VERDI: Otello.(Review)

VERDI: Otello

[] Carbone, Beltacchi; Fusati, Granforte, Girardi, Palai, Zambelli, Spada; Orchestra and Chorus of La Scala, Sabajno. No text. Opera d'Oro OPD-9005 (2)

This may not be one of the great recordings of the century, but it does document a historic achievement: the first complete Otello on disc. As such, it preserves an always interesting, vital, stylistically authentic performance assembled with forces of La Scala in 1931-32. The sound, though dry, is amazingly clear, and at least one impersonation, the Iago of Apollo Granforte, is virtually definitive. Too bad Opera d'Oro provides only a perfunctory synopsis -- no biographical information, no temporal context, no libretto. One has a right to expect a bit more these days, even from a budget label.

Carlo Sabajno, a veteran of many La Scala wars, was long considered an enlightened routinier, something of a baton hack. This Otello marks him as something more than that: a precise and propulsive yet hardly insensitive conductor influenced, no doubt, by Toscanini. Certainly, there are passages where one might want a little more breathing space for dramatic rumination, even for vocal indulgence. Still, Sabajno's quest for momentum, his refusal to sentimentalize and, not least, his abiding concern for dynamic fidelity remain distinct virtues in the cool light of ...