You can’t win them all, and neither, apparently, can Chandos’ Opera in English series. In general I am a fan: Though not particularly fond of opera in the vernacular, I think Chandos mostly does well by its translated operas–and the casting often is very good. Here, the whole affair seems, well, foreign, and the casting is problematic. Best is Yves Abel’s leadership of the orchestra, which sounds wonderful, imbuing Puccini’s lush score with just the right exoticism and emphasis, and his tempos are invariably just right for the moment.
But the singers are not right. Paul Charles Clarke is not an Italian tenor–and I mean that, of course, stylistically, rather than nationalistically. While his sound can be full, it lacks flavor, and he never sings with anything like real morbidezza. He’s also far too literal, straightforward, and insensitive–for the life of us, we can’t figure out what there is to like about him, even for a desperate Geisha. Gregory Yurisch is a good Sharpless, singing his words clearly and obviously involved in Butterfly’s plight and Pinkerton’s caddishness.
But about the Butterfly: Cheryl Barker, from what I gather, has been around for a while, and she sounds it. The top of the voice is under strain and never pretty, and while she has the power and feeling for the big second-act climax (the sighting of the ship), she never for a moment sounds fragile or girlish, not even in the all-important early scenes. Her death scene is loud and fraught with emotion–but where’s Butterfly? She sings the part intelligently and can be moving, but she never is Cio-Cio-San; she’s a relatively good soprano who has recorded the role. English or not, this set isn’t in the running.
