Bellini: Norma

This recording enshrines some very variable singing from Souliotis as the eponymous heroine.She can sound uncannily like Callas but there the comparisons should end.Callas is credited with saving much of the Bel Canto repertoire from the so-called canary fanciers voices and in so doing added dramatic colouring to the music.I'm afraid that Souliotis takes that lead ad absurdam,recklessly using her chest register up to Gs,As and even B...and the pressure she puts on the voice, in so doing, is all too audible.Then there is her almost detached head voice piano top notes that don't seem to come from the same voice at all. And yet she can apply herself to the belcanto task in hand and produce a vocal line with little exaggeration and almost integrated registers,but not often enough in my opinion.It is easy to criticise with hindsight but for someone only 4 years into her international career, and young in age, the reckless abandon with which she sings could only have resulted in the hasty decline that occurred, finishing her career effectively within 10 short years.I have no doubt it would have been thrilling in the theatre but recording exposes everything in merciless microscopic detail with the result that even Casta Diva seems to be sung by different voices.Her coloratura isn't always as neat as one might wish for...the net result for me is that she creates a far from pleasant character which is arguably how one should see Norma,but I do prefer rather better schooled singers in this role and it DOES require skill and beauty of voice,things that Souliotis provides in short measure on this showing. No-one could ever accuse Cossotto of underplaying her voice, but in comparison to Souliotis her voice is a homogenous entity,albeit slightly plummy in tone,but with laser like intensity.She matches her colleague in amplitude,top notes and provides quite enough chest tone to give her a run for her money, even if coloratura passages are a bit sketchy.The duets DO go well and seem to bring out the best in both singers.(There are excerpts of a notorious Carnegie Hall performance of the duets with Souliotis and Nancy Tatum around this time where things go very awry!) Del Monaco gets roundly criticised in most of his recordings around this time and yes, for all the thrilling trumpet like top notes, there are many more passages that sound squeezed and none too comfortable-someone once described them as a fortissimo whine and I know what they mean.In his defence he is in his early 50s here and the sound never wobbles-Souliotis is mid 20s and the voice is loosening already sadly.It is doubly sad that the mid 50s recording with Del Monaco and Cerquetti was abandoned as his Meco al Altar shows him in altogether easier and more resplendent voice and would have shown what she was capable of too.The lesser roles are ok though the Orovesco sound a bit woolly to my ears.Varviso keeps the pot boiling and accommodates his singers needs. The recording is abridged with cabaletta repeats sometimes cut-the Schippers Macbeth suffers similarly. The sound is immediate and rarely distorts.I'm glad that it has been reissued as a momento of Souliotis and her meteoric career and I will listen to it when I need a huge dose of drama but it could hardly be a first choice as there is just too much that fails to satisfy on so many levels-each to their own but a very mixed bag.

If you come to this set with preconceptions, perhaps shaped by the almost totally dismissive review in the Penguin Guide, you might be thinking of Santuzza, Turiddu and Mamma Lucia giving Bellini’s elegant score venom and verismo “can belto”. So, go straight to Casta Diva, and you’ll hear instead simply lovely singing. Varviso takes it fairly quickly, which allows Souliotis to float her tone and create the classic long Bellini lines; she has no problems with the high notes, and her lower register blends easily into the higher. Immediately after, she gets around the cabaletta with grace. Later there is plenty of drama, but generally within the confines of classical restraint – closer to Cherubini than Mascagni. This is surely, along with Nabucco, Souliotis’s finest complete opera recording.Cossotto is one of those mezzos like Troyanos in the Scotto set with an easy top as compensation for those who think that the rôle should be sung by a soprano. One is reminded in the youthfulness of her voice that she sang a fine Cherubino in the Giulini Figaro . What is surprising is how close she sounds to Souliotis – their blend in Mira O Norma is excellent – and so the ways in which they are sisters in misfortune in the drama are emphasised.I can’t really offer special pleading for del Monaco. He does loud and arrogant very well, which is arguably right for Pollione, but is less than elegant in the faster parts. Perhaps the best one can say is that he inspires the two ladies to greater dramatic intensity in the same way that he used to galvanise Tebaldi in all their sets together.Oroveso’s part is a little truncated – no great loss, I feel.Nobody would claim that this is the last word in Norma recordings, but when you run through the alternatives, there isn’t a single definitive set. The Scotto, second Sutherland and second Callas all have divas well past their prime. Neither Sills nor Eaglen for different reasons has quite the right kind of voice for the title rôle. The first Callas and first Sutherland have Adalgisas that for all their qualities aren’t right casting. The Caballe and Bartoli sets are short of dramatic intensity. The Souliotis though scores in all these areas. This reissue (very well recorded) has no libretto, but in addition to the synopsis has sympathetic notes on the artists by Peter Bassett, who clearly loves this set as much as I do.

To clear up at the beginning , this Norma is not complete it has many cuts and shortened sections. To some they may say that that is a good thing. This recording has always had its detractors. The main reason being the Norma of Elena Souliotis. She was a dynamic exciting singer on the stage, but her faulty technique caused her career to be sadly cut short. There is no doubt however that she has a way on compelling you to listen to her. She is fully inside the role and brings it vividly to life. Her tone can very from extremely beautiful to harsh and dangerous use of chest voice. Callas/Sutherland/Caballe she is not. Fiorenza Cossotto was one of the greatest of Italian mezzos, and her Adalgisa is one of the finest on record. By 1967 when this recording was made Mario Del Monaco was way past his sell by date for singing Bellini. Unless you are a fan of "Can Belto" he is to be avoided. If its Del Monaco you want best to get hold of the 1955 recording from La Scala with Callas. The recording is in Decca's 1960s high standard, if a little on the bright side. Silvio Varviso opts for pretty brisk tempos, this may be in part to get the recording, together with its cuts on to the original two long playing records as to its normal three. I would not recommend this as a first choice Norma , but for a dynamic singer in the title role and for memories of the brilliant if short career of Souliotis I will keep this set in my collection. Boring it is not.