“A te la mala Pasqua!” April 8, 2007

And a happy Easter to you, too! 😉

From a October 23, 1961 Tokyo performance of Pietro Mascagni’s Cavallleria Rusticana, conducted by Giuseppe Morelli and starring Giuletta Simionato, perhaps the greatest Italian mezzo of the last hundred years. Simionato had recorded the role seventeen years earlier under the composer’s baton, in what remains one of my favorite opera recordings of anything, ever. Here, she may be old enough to be Mamma Lucia, but what a voice!

The staging is not bad — I like the church on one side of the stage and the “Vino” sign on the other — but I prefer the Zefferelli staging where the chorus goes into the church and sings from offstage as the “fallen woman” Santuzza prays alone.

Immediately followed by “Voi lo sapete, O Mamma”. The Mamma Lucia is Amalia Pini.

Technorati tags:Cavallleria Rusticana, Pietro Mascagni, Giuletta Simionato, Amalia Pini