Price's Aida(s)
MIFrost
In 1961, Leontyne Price recorded her greatest stage triumph, Aida. Nine
years later, she recorded it again. LEIGHTON KERNER argues that neither
recording truly captured Price's opera-house magic
Certain facts of life can be quite discouraging. One such fact for
opera-lovers is that no singing voice, no matter how great, can be
captured accurately on recordings. One can hear the difference of
voices and singing methods between Callas and Tebaldi, Risë Stevens
and Marian Anderson, Tucker and Gedda, Warren and Bastianini, Siepi and
Christoff, but one cannot hear how each of these singers made a
particular theater's walls vibrate in unique ways. If you've heard New
York City Opera bass Norman Treigle only on records, you've never heard
all of him. The engineers presented a mere shadow of his chameleonic
Boito Mefistofele and missed much of the elegant authority of his
Handel Giulio Cesare, which worked well onstage despite editorial
butchery and vocal miscasting (alto or countertenor music sunk down to
bass). Recordings registered about half the organ-diapason that
baritone Leonard Warren could bestow on Verdi. And compared with what
even the pre-Antony and Cleopatra Leontyne Price could achieve with
Verdi in the opera home, some of her records insult her.
One cannot in all honesty, however, blame the Price problem entirely on
the recording process. In her best years, her voice -- a generous lyric
soprano, but not a spinto, as The New Grove Dictionary of Opera
contends (she never really pushed it) -- wasn't truly phonogenic. Much
of her voice's early beauty lay in the air that its well-controlled and
varied power set in vibration. Her first Met performances, in 1961's Il
Trovatore, gave a vivid example: the climactic crests of Leonora's Act
IV aria, "D'amor sull'ali rosee." Even more of a thrill came soon
thereafter, with her first Met Aida. The softly radiant high C and A in
the closing page of "O patria mia" were never again equaled by Price or
by anyone else I've ever heard.
The difference between Price at her best in an opera house or on a
concert stage and the lady on her finest recordings lay, it seems, in
that lack of enhancing air-space, something that the engineers are
powerless to supply. This article results partly from my memory of her
live performances early, then mid-career and late, coupled with recent
hearings of CD reissues of her two recorded Aidas. The first was
recorded in 1961, when Price was thirty-four, at the Rome Opera House,
with Georg Solti conducting that theater's chorus and orchestra and a
cast that featured Rim Gorr, Jon Vickers, Giorgio Tozzi and Robert
Merrill. The second was made in London in 1970, with Erich Leinsdorf
conducting Grace Bumbry as Amneris, Plácido Domingo as Radamès,
Ruggero Raimondi as Ramfis, Sherrill Milnes as Amonasro, the John Aldis
Choir and the London Symphony. And perhaps just to help even the
playing field, the legendary Richard Mohr produced both.
Between 1961 and 1970 came the big bump on Price's career-road: the
1966 Antony and Cleopatra, which inaugurated and nearly crippled the
Met's new Lincoln Center supermarket (thanks to director and designer
Franco Zeffirelli's Egyptological ambitions). More to the musical
point, Samuel Barber told people he had composed Cleopatra's role for
Price's Carmen voice. Having heard that rather foggy Bizet recording,
I'm sure Graham Greene's Harry Lime would have called Barber's decision
"unwise, Sam, unwise."
In view of what both Carmen and Cleopatra did to Price, it seemed easy
to predict how the two Aida CDs would compare, especially considering
how closely the earlier one followed that glorious first Met Aida. But
hold your bets. Without the advantage of a big auditorium, in which the
younger Price thrived, the Solti recording almost never finds her free
of throatiness or slight huskiness, no matter how wonderfully she
arches her phrases and how crisply she utters what Verdi called his
parole sceniche. Then again, the 1970 discs still pour lots of vocal
pea soup but retain some bright phrases from Price, yet with too much
unsteadiness of line.
A scene-by-scene comparison of the two Price performances is useful.
The first scene's trio among the anguished Aida, the jealous Amneris
and the defensive Radamès is Aida's entrance into the opera. In 1961,
Price sang about half as throatily as in 1970, but both sets reveal her
overriding vocal line as properly steady. The steadiness continues in
both recordings during Aida's brief but overwrought interjections of
comment during the big ensemble that follows. With the "Ritorna
vincitor.... Numi, pietà" monologue that ends the long scene, however,
vocal differences become more marked. Right at the beginning, the
smoothness of 1961 wavers with lack of breath-support in 1970. Several
more incidences of deteriorated breath-control can be heard in the
scene's middle section; the occasional brightness of single notes in
the same portion and in the concluding "Numi, pietà" that shows up in
the later performance is twice as bright in the earlier one.
Aida's next scene (Act II, Scene 1) is mainly a duet in which Amneris
tricks Aida into admitting she loves Radamès, the scene ending with
Aida's reprising an abridged "Numi, pietà." In the adagio F-minor
section of the duet ("Ah! pietà ti prendi"), after Aida has stopped
herself from defying Amneris as a disguised princess of equal rank, the
1961 Price has a fine arsenal of vocal detail (grace notes, smooth
phrasing, and so on). But in 1970, breath-support once again keeps
crumbling away in too many long phrases -- except one that soars
wonderfully -- and leaves several groups of delicately graced details
as tiny, isolated and not very useful victories.
In both performances, the ensuing triumph scene gives Our Lady of the
Fog some sunny relief. This is particularly true in the long, glorious
"Ma tu, Re" ensemble, where Price colors a brief but lovely solo
cadenza, and where the biggest climaxes buoy her up to high B-flats and
a quite radiant high C.
But then comes Act III -- the Nile scene -- less than a year but
several weather-changes from that incredible experience when Price
first sang the scene (and the opera) at the Met, in February 1961. On
both recordings, the Egyptian riverbank has acquired Washington, D.C.'s
Foggy Bottom for Our Lady's voice, all the more regrettably in the 1970
version. The earlier recording, however, even with the huskiness, is
still generous in the musical detail of the previous Met performance.
"O patria mia" -- recitative and that whole originally constructed aria
-- still has those softly sustained phrases, the double grace notes,
the gentle stresses, that separate the great Aidas fom their abundant
inferiors. The later recorded "O patria mia" finds Price to be a
surrogate for those inferiors, with that unsteady breath-support more
conspicuous than ever. Yes, there are also those isolated specks of
beauty, including the concluding pianissimo rise to high A, but there
is not enough to save the whole number.
Aida's next scene, with Amonasro, sustains frequent breath letdowns in
1970 that didn't exist in 1961. At some point between the two
performances, Price lost that chilling bar of crisp chest-tone at the
point where she tells Daddy she'll die after just one hour of erotic
joy with Radamès.
Right through her duet with Radamès and their final scene in the tomb,
the same basic situation persists for Price: reliability of long
phrases in 1961, frequent fluttering of fragmented lines in 1970, with
brief, better focused exceptions in the latter. In fact, when Verdi
calls for dolce, it often helps her sustain especially soft notes,
huskiness or no, in both performances and regardless of sostenuto
troubles in 1970.
What you hear on both Aida recordings, but especially the later one, is
this buzz, a kind of husky, foggy quality that was not present in live
performance. Those who were not inside the Metropolitan Opera House in
1961 will never have the chance to experience that breathtaking purity
of sound, the golden quality of Price's voice at its peak.
By Leighton Kerner
LEIGHTON KERNER, a freelance writer based in New York, is the former
classical-music critic of The Village Voice.
david...@aol.com
I rather like Leighton Kerner and used to enjoy reading his columns in
the Village Voice, but I think he greatly exaggerates the
"unphonogenic" character of the human voice. I never heard Leontyne
Price in person, but I've heard countless singers especially at
Orchestra Hall in Chicago, at the Met, and at Chicago Lyric, and . . .
surprise, surprise . . . their recordings sound like them. (My
nomination for least phonogenic instrument would be the piano, not the
human voice.) In any case, Leontyne Price is not the first singer
whose name I would mention in discussing "purity" of vocal production,
and Kerner at least acknowledges the "husky" and "foggy" qualities all
too characteristic of hers.
Kerner should also list the performing forces and labels for the two
studio recordings he's discussing. They are:
Price, Gorr, Vickers, Merrill, Tozzi, Rome Opera, Solti (Decca)
Price, Bumbry, Domingo, Milnes, Raimondi, London Symphony, Leinsdorf
(RCA)
There are also a number of live Met Aida's with Miss Price readily
available on CD on such labels as Myto.
-david gable
jrs...@aol.com
The later Met performance conducted by Levine, on Gala, is even less
flattering than the studio performances. I do think her huskiness may
have seemed like more richness, live.
Still, what's all this talk about "air"? A voice is all air, whether
live or on record.
--Jeff
Ivailo Partchev
and vastly overrated, he is perfectly right, but look how many words it
took him... I can never type that long...
david...@aol.com
>The later Met performance conducted by Levine, on Gala, is even less flattering than the studio performances
I vaguely recall seeing this on the tube but only when it was first
broadcast, so my recollection is worthless. (Was McCracken Radames?)
But this was quite late in Price's career, so I'm not surprised. There
are plenty of Met Aida's from the 60's with her, too.
-david gable
MIFrost
response to them:
* I was puzzled, confused and then slightly angered at some of the
assertions made by Leighton Kerner about Leontyne Price's two
recordings of Aida ["Twice-Told Tale," Jan.]. If Mr. Kerner is a voice
teacher, he missed out on some obvious things. If he is not a voice
teacher, he should not attempt to analyze Price's vocal technique or
make questionable statements regarding technical matters.
He errs when he says a... her voice -- a generous lyric soprano, but
not a spinto ... (she never really pushed it)." She was considered by
most a true spinto soprano -- that is, one able to sing lyrically and
dramatically, who can sing piano especially in the upper register, but
can "easily soar over a Verdian ensemble." The term spinto is not to be
taken literally as an indication of a pushed or forced sound.
Rather than being cutesy and insulting ("Our Lady of the Fog"), Kerner
should have focused on the real reasons for the differences in the
quality of her sound from 1961 to 1970. As the voice gets older,
technical accommodations must be made to maintain the overall
"integrity" of the voice. Although I might agree that Price's
lower-middle register was not the best part of her voice, whatever
problems she had in the post-1970s were not a question of "breath
support." They were conscious technical choices Price made to
accommodate a changing voice, and perhaps even a changing view of the
character.
As one who has studied and taught voice, I would strongly disagree with
his characterizing her voice as "throaty." Husky, perhaps, but throaty?
Never.
One of Jon Vickers's complaints about the 1961 Aida recording is that
Maestro Solti rehearsed the singers so much that when it came time for
the recording sessions, they were all exhausted. If it is true, this
could account for some of the problematic vocalism in that recording
that Mr. Kerner refers to.
Mr. Kerner misses one important point: in the theater, many things that
come from the stage are lost or filtered out once they mix with the
orchestral sound and pass into the acoustic of the theater. On a
recording, the microphone is "in the singer's mouth" and picks up
practically every sound, good or bad.
It seems to be the general consensus that Price's sound, for the most
part, was well-captured on disc. One doesn't always get the magic" of a
live performance from a studio recording. The presence of an audience
obviously makes a difference. This is why such conductors as Bernstein
and Karajan stopped recording in the studio towards the end of their
lives.
Price was a great singing actress, which is what made most of her
recordings so vivid, vocal "problems" aside. Mr. Kerner is certainly
entitled to his opinion. But please don't make it sound as if her vocal
and technical choices were actually vocal problems.
--Willie Anthony Waters
* I am aware of the editorial caveat that "[t]he opinions expressed in
OPERA NEWS do not necessarily represent the views of The Metropolitan
Opera Guild or The Metropolitan Opera." Let me assume then that the
opinions represent those of the editors of OPERA NEWS.
Leighton Kerner's review of Leontyne Price's two recordings of Verdi's
Aida is a new low. The author has disparaged unfairly the recorded
performances of one of the twentieth century's greatest opera singers.
Miss Price's first recording of Aida has been heralded by many critics
as the definitive recording of that opera. Mr. Kerner is entitled to
his opinion. I do, however, take issue with his characterization of her
voice as husky. In more objective times, it was referred to as "smoky."
My issue is not with Mr. Kerner, it is with OPERA NEWS and its editors,
who invited him to write the article. Was its purpose to promote the
historic broadcast of Aida on January 22, or does it have some other
subtext to which we are not privy? Many of my opera-loving friends and
I held our noses as we read it.
--Paul E. Logan
Leighton Kerner replies:
In partial reply to Mr. Waters, whose conducting at New York City Opera
I enjoyed, I am not a voice teacher and wasn't trying to analyze
Leontyne Price's technique, but only to describe, as a close listener,
the results of that technique. I would also remind him that pushing,
which I cannot remember Ms. Price ever doing (that is, giving a note or
phrase an extra charge), is not the same as forcing (the ugly extreme
of pushing), which I doubt she ever did in her life. And as much as I
respect the opinions of Mr. Waters and the other letter writers, I find
I can't change my own.
jrs...@aol.com
Domingo, wth Horne, Morris, and MacNeil too, from 1976. Which of the
1960s performances do you like?
--Jeff
Richar...@gmail.com
both live and on disc was Leontyne Price I found her very plausibly
captured on recordings.
Lately I have found a 1963 MET performance on Myto (Gorr, Bergonzi,
Sereni, Siepi cond by Solti) to be just about ideal from the vocal
standpoint.
MIFrost
How about from the "recorded sound" standpoint, if I might ask?
MIFrost
Richar...@gmail.com
benchmark. I've usually liked the Rome Opera as a studio.
The Myto is probably from a MET broadcast (12/7/1963) and is mono. The
voices sound freely, rarely (but occasionally) compressed, the
orchestra is definitely in a secondary role but comes over clearly
enough. The audience contribution is apparent. Applause, talking,
coughing and justified hysteria after Rita Gorr slams out another high
A are all faithfully captured.
Don't expect a demo-quality Triumphal scene, but if you want to hear
some excellent Aida voices on a roll this is a good release.
Mitchell Kaufman
For me, the 12/7/63 Met broadcast of Aida is one of the greatest
performances of the opera I've ever heard. Price and Bergonzi are on
fire, particularly in the Nile Duet--each of them decidedly superior to
his/her studio recordings; Sereni is fine, if a bit light-voiced. Siepi
is far superior to both Tozzi and Raimondi in the Price sets, and van
Mill in the Bergonzi/Karajan, and even Macurdy's King is first-rate;
Solti gets the Met Orchestra to play way over its '63 head (and he holds
the brass in check here--far preferable to their unruliness in the
studio recording).
As stated, the sound is reasonably good mono FM for the period--not an
audiophile recording by any means, but everything is clear and audible.
I recommend this recording without reservation.
MK
Andrew T. Kay
> One of Jon Vickers's complaints about the 1961 Aida recording is that
> Maestro Solti rehearsed the singers so much that when it came time for
> the recording sessions, they were all exhausted. If it is true, this
> could account for some of the problematic vocalism in that recording
> that Mr. Kerner refers to.
That may well be, but that strikes me as the least of this recording's
problems, with its second- or third-rate orchestra; lumbering,
graceless conducting, and too-prominent brass section squalling and
screeching in the listener's ears at every opportunity (I'm not sure
whether that last should be laid on Solti, the recording balance, or
both). The singers are really the only reason to bother with it. And
even at that, Vickers's line and treatment of the language are anything
but Italianate, and he sounds just to be feeling his way through the
part with little sympathy for the style; Gorr makes her usual ugly
curdled sounds and suggests an imperious dowager more than an alluring,
spoiled young noble, and Tozzi is off-form. At least no one is a bore.
Todd K
Andrew T. Kay
>
> Kerner should also list the performing forces and labels for the two
> studio recordings he's discussing. They are:
>
> Price, Gorr, Vickers, Merrill, Tozzi, Rome Opera, Solti (Decca)
> Price, Bumbry, Domingo, Milnes, Raimondi, London Symphony, Leinsdorf
> (RCA)
?
He listed all of that except for the record labels, as well as the odd
mistake on Rita Gorr's first name.
>> The first was
recorded in 1961, when Price was thirty-four, at the Rome Opera House,
with Georg Solti conducting that theater's chorus and orchestra and a
cast that featured Rim Gorr, Jon Vickers, Giorgio Tozzi and Robert
Merrill. The second was made in London in 1970, with Erich Leinsdorf
conducting Grace Bumbry as Amneris, Plácido Domingo as Radamès,
Ruggero Raimondi as Ramfis, Sherrill Milnes as Amonasro, the John Aldis
Choir and the London Symphony. And perhaps just to help even the
playing field, the legendary Richard Mohr produced both. <<
Todd K
Andrew T. Kay
> If he wanted to say that her second studio recording is not really good
> and vastly overrated, he is perfectly right, but look how many words it
> took him... I can never type that long...
Who vastly overrates the Leinsdorf AIDA? I know a single person on RMO
who loves it, and rarely gets anyone to second him when it comes up,
but I've never seen it listed in print as any reviewer's first choice
or even a noteworthy contribution to the discography. Among commercial
recordings, it's far down the critical consensus list below Perlea,
Muti/EMI, both of Karajans (more so the earlier one, but some of the
British critics swoon over the later one), Solti, Toscanini...maybe
even Mehta and Serafin (Callas/Tucker, that is; not that horror show
from the 1940s with Caniglia/Gigli).
Price's first recording is the vastly overrated one, though not for any
fault of hers. Even if someone likes what Solti does with (to?) AIDA,
the Met performance Mitchell Kaufman recommends is better. At least it
has a stylish and idiomatic Radamès in Bergonzi, and some theatrical
white heat (dreadful chorus, though). The Leinsdorf seems to me
correctly rated, in most assessments I've read -- an also-ran with some
attractive voices, and if one's primary interest in it is Price,
Domingo, or Bumbry, one can do better elsewhere.
Todd K
Richar...@gmail.com
> curdled sounds and suggests an imperious dowager more than an alluring,
> spoiled young noble, and Tozzi is off-form. At least no one is a bore.
Another opinion on Gorr, which I agree with:
"Gorr is, in fact, the only recorded Amneris who can maintain a
perfectly even scale from one end of the role's compass to another,
with no artificial-sounding adjustments of position or breaks between
registers. The imperious, rich sound of the voice, with a gleaming
dramatic soprano top, is wedded to the sort of temperament that can
convey the role's nobility - she can, for example, project the
Judgement scene as a tragic grand gesture rather than twenty minutes of
scenery chewing....There is never a moment where she seems extended;
she does not have to rant, she can merely unloose a flood."
- Conrad L Osborne's survey of Aida recordings from a 1963 High
Fidelity.
Richard Loeb
<Richar...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1129981967.9...@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
And Osborne is exactly right!!!!!! Richard
Richar...@gmail.com
> And Osborne is exactly right!!!!!! Richard
I wish his writings were collected. One of the very best.
Richard Loeb
news:1129986316.8...@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> >
>> And Osborne is exactly right!!!!!! Richard
>
> I wish his writings were collected. One of the very best.
Makes the current crop of so called critics look like jokes. I have all of
his work for High Fidelity -one of the great writers on the voice; also an
actor and author. Richard
>
david...@aol.com
>Which of the 1960s performances do you like?
Wish I knew. I'm not all that much a fan of Price's Aida and haven't
done any comparative shopping. I vaguely recall liking the first
studio Aida with Price more than most people seem to, but it's been
ages. I'm not a big fan of Solti's, but I also don't anathematize him
to the extent that my friend Mr. Kay does. (Then again, he can read.)
-david gable
Richard Loeb
news:1130115358....@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
I think the first Price Aida is actually one of the very best - she is in
her very best voice with a healthy, spinning top; she intuitively has
wonderful feel and sympathy for the character, the various emotions and
conflicts inherit in the character of Aida elicit the best replies from her
and the problems with the bottom register are not as bad as they were to
become. I have come back to that set often both for her and the magisterial
Gorr. Richard
>
jrs...@aol.com
Do you prefer any of the live broadcasts to her first studio recording?
--Jeff
Richard Loeb
news:1130120611.5...@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com...
Yes the 63 set from the MET already mentioned is very, very exciting - also
I'll take Bergonzi over Vickers. Richard
>
Andrew T. Kay
> I think the first Price Aida is actually one of the very best - she is in
> her very best voice with a healthy, spinning top; she intuitively has
> wonderful feel and sympathy for the character, the various emotions and
> conflicts inherit in the character of Aida elicit the best replies from her
> and the problems with the bottom register are not as bad as they were to
> become.
I second all of this with respect to Price's performance. The set never
has been and probably never will be a favorite of mine, but having her
in freshest voice in the role has been reason enough for me to keep it.
She's at least *as* good on the Met performance we've discussed (the
one with Gorr and Bergonzi), but the sound on that, while not bad
considering its provenance, is not up to commercial-recording quality.
> I have come back to that set often both for her and the magisterial
> Gorr.
But here, I do have to part company with you, Richard, and C L Osborne
(although I join both of you in adoring his writing, even when I can't
second the judgments). Of those who sang the role complete and left us
their interpretations for posterity, I much prefer Stignani, Barbieri,
Simionato, Bumbry, and Cossotto (the last is my favorite Amneris,
especially with Gencer/Bergonzi/Capuana and Caballé/Domingo/Muti). I
also prefer Baltsa and Fassbaender, though I know intellectually that
Gorr was far better equipped than they to sing it.
Todd K
MIFrost
Mitchell Kaufman wrote:
>
> For me, the 12/7/63 Met broadcast of Aida is one of the greatest
> performances of the opera I've ever heard. Price and Bergonzi are on
> fire, particularly in the Nile Duet--each of them decidedly superior to
> his/her studio recordings; Sereni is fine, if a bit light-voiced. Siepi
> is far superior to both Tozzi and Raimondi in the Price sets, and van
> Mill in the Bergonzi/Karajan, and even Macurdy's King is first-rate;
> Solti gets the Met Orchestra to play way over its '63 head (and he holds
> the brass in check here--far preferable to their unruliness in the
> studio recording).
>
> As stated, the sound is reasonably good mono FM for the period--not an
> audiophile recording by any means, but everything is clear and audible.
>
> I recommend this recording without reservation.
>
> MK
I don't see it at any of the usual web sites I frequent. Would you
happen to have a link to it? Thanks.
MIFrost
Andrew T. Kay
If you go to the MDT site and enter "Price Solti Aida" in the keyword
search box, it's the first item on the list. Myto is the label; MDT's
"1962" is incorrect (one year off).
Todd K
MIFrost
Andrew T. Kay wrote:
>
> If you go to the MDT site and enter "Price Solti Aida" in the keyword
> search box, it's the first item on the list. Myto is the label; MDT's
> "1962" is incorrect (one year off).
>
> Todd K
Thank you.
MIFrost