Music

...On the other hand, Renata Tebaldi in the London ffrr recording (XLLA-36) of Turandot is truly stunning...

...It is one of de Falla's early works, written before he went to Paris, and is much less sophisticated than some of his later writing...

...Again, the wonderfully eerie music that Verdi uses to re-introduce the witches is shattered by a bouncy ballet which couldn't be further from either Shakespeare or Scotland...

...It is...

...First presented last season with an electric performance by Phyllis Cur-tin in the title role...

...Here in New York, the New York City Opera Company has revived a number of rarely heard operas over the years...

...It is sad that Puccini didn't live to finish it, because his friend Alfano, who completed the all-important scenes in which Turandot becomes human, could not rise above the conventional in his treatment of the lovers...

...Besides, the singers won't have to learn any new music...

...But Puccini was at his best in this score, which has plenty of subtle and evocative melody even though it lacks those great melodic floods that allow the singer to step to the footlights and belt out high A's to the claque in the second balcony...

...Recently, too, a few adventuresome groups have begun to stage some of these neglected works, and have found that audiences like them...

...In the main, however, the score would be considered a masterpiece from a lesser man...

...This last, unfinished work bristles with difficulties for the singers, and the story contains elements of blood-thirstiness and arch humor that are, to say the least, imperfectly blended...

...Of course, many smaller European opera houses do have long seasons and big repertoires, and, with the tremendous boom in LPs, many works that are strange to American opera-goers are being recorded and released over here...

...Verdi succeeds admirably in communicating the dark, tortured emotions of both Macbeth and his lady...

...Perhaps some of them deserve their obscurity, but surely many remain unproduced simply through apathy or laziness, the theory being that it's easier to use the same old sets and costumes for another Faust than to go dig up new ones for a Pearl Fishers or a Hans Heiling...

...The most satisfying is Puccini's fiendishly difficult Turandot...

...Its current season boasts stunning productions of four, all well worth hearing...

...Another joy at the City Center is Verdi's Macbeth...

...It's unfortunate that the City Center performance has not been recorded, because Jose Iturbi conducts with verve and obvious authority...

...And if you can't see them on the City Center stage, there are recordings available...

...There are a few spectacular lapses, as in the first act when Macbeth's brooding over the witches' prophecy is interrupted by what sounds like the carabinieri band, come to tell him that the first part of the prediction is fulfilled...

...Most people know the ballet —or at least the "ritual fire dance," which is on a dozen or so records, the best by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops...

...But La Vida Breve is relatively unfamiliar...

...Here the music is simple and warm, and the effect is heightened by the contrast with the almost unrelieved brutality of the earlier parts of the opera...

...Tebaldi the chance to sing the part in this country...

...The singer's loss is the audience's gain, for we get a sustained musical picture that almost perfectly captures the barbaric ferocity of the libretto...

...Floyd's transplanting of the Biblical story to the hills of Tennessee is an important contribution to American opera...

...Carlisle Floyd's Susannah...

...The music has strong overtones of Puccini at his most lyrical, but there is a serenade that is exquisite, not to mention a dance in the second act that makes the fire dance seem hackneyed...

...A hit last year and this, it should have been recorded long ago...

...Puccini catches his characters almost perfectly without having to resort to cliches of motif writing...

...Although it is not top-flight Verdi, it has a number of thrilling moments, especially in the sleep-walking scene...

...The performance of Macbeth by the chorus and soloists of the Vienna State Opera (Urania 220) is only so-so, but it's still worth your listening time...

...The most effective moment comes in the first part of the third act when Liu (conceived as the embodiment of all the softer human qualities) sings her great suicide aria...

...I also wish that at least one of the record companies would make it possible for non-New Yorkers to hear the City Center's most unusual production...

...in fact, such a wonderfully exciting record that I wish somebody would give Mme...

...There is, however, an excellent RCA Victor recording (LM-6017) on which a sensitive cast headed by Victoria de los Angeles gives the opera its full due...

...If your appetite has been whetted, you can also hear Macbeth and Turandot on your hi-fi...

...A lesser work, but interesting nonetheless, is Manuel de Falla's La Vida Breve, which City Center has coupled with his ballet El Amor Brujo...