Renata Scotto’s Anna Bolena in Philadelphia
“Miss Scotto lives her roles and the standing ovation she received was her just due.”
So said Max de Schauensee, Bulletin Music Critic Emeritus about Renata Scotto’s Bolena on December 16, 1975, at the Philadelphia Academy of Music. Scotto sang only five performances of the opera, three in Dallas with mezzo-soprano Tatiana Troyanos as Giovanna and two in Philadelphia, one of which is captured here on this recording with lyric mezzo Susanne Marsee.
De Schauensee, an outstanding music critic for over four decades with the Bulletin, wrote in a clear, direct style using a critical voice that was truly accurate, but never jaundiced. Readers could always rely on his observations. In talking about the rest of Scotto’s performance, he said, “Most of the excitement centered in soprano, Renata Scotto, who sang the exhausting but rewarding role of Anne Bolyn herself. Miss Scotto worked her way with cumulative power to the final Mad Scene and in that scene she accomplished some very wonderful things. This singer has the inborn instinct for the stage, the robust belief in what she is doing, and an excelling bel-canto style.”
Fortunately the performance was caught on tape in better than average sound from that decade. Miss Marsee’s Giovanna who according to de Schauensee was “unusually effective. She sang with power, reaching the high C with Miss Scotto in their exciting confrontation scene.” Also in the cast was the young bass Samuel Ramey whose vocal finesse was already evident in 1975. Again, de Schauensee’s eyes and ears were so much in tune with what was happening on the stage. “Samuel Ramey, though not suggesting bluff King Hal, nevertheless went through the Holbein stances of Henry VIII. His voice is one of the most superb basses we have heard in a very long time — vibrant, noble in timbre, ample in sound. His Italian diction proved exemplary.” Comments like these accompanied so much of Ramey’s long and distinguished career.
The rest of the cast, more or less, held its own which included tenor Frank Munafo as Hervey, who for many years pleased local audiences with his full, Italianate sound.
As for conductor Julius Rudel, de Shauensee said he was “dynamic as usual,” conducting, “with authority and drive, remembering where to ‘give’ in this bel-canto style.”
I remember it as one of the great evenings at the opera verified by Max de Schauensee’s refined and lucid critique.
Anna Bolena, 16 December 1975, Philadelphia, on Legato Classics LCD175-2
