Licia Albanese

The Italian born, American soprano enjoyed a mammoth Met career and the endorsement of Toscanini. Both are understandable on the evidence of this attractive collection. — BBC Music Magazine, August 2008, 4 out of 5 stars

Release Date: 7th Jul 2008
Catalogue No: SBT1414
Label: Testament

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Puccini: Vissi d'arte (from Tosca)

Licia Albanese (soprano) & Robert Merrill (baritone)
RCA Victor Orchestra
Frieder Weissman, Dick Marzello, Jean Morel, Victor Trucco

Puccini: O mio babbino caro (from Gianni Schicchi)

Licia Albanese (soprano) & Robert Merrill (baritone)
RCA Victor Orchestra
Frieder Weissman, Dick Marzello, Jean Morel, Victor Trucco

Catalani: Ebben? Ne andrò lontana (from La Wally)

Licia Albanese (soprano) & Robert Merrill (baritone)
RCA Victor Orchestra
Frieder Weissman, Dick Marzello, Jean Morel, Victor Trucco

Cilea: Io son l'umile ancella (from Adriana Lecouvreur)

Licia Albanese (soprano) & Robert Merrill (baritone)
RCA Victor Orchestra
Frieder Weissman, Dick Marzello, Jean Morel, Victor Trucco

Leoncavallo: Qual fiamma avea nel guardo!.... Hui! Stridono lassù (from I Pagliacci)

Licia Albanese (soprano) & Robert Merrill (baritone)
RCA Victor Orchestra
Frieder Weissman, Dick Marzello, Jean Morel, Victor Trucco

Verdi: Ave Maria (from Otello)

Licia Albanese (soprano) & Robert Merrill (baritone)
RCA Victor Orchestra
Frieder Weissman, Dick Marzello, Jean Morel, Victor Trucco

Mozart: Batti, batti, o bel Masetto (from Don Giovanni)

Licia Albanese (soprano) & Robert Merrill (baritone)
RCA Victor Orchestra
Frieder Weissman, Dick Marzello, Jean Morel, Victor Trucco

Mozart: Giunse alfin il momento... Deh, vieni, non tardar… (from Le nozze di Figaro)

Licia Albanese (soprano) & Robert Merrill (baritone)
RCA Victor Orchestra
Frieder Weissman, Dick Marzello, Jean Morel, Victor Trucco

Massenet: Allons! Il le faut pour lui-même!... Adieu, notre petite table (from Manon)

Licia Albanese (soprano) & Robert Merrill (baritone)
RCA Victor Orchestra
Frieder Weissman, Dick Marzello, Jean Morel, Victor Trucco

Charpentier, G: Depuis le jour (from Louise)

Licia Albanese (soprano) & Robert Merrill (baritone)
RCA Victor Orchestra
Frieder Weissman, Dick Marzello, Jean Morel, Victor Trucco

Villa-Lobos: Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5: Aria and Dança (Martelo)

Ária (Cantilena) Adagio & Dança (Martelo) Allegretto
Licia Albanese (soprano) & Robert Merrill (baritone)
RCA Victor Orchestra
Frieder Weissman, Dick Marzello, Jean Morel, Victor Trucco

Tchaikovsky: Puskay pogibnu ya 'Tatiana's Letter Scene' (from Eugene Onegin)

Licia Albanese (soprano) & Robert Merrill (baritone)
RCA Victor Orchestra
Frieder Weissman, Dick Marzello, Jean Morel, Victor Trucco

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“One of the most delicate, sighing, judiciously used women’s voices one might ever hear.” That was the verdict of the tenor Giacomo Lauri-Volpi, writing in his fascinating study of the leading singers of his time, Voci parallele (Bologna ed. 1977). “Licia Albanese,” he says, “would move on stage purposefully, with precision, painting her tones with careful control of her means and a clear perception of their end”. Audiences were captivated by an effect of modesty, simplicity and tenderness but behind that effect was a solid mastery of her art. He, the senior artist, is full of admiration. But he has a warning: we should not suppose that these fixed, fossilised, mummified objects we call records can convey the individuality, the true character of such singers. So: caveat emptor. Lauri-Volpi had his own way of putting things (that adjective ‘sighing’ surprises us, not so much in itself as in its placing, second among the primary characteristics of the singer he is describing, and one may well object that records, however ‘fixed’, can at least sing to us, which is more than fossils and mummies can do). There is still something in what he says. He is thinking of Albanese’s particular kind of art: that delicate, ‘sighing’ quality which he hears inwardly, summoned up in a memory that is visual as well as aural and which is scarcely to be ‘fixed’, held still. Its essence lies in the moving, breathing individual. He speaks of her strong intuitive faculties. She knew what she was going to do next, vocally and dramatically – but what the audience experienced was the sense of an assured spontaneity. In the theatre you felt that her singing and her movements might take any number of forms: in a recording it will always take one. The living being is caught, pinned-down, captured; and that’s not the way she was.

Extract from the booklet note John Steane, 2008

Reviews

August 2008

The Italian born, American soprano enjoyed a mammoth Met career and the endorsement of Toscanini. Both are understandable on the evidence of this attractive collection.

Licia Albanese

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