Mozart & Rossini Arias

Recording#

The Mozart and Rossini music common to all three versions of the album was recorded using analogue technology in quadrophonic (4-channel) sound in September 1975 in De Doelen, Rotterdam. The second version’s music from Joseph Haydn’s operas La fedeltà premiata and Il mondo della luna was recorded using analogue technology in June 1975 and September 1977 respectively in the Grande Salle, Épalinges, Switzerland.

Cover art#

The cover of the first version of the album features a photograph of von Stade taken by her first husband, Peter Elkus. (When von Stade and Elkus divorced, he cited his contributions to her album covers in his successful litigation to secure a share of her future earnings. ) The cover of the second version features a photograph of von Stade taken by Mike Evans. The cover of the third version, designed by Netherlands, features a photograph of von Stade taken by Marcia Lieberman.

Reviews#

Alan Blyth reviewed the first version of the album on LP in Gramophone in February 1977. If he were in charge of an opera house, he wrote, he would be eagerly planning a staging of Rossini’s Otello, That was how much he had been enthused by hearing Frederica von Stade’s performance of Rossini’s version of Desdemona’s Willow Song scene. To understand his excitement, readers had only to “listen how her voice runs delicately through the phrase ‘Salce d’amor delizia’ ending with a heartrending diminuendo … or how affectingly she touches in the recitative, or how she rightly allows a little harshness into her lovely tone in the word ’l’ingrato’ or covers it for the Prayer”. These details were no doubt the result of meticulous design, and yet von Stade’s execution of them felt wholly free of artifice. Her characterization of Angelina, the Cinderella of La Cenerentola, was just as vivid a portrait (and based, thankfully, on a modern, scholarly edition of Rossini’s score). The roulades of the opera’s concluding scene were delineated with precision. When the La Scala company had recently brought their production of La Cenerentola to Covent Garden, Lucia Valentini Terrani had presented Angelina’s music with “a fearsome and speedy brilliance”; von Stade, “forgetting and forgiving in her final Rondo”, offered “a tender lightness that is just as winning”. Her “breathlessly amorous Cherubino” had been relished on stage in both America and Europe, and was just as enjoyable on her album. The timbre of her high mezzo-soprano voice was ideally suited to Zerlina. And she sang “expertly and elegantly” in her two excerpts from La clemenza di Tito. The album was also reviewed in The complete Penguin stereo record and cassette guide, which reported that “Frederica von Stade is, as always, magically compelling here, both in vocal personality and in … vocal production”.

Accolades#

The album was nominated for a Grammy award for the best classical solo vocal performance of 1977. Alan Blyth included the album in his 1977 Gramophone Critics’ Choice list of the best recordings of the year.

First and third versions#

Philips LP (9500–098) and PentaTone SACD (5186–158) Gioachino Rossini (1792–1868) Il barbiere di Siviglia, ossia L’inutile precauzione (“The barber of Seville, or The useless precaution”, Rome, 1816), with a libretto by Cesare Sterbini (1784–1831) after Le Barbier de Séville (1775) by Pierre Beaumarchais (1732–1799) * 1 (5:46) Cavatina (Rosina): “Una voce poco fà…Io sono docile” Otello, ossia Il moro di Venezia (“Othello, or The Moor of Venice”, Naples, 1816), with a libretto by Francesco Maria Berio, Marchese di Salsa, after The tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice (?1603) by William Shakespeare (1564–1616) * 2 (13:35) Canzona e preghiera (Desdemona): “Assisa a piè d’un salice…Deh! calma, o ciel, nel sonno” La Cenerentola, ossia La bontà in trionfo (“Cinderella, or Goodness triumphant”, Rome, 1817), with a libretto by Jacopo Ferretti (1784–1852) after Cendrillon, ou la petite pantoufle de verre (“Cinderella, or The little glass slipper”, 1697) by Charles Perrault (1628–1703) * 3 (6:26) Rondo (Angelina): “Nacqui all’ affanno…Non più mesta” Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) Le nozze di Figaro (“The marriage of Figaro”, K. 492, Vienna, 1786), with a libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte (1749–1838) after La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro (“The mad day, or The marriage of Figaro”, 1784) by Pierre Beaumarchais (1732–1799) * 4 (3:05) Aria (Cherubino): “Non so più” * 5 (3:10) Canzona (Cherubino) “Voi, che sapete” La clemenza di Tito (“The clemency of Titus”, K. 621, Prague, 1791), with a libretto by Caterino Mazzolà (1745–1806) after Pietro Metastasio (1698–1782) * 6 (9:27) Recitativo accompagnato e rondo (Vitellia): “Ecco il punto…Non più di fiori” Il dissoluto punito, ossia il Don Giovanni (“The rake punished, or Don Giovanni”, K. 527, Prague, 1787), with a libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte after El burlador de Seville y convidado de piedra (“The trickster of Seville and the stone guest”, ?1616) by Tirso de Molina (1579–1648) * 7 (3:57) Aria (Zerlina): “Vedrai, carino” La clemenza di Tito * 8 (6:30) Aria (Sesto): “Parto, parto…Guardami, e tutto obblio”

Second version#

Philips CD (420–084–2) Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) La fedeltà premiata (“Fidelity rewarded”, Hob. XXVIII/10, Eszterháza, 1781), with a libretto by Haydn and an unknown colleague after L’infedeltà fedele by Giambattista Lorenzi * 1 (1:44) Aria (Amaranta) e recitativo accompagnato (Amaranta, Melibeo): “Per te m’accese amore” * 2 (3:01) Aria (Amaranta): “Vanne… fuggi… traditore!” * 3 (7:18) Recitativo accompagnato ed aria (Amaranta): “Barbaro conte… Dell’ amor mio fedele” Il mondo della luna (“The world on the moon”, Hob. XXVIII/7, Eszterháza, 1777), with a libretto after Carlo Goldoni (1707–1793) * 4 (4:06) Aria (Lisetta): “Una donna come me” Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Le nozze di Figaro * 5 (3:06) Aria (Cherubino): “Non so più” * 6 (3:12) Canzona (Cherubino): “Voi che sapete” La clemenza di Tito * 7 (9:29) Recitativo accompagnato e rondo (Vitellia): “Ecco il punto… Non più di fiori” Don Giovanni * 8 (3:59) Aria (Zerlina): “Vedrai, carino” La clemenza di Tito * 9 (6:27) Aria (Sesto): “Parto, parto… Guardami, e tutto obblio” Gioacchino Rossini Il barbiere di Siviglia * 10 (5:46) Cavatina (Rosina): “Una voce poco fà… Io sono docile” Otello * 11 (13:37) Canzona e preghiera (Desdemona): “Assisa a piè d’un salice… Deh! calma, o ciel, nel sonno” La Cenerentola * 12 (6:30) Rondo (Angelina): “Nacqui all’affanno… Non più mesta”

Musical#

• Frederica von Stade (b. 1945), mezzo-soprano
• Maurizio Mazzieri, baritone (second version, track 1)
• Teresia Rieu, harp (first and third versions, track 2; second version, track 11)
• Bas de Jong, clarinet (first and third versions, track 6; second version, track 7)
• George Pieterson (1942–2016), basset-horn (first and third versions, track 8; second version, track 9)
• Michel Perret, harpsichord (second version, tracks 1–3)
• Pablo Loerkens, cello (second version, tracks 1–4)
• Fritz Widmer, double bass (second version, tracks 1–4)
• Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (first and third versions, tracks 1–8; second version, tracks 5–12)
• Edo de Waart (b. 1941), conductor (first and third versions, tracks 1–8; second version, tracks 5–12)
• Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne (second version, tracks 1–4)
• Antal Doráti (1906–1988), harpsichord and conductor (second version, tracks 1–4)

Other#

• Wilhelm Hellweg, producer

Release history#

In 1976, Philips released the first version of the album on a stereo LP (catalogue number 9500-098), with sleeve notes, texts and translations; a mistake wrongly credited the harpist Teresia Rieu with accompanying Angelina rather than Desdemona. Philips issued the second version of the album on CD only (catalogue number 420-084-2), packaging the disc in a slipcase with a 44-page booklet of texts and translations and notes by J F. Mastroianni. )