Jessye Norman (Medora), Montserrat Caballé (Gulnara), José Carreras (Corrado), Gian-Piero Mastromei (Seid), Clifford Grant (Giovanni), John Noble (Selino); Am-brosian Singers, New Philharmonia/Lamberti Gardelli Philips 426 118 [2CD) 94 minutes

Katia Ricciarelli (Medora), Angeles Gulin (Gulnara), Giorgio Lamberti (Corrado), Renato Bruson (Seid), Maurizio Mazzieri (Giovanni), Guido Fabbris (Selimo); La Fenice/Jesus Lopez-Cobos GDS 21034 [2CD] (Qualiton) 115 minutes

Il Corsaro was a product of what Verdi later referred to as his "galley years", the decade after his first successes when he struggled to keep up with a flood of commissions. One of them was for an opera to be produced in London, so he proposed the subject of Byron's romantic poem The Corsair and entrusted the libretto to Piave, who had written I Due Foscari for him, based on Byron's play. Verdi was satisfied with Piave's libretto and started work on the opera, but other commissions had to be filled first- Attila, Macbeth, I Masnadieri and Jerusalem, the French version of I Lombardi - and he did not return to Corsair for almost three years. By then his enthusiasm for the subject had waned, and he completed the score hurriedly and sent it off to Lucca, the publisher-producer, with a letter telling him to do what he liked with it. The opera was produced at Trieste in 1848. Verdi did not attend the premiere which was not a success - and showed no interest in it later, either.

Despite his summary dismissal of Corsair, it is an interesting early-Verdi work. Piave had managed to extract a practical operatic scenario from Byron's feverish narrative poem; and though by the time he got around to completing the score Verdi found the libretto old- fashioned, he set it to music conscientiously, without demanding any textual changes. The score reflects his rapidly developing musical style; solo passages and choruses hark back to the simple manner of Ernani and Foscari, but the surging ensemble finales echo Macbeth and there are fascinating anticipations of Trovatore and Traviata. The tenor and baritone have genetic hero and villain roles, and there are two sopranos. Medora, Corrado's beloved, is the ostensible heroine of the piece, but in Nave's realization she appears only in the first and last acts, and for practical reasons Verdi assigned the role to the seconda donna. Gulnara, Seid's slave, who kills her cruel master and rescues Corrado, became the prima donna role. This unequal distribution of the female roles, as much as anything, may account for the opera's lack of success in the theater.

On records, it matters less. For the Philips recording in 1975, Jessye Norman was cast as the innocent maiden Medora and though it would hardly have been a suitable stage role for her even at that early stage of her career, she sings it credibly enough. The high, light passages of fioriture give her a little trouble, but her warm, lower register is effective in the ensembles, particularly the grand final trio. Gulnara's music is wide-ranging and florid and Caballé is hard- pressed by the bravura passages and many high Cs, but she sustains the lyric lines gracefully. Carreras's tenor was a beautiful instrument in 1975 and he sang with rare intelligence and sensitivity for one so young (he was not yet 30). This is one of his finest recordings. Mastromei sings stalwartly as Seid but can do little to animate this cardboard villain. The chorus and orchestra are thoroughly professional, but Gardelli seems unable to inspire his musical forces to anything more than a conscientious reading of an unfamiliar score. Philips gives us a thick album book with a fine essay by Julian Budden and the libretto in four languages.

For a theatrically alive realization of Corsaro we must turn to a 1971 performance at Venice, con-ducted by Jesus Lopez-Cobos. The sound from an in-house tape is a bit raw and there is considerable audience participation, but the orchestra and chorus are enthusiastically involved in what they are doing. Lamberti's capable Italian tenor encompasses Corrado's music efficiently. Bruson blusters through Seid's melodramatic outbursts but sustains the high baritone line impressively. Ricciarelli seems to have been a late replacement as Medora. The opera opened on March 2 with another soprano, and Peter Maag conducted early performances. (There are tapes of these.) Apparently there was considerable shuffling of personnel at the La Fenice that spring, for who knows what artistic or contractual or promotional reasons. Ricciarelli was just beginning her operatic career at the time and she is a sweet-voiced and suitably naive-sounding Medora. Angeles Gulin is every inch the Prima Donna as Gulnara a big, vibrant, dramatic voice, a real Verdi soprano. Gulin seems to have had a short career and this is the only recording I know of her. She is worth hearing.

GDS offers the libretto in Italian only, and fills out the second disc with selections from a Met Lucia of 1969 with Bruson and Anna Moffo. The sound is muffled, Bruson is bombastic, and Moffo is in dreadful voice.

Copyright © 1991 Record Guide Productions.