June Anderson, Nicola Rescigno, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo - Vincenzo Bellini: Opera Arias (2022)

×

June Anderson, Nicola Rescigno, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo - Vincenzo Bellini: Opera Arias (2022)

Close

Bellini suits June Anderson surprisingly well: 'surprisingly' because her voice is bright and her manner somewhat impersonal and unyielding very much the opposite of sopranos like Selma Kurz and Galli-Curci, or in later days Montserrat Caballe, who could make the cantilena of ''Qui la voce'' and ''Ah, non credea mirarti'' a thing of ethereal tenderness and limpid purity. Yet the Sonnambula aria and a similarly sad and lovely solo from I Capuleti e i Montecchi are among the most satisfying items here. In both of them a prime virtue is that of the well-drawn line, closer to (say) dal Monte and Pagliughi than to Sutherland. She is also, if not exactly imaginative, at least sensitive in her handling of the phrases, and there is no hardening of the sort that with many Italians (dal Monte among them) makes one flinch at the approach of high notes. Not that there are many moments (any indeed?) when something in the singer's special way with the music catches at the heart or lodges in the memory. When Amina the somnabulist comes out of her trance, for instance, there is no sudden lighting up of the voice-face; and when Beatrice sings her strong and brilliant cavatina the expression is non-committal, with nothing much to distinguish the proud aristocrat from the simple country-girl of La sonnambula.
Still, her resources, both technical and natural, are impressive, and show themselves to better advantage, I would say, than in her other recordings to date. Scale-work and staccatos are normally immaculate. The high notes, right up, on this record, to the E flat and, in the Paris live recital with Alfredo Kraus, two sustained and unforced high Es in ''Bel raggio'', are unfailingly brilliant.