With many fine recordings of this opera starring the likes of Janet Baker, Beverly Sills, Joan Sutherland, Montserrat Caballé, Leyla Gencer, and Edita Gruberova available, we might wonder why another is needed. In truth, it isn’t, and while this one has some good things going for it, it isn’t nearly as good as any of the ones starring the six ladies mentioned above. However, this recording uses a new, critical edition of the score that has a different opening chorus, an alternative melody for the cabaletta to Maria’s first aria, and some new material in the first-act finale. It’s interesting to hear, but it doesn’t make this set any more necessary.
Some of the performances are quite fine. Sonia Ganassi, as Elisabetta, impresses me more here than she has either live or on other recordings. She sounds truly bitchy as the angry Monarch, her coloratura is clean and expressive, and her timing and exclamation of the text are admirable and effective. Similarly, tenor Joseph Calleja’s Leicester is fine-sounding; he has no trouble with the punishing D-E-F-G-A tessitura, and he sounds involved and manly whether he’s pleading or angry.
Less good is Carmela Remigio’s Maria, the crucial role. Her voice is adequate and so is her agility, but she’s temperamentally far too cool for the part–even Sutherland sounds more formidable–and she doesn’t win us over to her plight. Baritone Riccardo Zanellato occasionally impresses as Talbot, but he also seems less passionate than he ought to and does not help the pivotal confession scene with Maria in the last act. The Orchestra and Chorus are both good enough, though the former could use another handful of players. Conductor Fabrizio Maria Carminati is kind to his singers and keeps Donizetti’s rhythms crisp. This is certainly not a first–or third–choice among Stuardas.
