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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
unique performance ?, 24 April 2008
one should say performances.This is a composite recording of three performances - feb 23/27 and march 2.Although it may have come from the collection of Lord Harwood,it was recorded by a well known radio personality of the day(sitting in box seats with his wife, with a very small tape recorder on his lap -3" reels)who was even more known as a Jon Vickers fanatic.As it was impossible to change tapes during acts,he got about 15 minutes per act at each performance.However the fly in the ointment was that Amy Shuard was suffering from a dreadful cold and cancelled the feb.27 performance. The dutch soprano(Marie van der Lugt)took over,with Amy Shuard returning for the march 2 show.There was never any covering material for the end of act 2 from any of the performances.The recorder did not think it too much of a loss as Vickers was then offstage.
All of the tapes were then assembled by a friend of the recorder with alternative takes of the love duet Act 2(dutch soprano)and Vicker's Act 3 recit and aria. These alternative takes exist.
As for the performance,It is of great historical significance being the only example of Vickers in one of his most often sung roles early in his career,and of course for the delight of hearing Amy Shuard in a role that she also sang regularly.If one listens carefully two different Tom's can be heard
Michael Langdon and Joseph Rouleau(march 2)
There was never a BBC broadcast of this performance(s)Any bootleg of this that has been heard over the years can only have come from this one source.
The sound quality is amazingly good,when one considers how this was recorded. The names of the persons who recorded and assembled these tapes are being obviously withheld.It can serve no purpose now to publish them
This is an issue that should be widely heard - I can strongly reccomend it.
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...and more, 16 May 2008
Be aware that there also exists, from private sources, a complete performance conducted by Istvan Kertesz. This also stars Shuard and Vickers, but has Peter Glossop in his best period, with Shirley Verrett and (I think) Lucia Popp in the other principal roles.
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AMY SHUARD: BELLE OF THE BALLO, 19 April 2008
This is a fascinating issue, featuring mainly singers who were stalwarts of the Royal Opera House Company in the sixties. This recording brings us one of all too few examples of the work of the London-born soprano Amy Shuard. By 1962 she had proved herself to be a superb Aida and Turandot, and she would soon triumph as Elektra and Brunnnhilde, becoming the first British soprano to sing all three Brunnhildes since Florence Austral. Much as I admire her, her vocal acting abilities can seem limited and her characterisations somewhat earthbound, but here, with the encouragement of the conductor, she is intense and involved, deploying her superb voice to great effect. And the voice is quite something; powerful and brilliant at the top, creamy and full-bodied in the middle, and with a uniquely dark lower range. Act Two poses no problems for her, but the highlight of her performance is "Morro, ma prima in grazia", where the final cadenza is quite marvellous.
As Gustavo III, Jon Vickers, here at the height of his vocal powers, is heroic, committed and elegant, if not invariably Italianate. As always, he sounds as if he means every word he sings, and his scenes with Shuard are absolutely splendid. On the other hand, Ettore Bastianini, in what were his only Covent Garden appearances, has the style at his fingertips but for once he seems rather subdued, offering wonderful vocalising but little in the way of characterisation; perhaps he was advised that that 1960s British audiences would appreciate musicality over dramatic ability? Making the most of her brief appearance in Act 1, Regina Resnik is a terrific Ulrica, relishing both line and text. Rounding out the cast is Joan Carlyle who would soon move on with great success to heavier roles than Oscar, despatching her role with charm and authority rather than sparkle.
Then, as now, Edward Downes shows that he has had few rivals as a Verdi conductor. He has an innate grasp of the architecture of the piece, shunning cheap effects and getting to the heart of the music, leading inexorably to the tragic ending.
So far so good, but there are major drawbacks with the recording itself. Taken from a private recording of Lord Harewood, the sound quality is no more than acceptable; fairly clean but lacking punch and dynamic range. More seriously, a few bars from then end of Act 3 scene two were apparently missing, so we have to endure a fadeout during this exciting music. A well-known pirate tape of the performance of 2 March has been in circulation for many years - could this not have been used to patch the performance?
Presumably the applause is missing from the original tapes, but it's hard to remain involved in this as a performance when it is so obviously cut or faded out so rapidly. The producer, Robert Beardsley, is commendably frank about the recording's shortcomings in his liner note, but this is only right. I wouldn't be without this performance for Shuard and Vickers, but try to hear it before you buy.
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