Puccini: Madama Butterfly [CD]

Producer Fred Gaisberg was keen to record Beniamino Gigli in a series of complete opera recordings. Gigli's Pinkerton proved to be Gigli's best recorded role. Toti dal Monte won the coveted role of Butterfly, possibly because she was a much-loved exponent of the part, she was a favourite colleague of Gigli's, and her voice was not unlike that of Rosina Storchio who Puccini chose to create the role. Her assumption of the part is extraordinary. She colours and characterizes her voice, clearly suggesting a fifteen year old girl at her entry and leaving you in no doubt thereafter about whom she is talking to. The voice itself is often piercing in its upper register, however, and sounds frayed at times beyond the requirements of dramatic characterization.

The minor parts are well cast, with voices clearly differentiated. Mario Basiola, whom I saw in my own first "Butterfly", is a convincing Sharpless, a non-committed official at first, but clearly angry and frustrated when attempting to read Pinkerton's letter to Cio-Cio-San in Act Two. Vittoria Palombini brings an unforgettable "doom-laden" voice to the part of Suzuki. Oliviero de Fabrittiis pushes the drama along at a rapid pace.

Included with this set is a string of arias recorded by Toti dal Monte, about ten years earlier. Here you will find beautiful, legato singing of the best Italian tradition.

To those who know Gigli only from his recital recordings, Gigli in complete performance will come as a surprise. The sheer, robust verve provided by the man in dramatic performance--as here in "Madama Butterfly", or in "Tosca", in "Pagliacci" and especially in "Un ballo in maschera"--is a thing wholly different from his mannered singing of the recitals. The sheer, golden sound he makes is convincing proof that those who place him second only to Caruso are perfectly correct.

(A note to sensitive souls: yes, he scoops; no, he does not slavishly follow every note and marking in the printed score. So, what? He follows the performing conventions of his time, not those of ours. And, by heaven, he gives a better overall performance than his DDD-era successors.)

Toti dal Monte, alas, is captured somewhat late in her career but her take on Cio-Cio San is absolutely spot-on, even though it exists in a world different from that of Freni or Tebaldi and an entirely different universe from Callas. She fills the requirements of the fiendishly difficult Puccini role so completely that without prior knowledge one would never guess that she had long been famous as Lucia and Norina.

Naxos has filled out disk 2 of the set with dal Monte recordings from the 1920s and early 30s. Listen to Sul d'un soffio eteso, Nanetta's aria from the second act of Falstaff to hear the only singer ever to give Anna Moffo a run for the money in that part. Then hear Tornami a dir che m'ami, from Don Pasquale (sung with Tito Schipa); it is not to be equaled anywhere.