"MET LEGENDS: Mirella Freni".(Brief Article)(Review)

Mirella Freni [] "MET LEGENDS: Mirella Freni" Arias by Donizetti, Bellini, Puccini, Verdi, Gounod et al. Ferraris, Votto, other conductors. Texts and translations. MET 239

Two new volumes in the "Met Legends" series highlight two beloved singers in special ways. In both cases, the chosen selections come from an eight-year period surrounding the artists' Metropolitan Opera debuts, both during the 1960s, when they were in their early thirties. Each album includes arias not considered central to the divas' legacies: Freni's Lucia and Amina, for instance, and Crespin's Mathilde in an aria from Guillaume Tell. And both legends of song are in radiant, ample voice.

It is nearly impossible to imagine Mirella Freni ever being booed. But Paul Gruber's marvelous notes describe the nasty opening of her La Traviata in 1964 in the Karajan/Zeffirelli production, which provoked a din nearly causing the young singer to abandon her career. The Traviata aria ("Ah, fors'e lui"), recorded just two years later, is delivered with force, limpid pianissimos, and surprising coloratura skill, but it lacks the high E-flat (not required by Verdi) to which audiences have become accustomed. This missing note, while surprising to our ears today, hardly seems cause for cavil. The super-high notes of the coloratura soprano were never part of Freni's arsenal. Though she continued to sing some of the soubrette coloratura repertoire (with the exception of Gounod's Faust and Bellini's Sonnambula, these famous roles, such as her charming Susanna or Zerlina, are not represented on this album), the soprano moved solidly into the liricospinto category and stayed put.

One can see why. Her voice is utterly secure in any dynamic up to the high C. And the way she colors words! When she, as Louise, says that she is "trop heureuse" (on a high B!), one feels the desperation and need of that happiness. When she, as Suor Angelica, realizes that her baby was "morto senza sapere quanto t'amava," one hears the darkness of that realization. Her other maternal excerpt here, as Madama Butterfly, brings out tender colors. But aside from these perfect verismo impersonations, the ...