Verrett's best recordings
aesthete8
david...@aol.com
> Any recommendations?
I’m anything but familiar with Miss Verrett’s discography, but I can
comment on some of the performances I do know. There’s a less than
exhaustive discography of Miss Verrett’s recordings here:
http://www.shirleyverrett.com/recordings.htm
None of the obituaries has bothered to mention that Shirley Verrett
worked with Stravinsky at the very beginning of her career, so I’ll
begin with the two studio recordings she made with Stravinsky.
Stravinsky: Oedipus Rex
Shirley Verrett, George Shirley, Donald Gramm
Chorus & Orchestra of the Washington Opera Society
Igor Stravinsky
Recorded January 20, 1961
CBS/Sony
Stravinsky: A Sermon, A Narrative, & A Prayer (1961)
Shirley Verrett, Loren Driscoll, John Horton
Festival Singers, CBC Symphony Orchestra
Igor Stravinsky
Recorded 1962
CBS/Sony
As these performances make abundantly clear, Verrett’s musicality and
ear were above reproach. The Oedipus Rex in particular is spectacular
beyond all imagining, my favorite performance of the work. (This
performance dates from early enough in Mr. Shirley’s career that the
top is produced fairly effortlessly, which wouldn’t be the case
several years down the line. Here he’s a heart breaking and
Italianate Oedipus.) There’s a bad moment in the third movement of A
Sermon, A Narrative, & a Prayer where the various choral lines are
badly out of phase, but the first two movements, which feature
Verrett, are very fine, and recordings of Sermon are exceedingly rare.
Other studio recordings I happen to know well for one reason or
another include:
Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice (Italian version)
Shirley Verrett, Anna Moffo, Judith Raskin
I Virtuosi di Roma, Collegium Musicum Italicum
Renato Fasano
Recorded 1965
RCA
Donizetti: Lucrezia Borgia
Montserrat Caballé, Shirley Verrett, Alfredo Kraus, Ezio Flagello
RCA Italiana Opera Orchestra & Chorus
Jonel Perlea
Recorded May, 1966
RCA
Verdi: Macbeth
Shirley Verrett, Placido Domingo, Piero Cappuccilli, Nicolai Ghiaurov
Chorus & Orchestra of La Scala
Claudio Abbado
1976, DG
The first two of these recordings find the Verrett of the 1960’s in
spectacularly fresh voice, and she turns in characteristically vivid
performances as both Orfeo and Orsini, although I’m not sure these are
the best imaginable performances of Orfeo or Lucrezia Borgia overall,
solid and strongly cast as they are.
I bought the Macbeth at a point in my life when I expected to prefer
it to all the competition but soon came to dislike it. In the end,
Abbado tends to be much more interesting live than in the studio, and,
while this is a rip roaring performance, it is a rip roaring
performance alla maniera d’il Stravinsky neoclassico, crisp and
lacking in Italianità: the lyric slow movements in particular come
across as faceless. Moreover, whatever you think of his voice, which
more or less fits the bill, I don’t find Piero Cappuccilli a
particularly musical or imaginative Macbeth. Verrett is a spectacular
Lady Macbeth and Domingo and Ghiaurov make for ritzy casting in
comparatively small roles. One of the live performances from La Scala
with Verrett and Abbado could be better, but I haven’t heard them.
Here are some live Verrett recordings that have circulated in various
incarnations:
Donizetti: La favorita
Shirley Verrett, Luciano Pavarotti, Sherrill Milnes, Bonaldo Giaiotti
Chorus & Orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera
Jesús López-Cobos
March 11, 1978
Berlioz: Les Troyens
Marilyn Horne (Cassandre), Shirley Verrett (Didon), Giovanna Fioroni
(Anna), Nicolai Gedda, Robert Massard, Boris Carmedi
Chorus & Orchestra of the Rome Opera
May 30, 1969
[This is available in rather good sound on Opera d’Oro.]
Berlioz: Les Troyens
Shirley Verrett (Cassandre), Christa Ludwig (Didon), Mignon Dunn
(Anna), Jon Vickers, Louis Quilico, John Macurdy
Chorus & Orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera
Rafael Kubelik
March 16, 1974
The late 70’s Favorita’s were among Pavarotti’s greatest Met triumphs,
and he is spectacular here in a role ideally suited to his voice and
temperament. Verrett and Milnes are entirely worthy partners.
Like Josephine Veasey and Jessye Norman, Didon for Davis on Philips
and Levine on DVD respectively, Verrett took on both Cassandre and
Didon in Berlioz’s Les troyens, appearing as Cassandre in the belated
Met première of Troyens under Rafael Kubelik in 1973. The 1974
performance above is the Met broadcast from later in the season, and,
if it’s a curate’s egg, I love it nonetheless. (The orchestral
ensemble is less that perfect at more than one point.) A lifelong
crusader for Berlioz’s opera, Kubelik is unfailingly interesting here,
and Verrett’s and Ludwig’s big fat healthy voices are both in good
shape. I have to admit, though, that, as estimable as Verrett’s
incarnations of both Cassandre and Didon are, in the end she brings a
bit more of the rhetoric of Italian opera to the proceedings than I
find absolutely ideal.
At OPERA DEPOT you can download a live performance of Verdi’s Macbeth
with Shirley Verrett, Piero Cappuccilli, La Scala forces, and Claudio
Abbado free of charge. Whether it’s the 1975 or 1979 broadcast that’s
made the rounds I’m not sure. I can’t vouch for the performance or
the recorded sound:
-Tassilo
aesthete8
> On Nov 8, 12:41 am,aesthete8<art...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Any recommendations?
>
> I’m anything but familiar with Miss Verrett’s discography, but I can
> comment on some of the performances I do know. There’s a less than
> exhaustive discography of Miss Verrett’srecordingshere:
>
> http://www.shirleyverrett.com/recordings.htm
>
> None of the obituaries has bothered to mention that Shirley Verrett
> worked with Stravinsky at the very beginning of her career, so I’ll
>
> Stravinsky: Oedipus Rex
> Shirley Verrett, George Shirley, Donald Gramm
> Chorus & Orchestra of the Washington Opera Society
> Igor Stravinsky
> Recorded January 20, 1961
> CBS/Sony
>
> Stravinsky: A Sermon, A Narrative, & A Prayer (1961)
> Shirley Verrett, Loren Driscoll, John Horton
> Festival Singers, CBC Symphony Orchestra
> Igor Stravinsky
> Recorded 1962
> CBS/Sony
>
> As these performances make abundantly clear, Verrett’s musicality and
> ear were above reproach. The Oedipus Rex in particular is spectacular
> beyond all imagining, my favorite performance of the work. (This
> performance dates from early enough in Mr. Shirley’s career that the
> top is produced fairly effortlessly, which wouldn’t be the case
> several years down the line. Here he’s a heart breaking and
> Italianate Oedipus.) There’s a bad moment in the third movement of A
> Sermon, A Narrative, & a Prayer where the various choral lines are
> badly out of phase, but the first two movements, which feature
>
> Other studiorecordingsI happen to know well for one reason or
> another include:
>
> Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice (Italian version)
> Shirley Verrett, Anna Moffo, Judith Raskin
> I Virtuosi di Roma, Collegium Musicum Italicum
> Renato Fasano
> Recorded 1965
> RCA
>
> Donizetti: Lucrezia Borgia
> Montserrat Caballé, Shirley Verrett, Alfredo Kraus, Ezio Flagello
> RCA Italiana Opera Orchestra & Chorus
> Jonel Perlea
> Recorded May, 1966
> RCA
>
> Verdi: Macbeth
> Shirley Verrett, Placido Domingo, Piero Cappuccilli, Nicolai Ghiaurov
> Chorus & Orchestra of La Scala
> Claudio Abbado
> 1976, DG
>
> spectacularly fresh voice, and she turns in characteristically vivid
> performances as both Orfeo and Orsini, although I’m not sure these are
> the best imaginable performances of Orfeo or Lucrezia Borgia overall,
> solid and strongly cast as they are.
>
> I bought the Macbeth at a point in my life when I expected to prefer
> it to all the competition but soon came to dislike it. In the end,
> Abbado tends to be much more interesting live than in the studio, and,
> while this is a rip roaring performance, it is a rip roaring
> performance alla maniera d’il Stravinsky neoclassico, crisp and
> lacking in Italianità: the lyric slow movements in particular come
> across as faceless. Moreover, whatever you think of his voice, which
> more or less fits the bill, I don’t find Piero Cappuccilli a
> particularly musical or imaginative Macbeth. Verrett is a spectacular
> Lady Macbeth and Domingo and Ghiaurov make for ritzy casting in
> comparatively small roles. One of the live performances from La Scala
> with Verrett and Abbado could be better, but I haven’t heard them.
>
Thank you for your quick and informative reply.