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Ivan
Petroff sings great baritone arias: Pagliacci,
La Favorita,
I Puritani, Rigoletto,
The Barber of Seville, Macbeth.
Excerpts
from the complete Rigoletto recording.
The
Remington Capuana recording relesed in 1955 found its equal in the 1952
recording of Aida on LXT 2735/6/7 with Renata Tebaldi, Mario del Monaco,
Ebe Stignani and Aldo Protti with Chorus and Orchestra of the Academia
di Santa Cecilia, Rome under conductor Alberto Erede
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It is remarkable that 
Don Gabor made
recordings of complete operas available on his Remington label. It
shows that he had a full blooded catalog in mind. Some ready recordings
were bought. There are at least two Remington recordings which appeared
on the Allegro-Royale label as well: La Bohème and La Traviata.
Remington
opera recordings were made in Italy except for that one Madame Butterfly
with Daniza Illitsch, Ratko Delorco, Hildegard Rössel-Majdan,
and conductor Wilhelm Loibner; the one with the unknown conductor
Hans Doehrer directing Weber's Der Freischütz with Karl Heinz
Tuttner, Karl Duffek, Dora Paludan, and Hanni Löser;
there is a Cosi fan tutte with Erna
Hassler, Hetty Plümacher, Käthe Nentwig, Albert Weikenmeier,
Karl Hoppe, Joseph Dunnwald conducting; and there is the La Bohème
3Lp recording with Illitsch, Delorco, Dutch singer Theo Baylé
and Loibner conducting. If they were not produced by
Marcel
Prawy, it was certainly Prawy who obtained the tapes, although
Don Gabor himself traveled to Europe on several occasiona to negociate
deals.
The
new MUSIRAMA opera recordings were all of Italian origin but now produced
by
Laszlo
Halasz, former director of the New York City Opera Company, who,
after his resignation, became Recording Director of Remington Records
Inc. Naturally he knew many venues, artists and conductors. His first
production was Turandot. In several cases Robert Blake is mentioned
as recording engineer.
But the early Remington catalog started with a complete Rigoletto.
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With
most of the operas, Remington supplied a libretto for one dollar
extra. The librettos were bought from various publishers. Sometimes
the name of the record company and the reference number of the
release were printed on the cover.
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RLP-199-58/60
Verdi: Rigoletto
Orlandina Orlandini (soprano), Lidia Melani (mezzo-soprano), Gino
Sarri (tenor),
Ivan Petroff
(baritone), Mario Frosini (bass), Edio Peruzzi (bass), Rina Benucci
(mezzo-soprano), and conductor Erasmo Ghiglia. Released in 1952.
Warren De Motte says in his Long Playing Record Guide: "Remington's
forces know their way around this score. They perform without distinction,
albeit with competence and the recording is fair." And C.G. Burke
wrote a Verdi discography in High Fidelity Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 1
(Summer 1951). He starts by describing the dramatic introduction and
other elements of the story and finds the Remington performance quite
fascinating. He continues with his views on the Remington issue, which
he calls "the small item of $6.57".
"Glib though it be, the melodrama has a great horror whose
effect is more forceful on records than in the theatre, its action
requiring expedients deterrent to credibility and productive of
titters individuous to tragedy. This is strong, energetic and
inventive Verdi, sharper at characterization than in any previous
work, lyrical but grim, and expertly descriptive. The astonishing
opening scene, with the corrupted splendour of the Renaissance
indicated to perfection by the simplist means while the excitement
of an awful foreboding grows, is one of the most vivid quarter-hours
in theatrical music; and the last act, whose culminating staged
horror is too pat and too contrived, is just the same convincing
in the music which describes it.
Malignantly obfuscating the sober excercise of judgement is the
small item of $6.57. This and the quality of the Remington Rigoletto
himself, Ivan Petroff, argue powerfully in Remington's favor.
Everything else is in Victor's favor, despite some good singing
by Orlandini and Sarri for Remington. (...) The subsidiary singers
for Remington are less than impressive; the orchestra is smaller
and less expert to a degree that permits pretty culpable vagaries
from wind-players. The direction is less symphonic; there are
some background noises: there is microphone tumult now and then,
particularly on Side 5. And yet the complete impression is of
a lively projection of the music. The sound is clear and solid
in a wide range of cycles and dynamics, and the even superficial
hissis easily overcome with very little musical loss by use of
a noise suppressor. (...) If the Victor version did not exist
we should be grateful for this one; and many people with $6.57
are going to be grateful anyway." - G.C. Burke, 1951
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Vassilka
Petrova
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Special
printing of the libretto was done for REMINGTON RECORDS by Publisher
G. Ricordi & Co., New York 20 N.Y.
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R-199-62/3
Puccini: Tosca
Vassilka Petrova, Eddy Ruhl, Pierre Campolonghi, Duilio Baronti, Melchiorre
Luise. Orchestra of the Maggio Fiorentino and Chorus of the Teatro
Communale and conductor Emilio Tierri.
This recording was listed in the 1952 Remington catalog but did not
appear in the catalog issued by Remington in 1953, though the set
is evaluated by Warren Demotte in his 1955
The
Long Playing Record Guide and receives the following criticism:
"Remington's poor performance and unbalanced recording do not
even have a relatively low price as compensation, for the opera is
on three records against the two of any other company's issue, with
the exception of Westminster." The Westminster recording - Argeo
Quadri conducting - was the most expensive on the market. Winner was
of course the Maria Callas/De Sabata set on Angel / His Master´s
Voice.
R-199-74/2
Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana
Vassilka Petrova, Eddy Ruhl, Ivan Petroff, Rina Benucci, Lidia Malani.
Orchestra of the Maggio Fiorentino and Chorus of the Teatro Communale
and conductor Erasmo Ghiglia. Released in May 1952.
Laura Homonnay-Demilio
evaluates:
I've been collecting opera recordings for over thirty years,
since my mid-teens. Even at the risk of compromising sound
quality, there was always something compelling about the ambiance
of particular older recordings, and I'm not just referring
to the historical 78's, both acoustical and electric, in the
archives, but to the early mono LP recordings as well.
The long
play record came into being during the summer of 1948, introduced
by Columbia (although there have been some versions of 33
1/3 rpm since before 1930, actually introduced by Victor,
nothing was commercially feasible for the recording industry
market until after the second World War, due to economics
or otherwise). RCA Victor was a little slow to jump back on
the bandwagon, introducing, instead, 45 rpm records on small
disks and not conceding to LP's until a year later, so that
in 1949 and early 1950 Columbia predominated with complete
opera sets. However, right at the same time, other record
companies in the immediate era sprang up with generally low-budget
offerings on their labels. By 1951 all major American record
companies and a lot of long-obscure and defunct ones had opera
sets on LP. Some examples:
Columbia
- Columbia, Parlophone and Pathé in Europe;
Entré - an American budget label reissuing Columbia's
complete opera sets from the days of early electric 78's,
1927-1932;
RCA Victor - His Master's Voice in Britain and Europe
with their Historical Series, also re-releasing their earliest
electrical complete opera sets; later they also owned Camden,
an offshoot of RCA in the United States;
Cetra - from Italy, known as Cetra-Soria in the United
States due to distributor;
American Decca - licensing the Deutsche Grammophon
catalog;
London Records - Decca in Great Britain;
Westminster
Urania - with many recordings made in Germany.
And of course there was Remington and the other Gabor
labels Plymouth and Merit.
Note:
Towards the 1960's, even more labels came out, Mercury, Angel/EMI,
Nonesuch, Turnabout (part of the Everest-Cetra conglomerate
in later years), Capitol, Seraphim, Victrola (these last three
were budget Victor lines, the last label also featuring recordings
of historical interest), Richmond (budget London).
The only
two Remington opera sets I own were both recorded in 1951:
Cavalleria Rusticana and Tosca. What they have
in common, besides their year of release, are the principal
singers: Edward Ruhl and Vassilka Petrova.
Despite accusations of "second rate" orchestration,
the Cavalleria Rusticana, especially, is performed
with such heart that it seems an unfair shot to call it second
rate. If some of the singing leaves much to be desired by
its principals - all of the singing as far as Petrova is concerned
- the chorus is acceptable and there's a certain verve and
brio in the orchestra, however crudely emitted in the rendition
on discs pressed from inferior material.
Edward Ruhl's voice has a muffled, bottled quality
to it, but I've certainly heard worse tenors, many of them
big names. A listener can relax with Ruhl's average performance
and not find any particular glaring fault with it, but Vassillka
Petrova's presence in this recording goes beyond her being
no doubt an inexpensive hire. She sounds like a bad Zinka
Milanov, and Milanov, who never had a particularly beautiful
voice, was painful to listen to when she was well past her
prime, in the late 1950's; every listener wonders why RCA
Victor couldn't pair the eminent Jussi Bjorling with a better
Tosca in the 1957 studio recording.
Petrova was referred to as a camp artifact in Paul Gruber's
The Metropolitan Opera Guide to Recorded Opera (W.W.
Norton & Company, New York 1992), and any listener can
understand why. Glamorous photos of an obviously attractive
young woman on the covers of both opera albums only give rise
to the "What! Was she only chosen for her looks?"
speculation. If Petrova can squawk her way through a painfully
strident "Voi lo sapate, O Mamma," and the "Tu
Qui, Santuzza" confrontation duet with Ruhl's Turridu,
her Easter Hymn is a trial to listen to.
Take the
"a" off Petrova and replace the "v" with
"ff" and there's a listenable Alfio by baritone
Ivan Petroff. Somehow this version of Cavalleria manages
to not only go forward, but keep a listener's attention as
far as interest in the performance which has "Touring
company level" as Warren DeMotte calls this set
in his 1955 Long Playing Record Guide. Yet it still has more
soul, personality, and feeling to it than any post-1980 digital
CD production, where jet-setting performers record in different
studios and the recordings are anonymously mixed by engineers.
On the
Remington "Tosca" Ruhl gets by acceptably,
but the orchestration is a little less forceful. Campolonghi's
Scarpia is as good as many on the major studio releases; he
acquits himself very well in this performance: menacing, firm-toned,
and robust. The recording is worth his voice alone. If he's
not Leonard Warren or Ettore Bastiannini, it's still a better
listen than Tito Gobbi's, who was marvelous to watch in films
and a great master at characterization, but still left a little
to be desired in always keeping entirely in tune - or having
a particularly attractive voice.
If a gutsy,
coarse, verismo Santuzza is acceptable on Cavelleria
Rusticana, so that a lot of the squillante can be excused
for dramatic effect, on Tosca it is indefensible. Tosca, after
all, is supposed to be an operatic performer. Gutsy isn't
even a factor in Petrova's singing. There is no bottom to
her voice; her lower register fades out, unsupported, as badly
as her high notes. In several instances, most notably when
she is heard singing off-stage "performing for the Queen",
while Scarpia plots in his office, she entirely misses her
ascent, so that it comes out a strangled, truncated bark.
This has been referred to as The Tosca From Hell, a party
item, and other epithets by snickering cultists, and there's
no denying it. Because of the languor and apparent disinterest
in the orchestra's playing, one eagerly waits for this Tosca
to end, after getting through the aghast hearing of Scarpia's
murder, which is not to be missed - the faded-sounding struggle
to regain breath control, the incapacity to even spew a hair-raising
"Quest' il bacio di Tosca!" which every soprano
on her outs can manage to muster.
I wouldn't
miss owning these Remington recordings for the world. I intend
to collect more - to be taken back into the world of nearly
60 years ago, the dawn of long-play records, the struggle
for often even less than steady footing in the market by obscure
and bargain/budget record companies, compels and enchants
the listener, harkening back to an era that will never be
resurrected. - Laura Homonnay-Demilio
(USA)
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The
cover of the recording with vocal highlights of the recording
of La Boème on Remington R-199-104
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R/199-80/3
Puccini: La Boheme
Daniza Illitsch, Ratko Delorco, Hildegarde Rössel-Majdan, Ruthilde
Boesch, Theo Baylé, Marion Rus, Georg Oeggl, and Emil Siegerth.
Austrian Symphony and Chorus, Wilhelm Loibner.
R-199-81/3
Puccini: Madame Butterfly
Daniza Illitsch, Ratko Delorco, Hildegarde Rössel-Majdan, August
Jaresch, Jovan Gligor, Emil Siegerth. Austrian Symphony and Chorus,
Wilhelm
Loibner.
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Libretto
published by
Edwin F. Kalmus, New York, N.Y.
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R-199-98/3
Verdi: La Traviata
Frances Schimenti, Arrigo Pola, Pierro Passerotti, Virgilio Stocco,
Loretta di Lelio, Walter Mona Chesi, Anna Marcangeli, Carlo Platania,
Opera Rome, Luigi Ricci conducting. Chorus master in Giuseppe Conca.
The Allegro-Royale reference number is 1544/1545.
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Picture
above is of Frances Schimenti.
At
left the Allegro-Royale disc with highlights from La Bohème
with the same cast as on the Remington issue.
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R-199-99/3
Puccini: La Boheme
Frances Schimenti, Giacomo Lauri-Volpi, Mafalda Micheluzzi, Giovanni
Ciavola, Victor Tatozzi, Enzo Tita, Pierro Pazerotti, Teatro dell´opera
Roma, Luigi Ricci, conductor. The same recording was released on 3
discs on the Plymouth label, reference P-42-3.
Biographical
details of the singers and the conductors were always scarce and more
often not available. The Allegro Royale release with highlights of
La Boheme gives the follwing briographical information:
Frances Schimenti, young American lyric soprano, debuted
(...) with the Cincinnati Opera Company as Micaela in Carmen.
Immediately thereafter she was engaged by the San Francisco
Opera Company where she sang a variety of major lyric parts.
Her New York debut was effected at Carnegie Hall, where she
appeared as Violetta in Traviata, Mimi in Boheme and Marguerita
in Faust with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. An engagement
with the San Francisco Opera Company followed with over 20 performances
at 8 different roles, starting with Boris Godounoff with Ezio
Pinza in the little part. Miss Schimenti then went to Rome,
where she was heard in Teatro dell'Opera as Mimi and Violetta.
Today she is recognized as the possession of one of the finest
soprano voices in the world.
Giacomo
Lauri-Volpi has been known as one of the world's foremost
tenors since his debut at the Teatro Contanzi in Rome in 1915.
Lauri-Volpi came to the Metropolitan in the 1922 season and
in the ensuing decade sang a total of 39 major parts in over
500 performances. Since his return to Europe he has appeared
with colossal success in all major opera houses. Today at 63
years of age, he is still known as the foremost tenor of Europe
and is singing regularly at La Scala and other major European
opera houses.
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R/199/100-3
Weber: Der Freischütz
Karl Heinz Tuttner, Karl Duffek, Dora Paludan, Hanni Löser, Alfons
Kral, Kurt Wehofschütz, Austrian State Symphony, Hans Doehrer
conducting.
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The
libretto was translated into English by Ellen A. Lebow. Bernard
Lebow wrote the program notes for this edition. The cover was
designed by Alex Steinweiss. |
R/199/117-3
Mozart: Cosi fan tutte
Erna
Hassler (soprano), Hetty Plümacher (contralto), Käthe Nentwig
(soprano), Albert Weikenmeier (tenor) , Karl Hoppe (baritone) and
Joseph Dunnwald conducting the Stuttgart Tonstudio Orchestra.
This performance
of Cosi fan tutte was listed in Schwann of July 1952 as a release
on the Period label, reference PLP 555. In Great Britain
this recording was first published on the Nixa label with the
same reference in December 1952. Period 555 was the first complete
Cosi fan tutte available on LP in the US. Half a year later, in December
1952, Columbia presented the 1952 Metropolitan Opera production conducted
by Fritz Stiedry and sung by Eleanor Steber and Richard
Tucker on SL-122. Apparently Columbia made haste to release the
recording. The three record set of Period as well as the Columbia
were expensive. The Period set probably did not sell too well. It
was announced in 1952 that Don Gabor bought the performance made in
Stuttgart from Period. Gabor bought the plates as well and used them
for the Remington discs. In the January 1953 edition of Schwann
Long Playing Record Catalog both the Period 555 and the Remington
R-199-117/3 box sets are listed. This could be a mistake made by the
publisher. Or it was a condition of the sale that the Period set would
be mentioned as there were still a number of copies in stock.
The Nixa set from Great Britain was reviewed by Alec Robertson,
music editor of The Gramophone (December 1952 issue):
"This is a good average performance of Cosi fan tutte,
with plenty of spirit but not much sense of style. One has only
to compare the numbers recorded by the Glyndebourne cast (...)
to see the artistic deficiencies of the present set. I should
except Hetty Plumacher from this criticism : her voice is of
lovely quality and she has a keener perception of the style
required than her companions. Erna Hassler has some good moments
but her shrill top notes prejudice the success of her two arias
and in general she is at her best in the concerted numbers.
Karl Hoppe and Franz Kelch are adequate and Käthe Nentwig
is a lively Despina. I did not care much for Albert Weikenmeier's
voice, which is that of the typical German tenor, and he is
most acceptable when tingeing softly.(...) The orchestral playing
lacks distinction and is not helped by peculiarly dry recording.
(...) It is fair to say, I think, that this issue would have
been much more acceptable had greater care been taken over the
engineering, a matter which is all the more urgent where there
is little action but a continuous succession of static numbers
requiring intimacy, sensitivity and variety of sound."
- Alec Robertson.
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R-199-169/3
Puccini: Turandot
Gertrude Grob-Prandl, Antonio Sprùzzola-Zola, Norman Scott,
Renata Ferrari-Ongaro, Angelo Mercuriali, Mariano Caruso, and Marcello
Rossi. Franco Capuana was conducting the 'Teatro la Fenice'
(Venice Opera Company). Recorded in the summer of 1953 under the supervision
of Laszlo Halasz.
Critic James
Hinton Jr. of High Fidelity Magazine wrote:
"The main thing in favor of the Remington Turandot set are
modern engineering and good orchestral performasnce at an attractively
low price - and, oddly, extremely good casting in the minor roles
of Ping, Pang and Pong. Otherwise it is flawed. On paper, Gertrud
Grob Prandl (...) looks like an asset. In actuality she is disappointing.(...)
Antonio Spruzzola Zola, is nobody in particular (...). Norman
Scott sings a very fine Timur. (...) The Remington is a hodgepodge
of the good, disappointing, and practically incompetent. Still,
it is well recorded, and it is cheap, and it is Turandot.
- James Hinton Jr.
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R-199-175/2
Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana
Teresa Apolei, Pina Geri, Antonio Spruzzola Zola, Piero Campolonghi,
Letizia Del Col and the 'Teatro la Fenice' conducted by
George Sebastian.
This set replaced the earlier recording of conductor Erasmo Ghiglia
with Vassilka Petrova, Edward Ruhl, Ivan Petrov and Benucci.
R-199-178/3
Verdi: Aida
Mary Curtis, Oralia Dominguez, Umberto Borso, Ettore Bastianini, Norman
Scott, Enzo Feliciati (on label and box wrongly spelled as Felicitati),
and Uberto Scaglioni. Franco Capuana conducting Orchestra and
Chorus of the 'Teatro la Fenice'. Released in 1955.
Steve Slezak
who maintains The Collector's Vault and did a program on the Remington
"Aida", was researching information and found that Umberto
Borso added Radamesto his repetoire on Feb. 25, 1954. So, the Remington
recording was probably done before his actual stage assumption of
the role.
This is in accordance with the mention in Billboard magazine of July
1953 were it says that Laszlo Halasz was in Venice to make opera recordings
for Remington. So the recording was made in the summer of that year.
In 1955 Dutch
opera critic Leo Riemens reviewed this recording and compared it to
the Decca LXT 2735-37 from 1952 in the Dutch monthly record magazine
"Luister...". He concluded that the Remington AIDA was as
good as the Decca (London) recording:
"Surprising is how the voices, with this "Musirama"
hi-fi recording system, remain separated. In Verdi's most complicated
ensemble every voice can be followed individually."
"Remington
best conductor and recording. Decca the best Aida and sound
direction. Remington the best Amneris and Amonasro. Decca a
somewhat better Radames. Both equally good basses. Even without
considering the price categories a real surprising result."-
Leo Riemens
- "Luister...", February, 1955.
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R-199-200/3
Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor
R-199-200/3 - Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti) with Orchestra
and Chorus of the "La Fenice" Theater in Venice. Renata Ferrari Ongaro
(Lucia); Giacinto Prandelli (Edgardo); Filippo Philip Maero (Enrico);
Norman Scott (Raimondo); Tosca Da Lio (Alisa); Uberto Scaglione (Normano);
Luigi Pontiggia (Arturo).
There was an entry in a Schwann Artists edition which wrongly mntioned
Laszlo Halasz as the conductor.
The set with reference number R-199-200/3 was released in the fall
of 1956 and listed in November's Schwann Catalog of that same year.
The conductor was
Jonel Perlea.
Rudolf
A Bruil - Page first published December 18, 2008
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