hour for action has struck,
the ominous lightning has flashed in the sky!
EBOLI: I betrayed that noble heart!
I shall die of it, I shall die of the grief!
ELISABETH: Oh, alone and a stranger in this land,
ah! there is no further hope on earth for me --
everyone, alas!, oh mother,
every single soul here has forsaken me!
I have no more hope, ah!, save in heaven!
In heaven alone have I any hope!
EBOLI: I have betrayed that noble soul, oh woe!
Oh remorse, I shall die of it!
Oh, vain remorese -- if I may not find forgiveness
either upon earth or yet in heaven!
PHILIP: No, she has not sullied her plighted troth!
This woman has not been unfaithful to me!
She has not been unfaithful to me, ah no!
to me she wasn't!
Ah, accursed be my suspicion,
that devil, that wicked devil!
POSA: If a man must die for Spain ==
I shall bequeath her a happy future!
Should a man have to die for Spain --
I shall leave her happy days, etc.
Let a man die ==
I'll know how to bequeath her
a legacy of happy days!

Cesare Siepi (bs), King Philip II; Grace Bumbry (ms), Princess Eboli; Sherrill Milnes (b), Marquis of Posa; Montserrat Caballé (s), Elisabeth; Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Francesco Molinari-Pradelli, cond. Live performance, Apr. 29, 1972


THIS OPENS SOME NEW AVENUES OF INQUIRY

Which we're going to pursue, probably next week.

HOW WE WORKED OUR WAY THIS FAR THROUGH
THE DON CARLOS SCENE IN KING PHILIP'S STUDY

"Preview: "I still see her looking in silence at my white hair" -- King Philip, in Don Carlos" (1/26/2013)
"Verdi's King Philip -- a man in crisis" (1/27/2013)

"Preview: Every day is a good day for an auto-da-fé" (3/9/2013)
"The pride of the King withers before the pride of the priest!" -- King Philip, in Don Carlos" (3/10/2013)

"Preview: Poor King Philip receives yet another unwelcome early-morning visitor" (3/15/2014)
"Verdi's Queen Elisabeth demands justice from King Philip but gets something else" (3/16/2014)

#