Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro [Recorded 1934-5] [CD]

The Glyndebourne Festival was the plaything of a wealthy English entrepreneur with a taste for German opera and the wherewithal to pay for it. He actually wanted to do a Wagner festival but was talked out of it by a few early escapees from the newly rising Nazi state. Mozart was an acceptable alternative for entrepeneur Christie and his (highly talented) wife, Audrey Mildmay, who appears on this set. Christie built the theater in his own market garden, sparing no expenses with respect to conducting, singers, production and rehearsals.

At the time of this recording, 1934-1935, the Glyndebourne Festival Theater had only 300 seats and sold tickets for about 2/3 of its seating capacity. I believe that the singing on this recording reflects those facts. To my ear, each singer is singing for a small house rather than the 2,000 to 3,500-seat caverns to which opera listeners have become accustomed. It is a revelation to hear this familiar material with voices able to provide subtleties rather than volumes of sound. Listen in particular to the perfectly focused voice of Willi Domgraff-Fassbaender, sounding very like a Tito Schipa who had somehow been born most of an octave lower in tone, illuminating his part as much as he sings it.

I am more comfortable with the sound of this set than the learned and acute-eared Mr. Austin from Kangaroo Ground, but then I like to hear the singers up front. Considering its age--the tracks were presumably scratched into rocks with hammers of stone--the fidelity is astonishingly good. There is a hiss. Get used to it for the sake of the brilliant performance. I also like the bonus tracks rather more than Mr. Austin. They are worth hearing and they are free--why complain?

By reason of a business decision, the recitativo secco passages were not recorded, except for one short passage accompanied by piano. A few minor musical numbers were also omitted. From Rudolph Bing's book about the early days of Glyndebourne, I gather that they ran out of time at the recording sessions.

As a not quite complete five star performance, I give this set four stars.

Conductor Fritz Busch was the regular conductor at Glyndebourne in the 1930s, and the ensemble of singers included Audrey Mildmay, the wife of the man that established the opera house in the grounds of his country property. Mildmay is the Susannah here, sweet and inoffensive in her arias, and easily heard carrying the top soprano line in the ensembles. The Countess is Aulikki Rautavaara, a Finnish soprano. She copes with her two difficult arias with ease but projects little emotional involvement. Luise Helletsgruber is a well-mannered Cherubino. The occasional "qvell" betrays her Austrian orgin. This pronunciation difficulty is still more evident in the singing of Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender, but he brings such brio and cheekiness to the part of Figaro and his voice, especially in the upper range, is so robust that the failing is soon forgotten. English singers Roy Henderson as the Count and Heddle Nash as a particularly gleeful Basilio fill the other major male parts. Uncredited in the Naxos cast listing is Fergus Dunlop as Antonio the gardener.

Mozart's librettist, Da Ponte, contrived some brilliant ensemble sequences in this opera. Listening to this famous recording recently for the first time in my life I hoped that these might be the highlights. After all, this was a true ensemble of singers who worked together and with their conductor and producer in a series of live and recorded festival performances. Sadly, the age of the recording brings disappointment here. The vocal textures, balance and dynamics are just not clear enough. There is also a moment in the long Act 2 finale where the joining together of 78 sides cannot be hidden.

Five additional tracks, providing arias from "Figaro" recorded by "legendary singers" also bring some disappointment. While there is much to enjoy in the singing of Conchita Supervia, Helen Traubel and Lina Pagliughi, they are not great Mozartean singers, nor are their versions of particular "Figaro" arias in any way definitive.