Wednesday 28 December 2011

Tristan und Isolde Covent Garden 1937


Flagstad and Melchior on stage in Act 1 of Tristan
In the summers of 1936 and 1937 EMI engineers made numerous recordings of live performances at Covent Garden using twin turntables so as to capture complete operas. Very little of what was recorded was issued commercially at the time, though some of it has subsequently appeared either on LP or on CD. The very last recordings made were two complete recordings of Tristan und Isolde conducted by Thomas Beecham on June 18th and June 22nd as Technical Tests 6547 and 6548. The subsequent history of these recordings is complex and it seems likely that neither now exist complete. In 1992 when EMI themselves issued a CD of a Beecham Tristan from 1937 it became apparent that they no longer had a complete copy of the original discs since more than half of what they issued came from the Reiner recording from 1936. Yet there have been several issues of a ‘complete’ Beecham Tristan from 1937, most recently on various small ‘pirate’ labels all of which have disappointing over-processed sound, and clearly a complete Beecham Tristan can be compiled from the surviving elements of the two performances. One possible explanation for the lack of a ‘proper’ remastering by a skilled engineer is that the two performances used different Kurwenals and Branganes, another is that the original discs (beyond what EMI have) quite probably no longer survive and working from an inferior LP source could be discouraging. Personally I would still like someone to have a go! 
This is what seems to survive:
Act 1 – 68 minutes from June 18th performance, final 6 minutes from June 22nd performance. The transition from one performance to the other is skilfully done and this edit exists on all issues of act 1 suggesting it was done by EMI engineers back in 1937 perhaps to compensate for a broken or damaged disc. The only way to tell is that the Kurwenal for the final five minutes is Schoffler not Janssen. I have split the files by date but if you want to hear a musically complete act 1 then just play the 22nd June act end after the 18th June file.
Act 2 – both the 18th and 22nd June recordings of act 2 are complete – the 18th is taken from the EMI masters that still exist.
Act 3 – first 10 minutes from the June 18th performance, from the EMI masters, and a complete recording from June 22nd.
For this upload of the two incomplete performances I have used the EMI master transfers where they exist, the others come from LP issues that, to my ears at least, sound better than currently available CD issues that vary between the muffled and the ‘frying pan’. The LPs have quieter and cleaner surfaces than the CD issues and while not as quiet as the EMI masters and rough around the edges at times they are more than listenable to. I have uploaded them as flac files rather than as mp3 in this instance.
As to the performances, I think these perhaps capture Flagstad and Melchior at their finest. Beecham seems to get more out of these singers than either Reiner (his tempi are certainly quicker), or Bodansky (who conducted the contemporary Met performances). Rarely has the music been sung better and I don’t think the two principals have ever been so well matched.

Conductor Thomas Beecham
June 18th and 22nd 1937
Orchestra - London Philharmonic Orchestra
Chorus - Covent Garden

Tristan - Lauritz Melchior
Isolde - Kirsten Flagstad
Brangaene - Margarete Klose (18th) / Karin Branzell (22nd)
Marke - Sven Nilsson
Kurwenal - Herbert Janssen (18th) / Paul Schoffler (22nd)
Melot - Booth Hitchin
Hirt - Octave Dua
Steuerman - Leslie Horsman
Stimme eines jungen Seemanns - Parry Jones

https://rapidshare.com/files/1111977871/22JuneAct3.flac

Tuesday 13 December 2011

Tristan und Isolde Covent Garden 1951

 Here is the final quarter of an hour of Tristan from Kirsten Flagstad's last live broadcast of the opera, in London in 1951. The complete opera was broadcast but it does not seem to have survived. All that now exists are the last fifteen minutes, featuring the famous liebestod, and Flagstad's power and command of the role are clear for all to see. She would, of course, return to London to record the entire opera for EMI in the summer of 1952, but here we have a glimpse of the full splendour of her performance on the stage, after 4 hours of singing.  The sound is bit crackly, being an aircheck of the radio broadcast, but clear enough. 

 



https://rapidshare.com/files/106685213/1951Tristan.mp3

Tristan und Isolde - 29 May 1951



Covent Garden Opera Company
Venue: Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London


Conductor Clemens Krauss


Cast
Young Seaman
Edgar Evans
Isolde
Kirsten Flagstad
Brangäne
Constance Shacklock
Kurwenal
Sigurd Bjorling
Tristan
Set Svanholm
Melot
Geraint Evans
King Mark
Norman Walker
Shepherd
David Tree
Steersman
Rhydderch Davies
Sailors, Knights, Courtiers, Servants
The Covent Garden Opera Chorus

The Covent Garden Orchestra   

Saturday 3 December 2011

Madama Butterfly Metropolitan Opera 1947

James Melton as Pinkerton
Metropolitan Opera House
December 13, 1947 Matinee Broadcast


MADAMA BUTTERFLY

Cio-Cio-San.............Licia Albanese
Pinkerton...............James Melton
Suzuki..................Thelma Altman
Sharpless...............John Brownlee
Goro....................Alessio De Paolis
Bonze...................Melchiorre Luise
Yamadori................George Cehanovsky
Kate Pinkerton..........Irene Jordan
Commissioner............John Baker

Conductor...............Giuseppe Antonicelli


This was the standard cast for Madama Butterfly at the Met, Albanese, Melton and Brownlee appeared in the broadcasts of this opera in 1946 and 1950, and both Albanese and Brownlee appeared in other broadcasts as well. James Melton was perhaps best known in the 1930s as a radio star but he moved successfully into opera in the 1940s performing at the Met between 1942 and 1950 in roles such as Alfredo, Tamino, Don Ottavio, Edgardo and Wilhelm Meister in Mignon. It was as Pinkerton that he made the greatest impression however, and as the picture illustrates, his looks certainly helped.
The recording is taken from a noisy aircheck and has side breaks and missing music but a large part of the opera was preserved. 
https://rapidshare.com/files/389971878/1947Butterfly.zip