https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bizet-Carmen-L ... 604&sr=8-1

Sigo haciendo acopio de grabaciones que encuentro baratillas (4,73 euros), para cuando llegue el apocalipsis nuclear-zombi y no haya más remedio que quedarse en casa. No conocía a la soprano belga Lily Djanel, que cantó Carmen con la compañía del Met en 35 ocasiones: se presentó en el teatro neoyorquino con esta ópera (24 de enero de 1942, existe grabación aunque no la he escuchado) y también se despidió del mismo con Carmen (21 de marzo de 1946). Aparte de la función de su debut, también se ha conservado otro broadcast, el del 27 de marzo de 1943, con casi el mismo equipo protagonista (sólo cambia el don José: Raoul Jobin en lugar de Charles Kullman). Paul Jackson reseña la grabación en su libro "Saturday Afternoons at the Old Met" (p. 283):

"The Met Carmen changes little over the next several years. Eventually the baton passes back to Pelletier, Jobin becomes the dominant José, Sved and Valentino play Toreador as Warren moves on to better things. Of the next four broadcasts, only one (27 March 1943) is available to us. We hear a more restrained Beecham on this occasion --the hint of the pell-mell is gone from the first act, and hardly a touch of frenzy penetrates the Gypsy Song until the orchestral peroration. Even in this tour performance (Chicago), Beecham manages to keep the orchestral and choral forces on point (Sir Thomas' third-act smugglers obviously enjoy their work with little tought of danger), and he mixes sensuossness and dash equitably in the ballet music. Unlike Beecham, Djanel has trouble recapturing the juste milieu of her earlier performance. For a good deal of the opera, femme fatale seems emblazoned on her chest; insinuation recedes in favor of broader vocal and dramatic gestures, and now chest tone is often employed to cope with the low tessitura. Yet she is vocally more secure (both the Gypsy Song and the card scene are well controlled), and the finesse of Djanel and Jobin in the recitatives is pleasing. When Don José faces her, knife in hand, Djanel again summons the remembered restraint and strenght that lend Carmen dignity in death.
With Warren the pattern of reversals continues, for he shows a perceptible gain in suavity and espirit, both in vocalism and expression. Perhaps some of Beecham's sophistication has begun to rub off. Now Warren knows enough to be gruff to José, to taunt Carmen -elementary, but missing heretofore. 'Si tu m'aimes' is nicely covered, and his line is elegant. Call it an artistic ripening for the American baritone. Albanese continues to provide the major vocal pleausre of these performances. The soprano was so at home in the verismo idiom that critics are apt to forget how secure was her vocal grounding:all those delicious diminuendi and downward portamenti, her liquid legato, the skillful transition through the passaggio in those ascending phrases which sorely try so many sopranos -these are no ordinary gifts. And in the duet she can suggest the ingénue without loss of timbre. Albanese sang six broadcast Micaelas, and of the three which are preserved, this is the finest (the commercial record of the complete Reiner Carmen made in the early fifties does not capture quite all the charm and vocal skill of the house performances for the forties).
Of the new participants, Lorenzo Alvary's thick, Hungarian-tinged French contrasts with Jobin's native speech in their scenes together, though Alvary has the vocal weight and know-how for Zuniga. As Morales, Mack Harrell is oddily ill at ease -he misses his first entrance, but then this is his first and only Met Morales- a tour duty perhaps. Yet to hear him expand a phrase like 'Que cherchez-vous, la belle?' is make one long to hear his Valentin. Jobin, too, knows how to shape a phrase with elegance ('Parle-moi de ma mère'). His voice losses color in its lower octave, and the Flower Song is rather bleak-toned and businesslike -not enough romance here to tempt Carmen- but his climaxes are always well focused (the end of act three is quite thrilling). When he combines stylistic acuity, command of language, and forceful expression, as in the final act, the impact is far from negligible".

¿qué tal está ese libro?

Me parece un libro muy interesante y para los que somos aficionados a la historia del viejo Met es una mina. No sólo por los agudos comentarios de grabaciones, sino por las anécdotas sobre cantantes, directores, etcétera. Y encima la presentación está muy bien, con bellas fotografías de cantantes, reproducciones de carteles y demás que le sumergen a uno en la época. Paul Jackson tiene otros dos libros sobre las grabaciones radiofónicas del Met: "Sign-Off for the Old Met: The Metropolitan Opera Broadcasts, 1950-1966" y "Start-Up At The New Met: The Metropolitan Opera Broadcasts 1966-1976". También tengo el último, que sigue la línea del arriba mencionado, aunque es más manejable y menos pesado porque está impreso en un papel más fino. Si los encuentra a buen precio -los compré en eBay hace unos meses, por menos de 15 euros cada uno, incluido envío-, no lo dude. En Amazon pueden consultarse algunas páginas del libro, clicando en la portada:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Saturday-After ... ff+old+met

gracias!
me lo anoto para futuras adqusiciones!

Poliuto: Callas, Corelli, Bastianini
Maometto Secondo: Anderson, Zimmermann, Palacio, Ramey
Lucia di Lammermoor: Callas, Karajan
Luisa Miller: Aprile Millo, Placido Domingo, Levine
Macbeth: Callas, de Sabata
Mario del Monaco: The Roman Hero (10 cds)

Ha arramplado usted con las últimas "novedades" discográficas, por lo que veo...

El pack de Del Monaco y las grabaciones de Callas estaban a un muy buen precio.
Y las otras no, pero a vivir que son dos dìas

Espero que utilices sabiamente algún protector auditivo, que el oído no dura para siempre, y bastante nos lo fastidian ya los ruidos de las ciudades.

Sobre el peligro de perversión irreversible del gusto no digo nada, porque cada uno es dueño y señor de sus perversiones (bueno, o las perversiones son dueñas y señoras de cada uno).

En cualquier caso, que lo disfrutes.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gounod-Raoul-T ... t+albanese

Metropolitan Opera House
January 30, 1943 Matinee Broadcast

FAUST {439}

Faust...................Raoul Jobin
Marguerite..............Licia Albanese
Méphistophélès..........Ezio Pinza
Valentin................John Charles Thomas
Siebel..................Lucielle Browning
Marthe..................Thelma Votipka
Wagner..................Wilfred Engelman

Conductor...............Thomas Beecham

Este doble ha sido algo más caro (7,61 euros en eBay), pero es un precio razonable para asistir a una función histórica que además tiene un buen sonido para la época (mucho mejor que el de la Carmen arriba reseñada). Me interesa sobre todo por la Marguerite de Albanese, el Faust de Jobin y el Valentin de John Charles Thomas. Pinza está en buena forma, pero no llega a la excelencia de la grabación de 1940 (Boston) con Wilfrid Pelletier. De Beecham se conserva gran parte de otro broadcast (14 de marzo de 1942), con Charles Kullman como Faust. Paul Jackson comenta sobre la función de 1943 ("Saturday Afternoons at the Old Met", pp. 285, 287):

"When Faust was next heard (30 January 1943), Pinza was back in devils' garb as magnetic and self-assured as ever. Beecham's conducting was far from satanic, but the same adjectives apply (and this time we have a complete performance for confirmation). In spite of most critics' incipient mockery of Gounod's opera, Beecham placed it among the dozen operas that are «the quintessence of lyrical charm and beauty». He readily admittted that Gounod's was not Goethe's Faust («frankly, music does not wed itself happily to philosophy, ethics or political subjects») but championed it for remaining within «the wise and prescribed orbit of the true composer» in that «it makes an appeal to nothing but the sense of beauty in sound». Sir Thomas always did have a penchant for the hyperbolic. Often present in his speech, occasionally it infected his music-making, and there, too, it was something to cherish, as is evident in this performance.
Beecham makes the disparate elements of the prelude and prologue cohere with an easy influency. Throughout the opera he never confuses charm with triviality, and if he lingers overlong in sensuous sound, he provides a counterbalance in the enormous élan of the more animated episodes. He is aided in this by the muscular vocalism of his three male principals -the close of rhe Faust-Méphisto encounter is positively rousing. Jobin's authority and security are positive attributes in the discursive pages of the score (an excellent first act, with many vivid touches) but less salutary in the romantic heart of the opera. Seldom has 'Salut! demeure' received such modest applause. He has little of Kullman's ardor in the duets, though 'O nuit d'amour' is nicely shaped and colored. The prison scene profits by a more ingratiating tone color in the middle voice than Jobin usually commands, and he evidently believes in Marguerite's plight. Of course, he must contend with vocal giants throughout the opera. Pinza has seldom been in better form vocally, and a bit of the brittle ostentation of earlier performances has worn away. Plenty of aplomb and brio remain, however: he is the vocal spendthrift in 'Le veau d'or', and Votipka and he enjoy to the hilt their byplay in the garden scene. Unexpectedly, his suave Serenade falters in the second verse as he and Beecham part company; seemingly unhappy with the tempo, the bass makes a false entrance and loses the beat again at 'Ne donne un baiser'. But there are no Chaliapin grotesqueries; Pinza is a rather subdued tormentor of Marguerite in church and retains his dignity in the final scene. Though the portrayal is grandly conceived, this devil would rather sing than caricature.
Albanese's Marguerite, too, is more fully realized. In the two or three phrases of her meeting with Faust in the Kermesse she signals a greater refinement: her tone and manner are youthful delicacy, and the slef-possesion in these few lines conjures character to an amazing degree. The promise is kept in the garden scene where the voice flows gently in the ballad; how astutely she manages to suggest Marguerite's boredom (a daring conceit, lest the audience take it to heart), coming to life in Marguerite's asides. The Jewel song is quite lively and playful now (still no trill --but then Marguerite-epitomy Fanny Heldy has none, and Melba was still singing Marguerite back then-- and the dynamic stresses are more Italianate than French). Albanese's way is ever to covert any display piece into a dramatic situation, though in this case, when glitter is abjured, the essential artifice of the genre is slighted. She fills the duets with gracefully arched phrases and delightful demitints of liquid tone, including a vault to a pianissimo high A in the 'O silence! O bonheur!' section, one of the loveliest phrases ever to came from Albanese's throat. Beecham all but lets the scene wither -languide comes dangerously close to lethargic. At Marguerite's window the soprano evokes the grand style in phrase and tone, while in church and prison her Marguerite takes on tragic stature, the melodic memories enchantingly recalled in contrast to the assured vigor of 'Anges purs' as she summons heaven's aid.
Singing his first Metropolitan Valentin on this afternoon is John Charles Thomas -it will be the last opportunity his enormous public will have to hear him in opera over the airwaves. A single Valentin in February (plus a tour performance in April) closes a Metropolitan career which numbered only thirty-five performances in New York and eighteen on tour over a period of ten years. He came late to the company, and his inmense popularity in the concert halls and radio shows limited his operatic appearances. Only fifty-one yeas old at his Met leave-taking, Thomas would continue to sing on the popular media for years to come.
Certainly no call to retirement is sounded in his singing on this afternoon. And he is on his best behavior, endeavoring to meld his expansive vocalism and command of French style into a convincing entity. The familiar outpouring of tone and breadth of phrase are modified here and there to produce unexpected subtleties (the quiet close and loving caress to 'Reste là sur mon coeur' just before the aria). The image of radio popularizer and homespun cutup recedes, though he cannot resist a final show of vocal bravado by interpolating a super high A-flat at the aria's close. Thomas proclaims a noble defense as he crosses the devil, and here Beecham energizes the drama most effectively. The brief scene with Siebel, where Valentin learns of Marguerite's disgrace, strikes fire, and Pinza and Thomas meet on equal ground im the trio. The death scene is finely conceived as Thomas offers vocal grandeur free from realistic strangulation, thereby heightening the menace of the curse -a noble exit for the baritone, but lamentably too soon".

Sobre todo si lo comparamos con el precio de las localidades de los teatros actuales, donde se puede ver lo que todos ya sabemos...

Bueno, no sé qué pensará Lord Cacahuete al respecto...

si le gusta Jobin hay en Naxos unos Cuentos suyos de 1948. un tenor muy interesante.

hoy en la fnac tropecé con una seductora oferta de CD's de zarzuela a 4,95€, la gran mayoría del sello Alhambra, otras de BMG, en principio reediciones remasterizadas. así que me dejé llevar un poco...

¡Hala, se va a dar usted un buen festín zarzuelero!...
Ni que decir tiene que ahí malo no hay nada, con mención de honor para "Dogaresa", "Rosa del azafrán" y "Niño judío".
¿La versión de "Marina" es la de Aragall o la de Lázaro?... (Es que no veo bien el reparto). Si es la de Jaume, sobra la soprano. Si es la de Hipólito, no sabra nada.

Bueno, en la de Hipólito falta música y sobran cortes.

Con ese reparto inigualable absolutamente de ensueño, de esa Marina poco me importa que haya algún corte. Lo que grabó Fleta es una selección y es, asimismo, totalmente imprescindible.

Luego ya tiene uno, por supuesto, las versiones con la obra completa, especialmente con el Jorge del Maestro Kraus, mejor evitar la última que la editaron sin su permiso, pero la constelación Capsir, Lázaro, Redondo y Mardones es galática e interestelar.