This disc of early recordings by Renata Tebaldi in Preiser’s Lebendige Vergangenheit series will be a necessity for those among the legions of Tebaldi fans who don’t already have them in previous incarnations. But the appeal of the soprano’s creamy voice and the opportunity to hear her before she won superstar status make it attractive for interested bystanders as well. Of the 15 arias here, the first seven were made in 1949 for Decca with Alberto Erede leading a Swiss orchestra. The rest were made in 1950 and 1952 for Fonit Cetra with La Scala’s band led by veteran Nino Sanzogno (1950) and Antonio Votto (1952).
The voice is beautiful enough to become addictive to the unwary even if the interpretations tend to the bland. Compare, for example, her generic 1950 “Ebben, ne andrò lontana” from Catalani’s La Wally with her later versions, whether studio or live, where the singing has more life and she makes more of the music. Sometimes, as in “La mamma morta” from Giordano’s Andrea Chenier, there’s an acceptable degree of passion but not enough to move us. However, “L’altra notte” from Boito’s Mefistofele finds her more involved as well as in lovely voice. By 1952, when she made Traviata’s last-act cry from the heart, “Addio del passato”, she sounds as wrapped up in the character as she ever got in the studio. But at the same session, Desdemona’s “Ave Maria” sounds like a series of beautiful effects, to the detriment of the emotional impact it should have and did have in her later stereo recording and countless stage performances.
Those who love Tebaldi’s singing (I’ll plead guilty) find that her studio recordings simply don’t reflect the higher temperature of her live efforts. But even in the studio, cool never becomes frigid; she always projects sufficient emotion to refute the stereotypical labels sometimes attached to her singing. Throughout this disc, we get secure high notes with sufficient amplitude to bloom, along with ravishing pianissimos. Even an unstylish, sluggish “Deh vieni non tardar” from Mozart’s Figaro overcomes objections–the brain knows it’s all wrong but the heart says it sounds wonderful anyway. In some of the early Deccas a touch of hardness can be heard in loud high notes, but that may be an artifact of the original recordings, which render the orchestral strings papery and thin. Tebaldi’s recordings, like those of her great rival, Maria Callas, can be a minefield since she went through patches of vocal problems and hung on long past her prime. Here, we have her in youthful glory.
