Search - Puccini, Shumskaya, Kozlovsky :: Madama Butterfly

Terribly Disappointing, not up to standard of the other Russ

Paul E. Hartman | Los Angeles | 02/08/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I bought this with the enthusiasm created after being blown-away by the passionate inspired singing on the Russian "Faust" with Kozlovsky-Shumskaya-Reizen (on Walhall), and the delightful fun of "Barber of Seville" with Kozlovsky-Firsova-Burlak-Reizen (also new on Gala). Alas, this Butterfly is a huge disappointment. Besides some annoying cuts, and Shumskaya transposing high notes down early on, even the lesser roles are inadequately sung (the Sharpless is particularly poor). The sound transfer is adequate, but with more suface hiss than is probably necessary, but generally clean and full bodied.

The conductor, Bron, however, is no more than adequate. The performance as a whole sounds too calculated, studio-bound, and never catches the fires of inspiration to carry away the listener at any point. Shumskaya is no match for the likes of Callas or Toti dal Monte in the arias, and is below par throughout. Even the sublime Kozlovsky is not his usual vocally imposing self (like he is, for example, in "Werther" and "Faust", or any of the classic Russian operas, e.g. "Sadko").

My recommendation: Steer clear of this recording, and stick with Callas or the old Gigli/dal Monte.

NOTE: All of these 1940-1950's Russian recordings of the classic operas by NON-Russian composers are sung in Russian, NONE in the original languages. If you are a language-purist, then none of them will be of interest to you (but I believe you would be missing out on some glorious singing!). For those of you unsure of whether to try out the Italian or French or German operas sung in Russian, I would recommend sampling the "Faust" first."