Verdi - Otello

Otello, once an opera with little representation in the LP catalogue, is now over represented to the point of exhaustion. If one looks at all the versions and tries to figure out what makes one better than the other, it is a hard game to play. Well, I own a lot of Otellos, like them all for one reason or another, but certainly wasn't prepared for the splendid overall accomplishment to be found from the Royal Opera House recording in 1955. I bought this because I love Rafael Kubelik and anything he may do in opera will generally have some good surprises in it. From the opening storm scene one can hear the chorus scampering all over the stage, and voices popping up all over the place. Yet it is all held together so well that Kubelik is able to take a tempo that most conductors wouldn't dare in live performance in a big house. It would normally cause the chorus to crash and burn, but not here. This tempo goes on right through to Otello's "Esultate" that is delivered with the familiar punch of Ramon Vinay. He is in excellent voice here, although on occasion his vowel production becomes a bit strange as he favors the nasal side of the tenor spectrum. The rest of the act up to the duet is a tight rope walk of ensemble and excitement. It must have been thrilling to be there that night, because the interplay between all the performers, meaning the chorus and orchestra as well, has very few peers on CD that I know of. There are plenty of versions that go fast here and there but take it a bit more easy if things get out of hand. Not here. This is pure thrills. Once we get to the Otello-Desdemona duet with Vinay now joined by Gre Brouwenstijm, things go in the opposite direction. Madame has a few problems warming up but the tempo has now become as placid as a lake on a windless day. You can almost feel the stars coming out. The only problem so far is some less than satisfactory placement of microphones in 1955. Vinay is often upstage from every one else.

The second act opens with Otakar Kraus's singing a most venal "Credo". While not as slippery an agent as Giuseppe Valdengo, or as utterly malevolent as, say, Gobbi, his Iago has already done wonderfully with a fluid drinking song in the first act. When he and Otello finally get together, and all the innuendo begins, you can feel that Vinay's character is in no mood for games with this man. Even the coy banter that precedes the big action to come is given extra juice by Kubelik, who by now has set everything up for Otello's next encounter with Desdemona where the man is clearly having fits of jealousy. The only slight flaw is Kraus's dream scene, which he seems to struggle with for some reason. The tessitura is not low, but then, he has a very high baritone voice with easy high As. No matter, once Otello goes ballistic, and I do mean ballistic, things really perk up. The act closes with a marvelously sung duet with an orchestra that is on the mark throughout.

The third begins with dark forboding from the orchestra. The light banter between Cassio and Iago that follows so infuriates the by-now befuddled Moor that Vinay portrays him as right on the edge of sanity. Then Lodovico arrives. Otello's asides to Desdemona are spit out at her with absolute fury and all the while Kubelik keeps a tight rein on the ensemble, right up to Iago's triumphant statement "Ecco il Leone".

Ultimately this opera hinges not only on the blazing moments, of which there are so many, but more on the soft and ethereal moments such as the "willow song" which is where Brouwenstijn drops the color out of her voice in the beginning and sounds almost like a child. What a wonderful contrast to the inevitable that Desdemona knows is coming. When the orchestra becomes busy at the return of the main theme Kubelik adds just the right underpinning of dramatic movement versus stillness so that Brouwenstijn can open the voice a bit more. In those occasional moments where only she is singing she falls back on her very light sound and it is marvelous indeed to hear. The only problem may be a slight tendency to sing flat on middle notes that are held for a while and sung pp. I don't really care, because this happens to even the greatest interpreters of the role all too often. At her last "Salce" Kubelik lets her take as much time as she wants until her great outburst of farewell to Emilia. The modulation to the "Ave Maria" is deftly handled and then Kubelik then goes into some of the most wonderful playing the orchestra does for the whole evening. (Just as the prayer begins it sounds like some different version of the recording has been spliced in as the upper range is suddenly restricted and the hiss changes). This is Brouwenstijn's best singing in the opera and is accompanied so lovingly that the closing string statement is barely audible over the hiss, (where a new edit is clearly placed just before Otello's entrance) The string bass solo from the orchestra is excellent and sets up the start of the death struggle when Otello asks Desdemona if she has said her prayers. Her response of "Orror" is chilling. Emilia arrives to find her mistress dying, again again with the child voice. The moment between Emilia and Otello is indeed dramatic and as she exposes to all what has happened. As the truth unfolds Vinay is simply towering. "Niun mi temma" ends this great performance at its most dramatic moment thanks to Kubelik's pacing. The great soldier stands out amidst his pain and grief right to his suicide, his death as much from a broken heart as from any physical wound. The ending "Un Baccio" moment may surprise some, but I think it wonderful.

The sound of this set, while better than any other pressing I've heard of this performance, is still fraught with difficulties, and this may make or break this recording for some. I can't tell whether this is a tape (it is awfully hissy to be the original) or at times a 33 rpm transcription because there are moments where noise repeats at that speed. It is obviously cobbled together from various sources. Here and there the EQ gets muddy, but never for long, and in some spots there is no question of a pitch problem. But that goes with this historic territory and it doesn't really bother me although I was aware of both things right away. Compared to later live versions this is reasonable monaural sound. I wouldn't be without this recording.

This is a recording of the first performance of Otello given by the Royal Opera at Covent Garden after World War II, in October, 1955. The only previous production since the war had been in 1950, when the visiting La Scala had presented the work, (with the title role also sung by Ramon Vinay.) This performance also marked the Covent Garden debut of the great Czech conductor Rafael Kubelik, who had just been hired as Musical Director. Kubelik leads a masterful performance, conducting with all the drive and passion that Verdi demands, compared to the slower and more stately pace of Furtwangler's performance at Bayreuth four years earlier, (also with Vinay.)

Chilean dramatic tenor Ramon Vinay, who was considered the leading Otello of the day, was to sing the title role. Vinay had been singing the role since 1947, when Toscanini cast him in the famous New York performance and broadcast. With a baritonal heft and timbre to his voice, Vinay was also making a name for himself at Bayreuth as one of the era's top heldentenors, and he lives up to his billing.

Dutch soprano Gre Brouwenstijn sings Desdemona, and gives a first-class if not world-class performance. She doesn't have a particularly Italianate voice--in fact she sang primarily in the German repertoire. She also has a very rapid vibrato that's a bit disconcerting at first, and sometimes lands on the lower half of the pitch. But she brings a vulnerability and fragility to Desdemona with a sypathetic performance that quite wins you over. And she pulls it all together for the Willow Song and Ave Maria, including a gorgeous floated piano high A flat at the end.

German baritone Otakar Kraus, who was a regular baritone on staff at Covent Garden, was not originally cast as Iago. That honor went to Tito Gobbi, but when Gobbi failed to show for rehearsals, Kubelik replaced him with Kraus at fairly short notice. Kraus does a masterful job. With a surprisingly vibrant and warm voice, he turns in a sly and insinuating performance, making it quite understandable how Otello could fall for his spurious tale.

The other roles are handled perfectly competently, and the Covent Garden orchestra and chorus perform admirably. The sound quality is very good, given this is a 1955 mono live recording.

But at the end of the evening, this was Vinay's night. A tremendous actor as well as a superb singer, he invests the Moor with a nobility that makes his destruction even more terrifying and horrible. His absolute anguish upon discovering Iago's treachery and Desdemona's innocence is so real that it's almost painful to listen to--and that's on a CD! In person, watching it on stage, it must have been just devastating. No histrionics, no over-stylization, no grand declamations or fake sobbing--just an emotionally gut-wrenching performance. With all respect to other magnificent interpreters of the role such as Mario del Monaco, Jon Vickers, James McCracken, and Placido Domingo, now I understand why he was considered the most powerful Otello of the second half of the 20th century.

Like another great singer of that era, Maria Callas, Vinay also "sang on the capital, not on the interest," as one author wrote. Six years later the strain would show and he would loose his top notes and finish his career as a baritone, a shadow of what he had been. But this evening, at the age of 44, his voice is still in its prime and his artistry incredible. (By the way, Vinay also sings an incredible Tristan und Isolde with Astrid Varnay, recorded in 1953 at Bayreuth and released on the Monogram label.)

This recording is one of the Royal Opera House Heritage series, and is very nicely packaged with a slipcover case over the plastic case and a good accompanying booklet, with a libretto and an excellent article about the performance and some great pictures. And at the price of $21, including shipping and handling, it's ridiculously inexpensive.

This is not just an "historical" recording, of interest only to collectors or rabid opera fans. This is a fantastic recording of one of the greatest interpreters ever to sing the role of Otello, at the peak of his career. Put this in your shopping cart RIGHT NOW! I would give it "6 stars" if I could.

While I agree with much that previous reviewers have written about this performance, I must take issue with their recommendations when you consider that this recording is in direct competition with both the 1947 Toscanini and 1948 Busch live recordings. All feature the greatest Otello of the 20th century, Ramon Vinay, and he is terrific in all three, but he is certainly in marginally better voice in the earlier two recordings and in the other two sets the main roles are clearly better cast and sung in both.

But before I consider singers, there is the simple fact to consider that both Busch and Toscanini are recorded in infinitely cleaner, clearer, immediate sound than the Covent Garden one. In the latter, there is a great deal of obtrusive hiss, voices fade in and out (off mike?) and there is much audible print-through. The ensembles sre horribly muddy and much detail is lost - whereas in the other two recordings all the interlacing parts are discernible without any loss of tension - especially where two such masters as Busch and Toscanini are concerned.

Vinay apart, who is, as I have said, wonderful in all three, Kubelik's principals are less satisfying. Kraus, a last minute substitute for Gobbi, who failed to turn up for rehearsals, turns in a serviceable performance as Iago but it has its bland and rocky moments and he completely fails to find the subtlety that both Warren (marvellously insinuating in his "Era la notte"; just compare it with Kraus' wavery attempt) and Valdengo inject into their assumptions of the role. It's not a bad performance; just ordinary - though he makes a particularly good job of the deceptively easy-sounding "Brindisi". I very much like Gre Brouwenstijn's Desdemona - her "Ave Maria" is particularly touching and I do not find, as some do, her fast vibrato irritating, but she is less assured than the much-maligned Herva Nelli for Toscanini, while Licia Albanese, as Alan Blyth points out in the "Gramophone" review, delivers "the performance of a lifetime". (I am all the more puzzled by Blyth's encomium for this set when you consider that he is exceptionally enthusiastic about the Busch recording in an earlier review.)

I love anything Kubelik does, and his conducting is masterly in its pacing and variety of mood, but I suspect that some critics, especially my British compatriots, are swayed by nostalgia in their assessment of this set; it's simply not as good as the competition - although it is a souvenir of a great occasion. It certainly isn't the set a novice should buy to become acquainted with "Otello", whereas either the Busch or the Toscanini - or indeed the earlier Del Monaco recording conducted by Erede (see my review) - would do fine.