Pagliacci (RCA Victor Orchestra feat. conductor: Renato Cellini, tenor: Jussi Björling)

by

Ruggero Leoncavallo

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This recording is a must have. Bjoerling is at his vocal and dramatic peak on this recording. All his arias ("Un Grande Spetacolo", "Un tal giocco" "Vesti la Giubba", and "No! Pagliaccio non son!") are all flawlessly sung. Leonard Warren's performance of the sinister Tonio has never been matched. Warren sings the difficult "Prologo" with great ease and aplomb. A virtual voice lesson. De Los Angeles is exquisite as Nedda and her "Qual Fiamma Avea Nel Guardo...Hui! Stridono Lassu (Song of the Birds)" will melt your heart. Another luxury this recording holds is the magificently rich baritone voice of Robert Merrill as Silvio, Nedda's village lover, who sings the treacherously high tessitura of this role magnificently. Renato Cellini does a wonderful job of conducting the RCA Victor Orchestra. Do yourself a favor and make this recording yours. You won't regret it.

I was very excited to find this CD online. Here are certainly 4 of the finest singers (and the superb Robert Shaw Corale) ever assembled to sing one of the most popular operas of the century. De Los Angeles and Bjorling are simply superb in the recording I own of "Madama Butterfly" capturing the gorgeous music AND the drama. But in this "Pagliacci", an opera about sex, love, jealousy, betrayal---passions run amuck & life imitating art on the stage, they are curiously lifeless, as if totally uninvolved in the drama, interested only in producing the proper notes. The sound from the early 1950's is not crisp and clean and compelling. It is almost muffled at times; although the voices sound pretty, they and the orchestra are always unexciting. This is an opera that rises and falls on its DRAMA. And drama, in this recording, is entirely missing. The Nimbus label has put out a recording from the 1930's with Beniamino Gigli. The sound, again, is not great, but at least the cast headed by Gigli is involved in what they are performing. All of the great tenors of our time have recorded the famous aria "Vesti La Giuba" from Caruso to Domingo (even current popular cross-over stars) and alot of them have recorded the entire opera (which is complete on one CD & only about 80 minutes in total.) If you're interested in this prime example of operatic music drama, pick your favorite tenor and choose his recording.