Puccini - Madama Butterfly / New master (Renata Scotto, Carlo Bergonzi - ref.rec.: Sir J.Barbirolli)

Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) - Madama Butterfly Opera .
Act 1
Click to activate the English subtitles for the synopsis (00:00-03:31)
00:00 E soffitto .. E Pareti
02:14 Questa è la cameriera
04:10 Che Guardi .. Se Non Giunge Ancor La Sposa
06:51 Dovunque al mondo
10:58 Quale smania vi prende
14:40 Ecco! Son Giunte Al Sommo Del Pendio
18:47 Gran ventura
22:35 L’imperial commissario
22:57 Vieni, amor mio
28:44 Leri son salita tutta sola
30:31 Tutti Zitti! .. E Concesso Al Nominato
33:25 Ed eccoci in famiglia
37:04 Bimba dagli occhi pieni di malia
39:12 Viene La Sera
41:03 Quest'Obi Pomposa
43:00 Bimba Dagli Occhi Pieni Di Malia
46:46 Vogliatemi Bene, Un Bene Piccolino
49:51 Vini, Vieni .. Via Dall'Anima In Pena

Act 2
Click to activate the English subtitles for the synopsis (54:45-57:10)
54:45 E inzaghi ed izanami
57:21 Suzuki .. E Lungi La Miseria
1:01:52 Un bel di vedremo
1:06:28 C’è entrate
1:10:14 Ah Sì. Goro, Appena B. F. Pinkerton Fu In Mare
1:12:56 Si Sa Che Aprir La Porta
1:16:00 Ora a noi
1:19:00 Qui Troncarla Conviene
1:21:59 E questo ? E questo ?
1:24:15 Che tua madre dovrà
1:27:13 Lo scendo al piano
1:28:50 Vespra ! Rospo maledetto
1:30:35 Una nave da guerra
1:33:01 Scuoti quella fronda di ciliegio
1:38:07 Or vienmi ad adornar
1:43:43 Coro a bocca chiusa (Humming Chorus)
1:47:12 Introduzione
1:55:00 Già il sole
1:57:16 Chi Sia .. Zitta! Zitta!
1:59:50 Lo so che alle sue pene
2:03:42 Addio, fiorito asil
2:05:38 Galileo dirai ?
2:08:41 Tu, Suzuki, Che Sei Tanto Buona
2:13:17 Come una mosca prigioniera
2:16:23 Con onor muore

Madama Butterfly (Cio-Cio-San) : Renata Scotto
Suzuki : Anna di Stasio
Lieutenant B.F. Pinkerton : Carlo Bergonzi
Kate Pinkerton : Silvana Padoan
Sharpless : Rolando Panerai
Goro : Piero de Palma
Il Principe Yamadori : Giuseppe Morresi
Il Bonzo : Paolo Montarsolo
Il Commissario Imperiale : Mario Rinaudo

Coro e Orchestra del Teatro dell’Opera di Roma
Conductor : Sir John Barbirolli
Recorded in 1966, at Roma
New mastering in 2021 by AB for CMRR
Find CMRR's recordings on Spotify : https://spoti.fi/3016eVr

**Full comment: see the first pinned comment.**
Scotto was 19 when she sang her first Butterfly, in Savona in 1953. It was a role she took to instinctively, as the distinguished pre-war soprano Mafalda Favero instantly recognised. Favero taught Scotto how to sing dramatic lines without forcing the voice, but she also issued a warning quarried from personal experience: "Be careful. The role is a killer. Remember that you have to know your strength and that you can't waste any of it because you will need it all to say farewell to your life and your child in the last act."

Critics seeking a bel canto Butterfly have occasionally expressed reservations about Scotto. Writing in the Metropolitan Opera Guide to Recorded Opera (London, 1993), London Green countered: Hers is a splendid voice for Butterfly: lyric, full, mobile and forward, with an inimitable flavour and an ability to penetrate the orchestra by means of colour and focus. The lower voice is uniquely shadowed without being dark, the very top is a little wiry, and it all retains a distinctive quality which suggests the Oriental.

The genius of the reading lies in the detailing. At the heart of the performance is the letter-reading scene and Butterfly's revelation that she has a son by Pinkerton. At first, Scotto is the excitable child, but the remark in Pinkerton's letter "perhaps Butterfly does not remember me" draws from her a response which in Scotto's enunciation marries barely suppressed amusement with anger, pain and incredulity. When Sharpless advises her to accept Yamadori's offer of marriage, her uttering of the word "Voi?"("You?") is alone worth the price of the recording.

Scotto takes the death scene to new heights, holding the ritual and individual elements in an ideal balance, The phrase "muore Butterfly", in which she tells her child that she is about to die, is marked to be sung "with a weeping voice" but, as Scotto has pointed out, no singer can actually afford to weep. Her shaping and timing of the phrase (incomparably supported by Barbirolli) is deeply touching, but it is almost immediately surpassed by her even more affecting enunciation of what is arguably the most heart-rending phrase in the entire opera: "Il materno abbandono".

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