100 Singers - MARIANO STABILE

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• published: 31 Jul 2015
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Mariano Stabile, Baritone (1888-1968) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: DON GIOVANNI "Quel casinetto è mio... Là ci darem la mano" / "Fin ch'han dal vino" 03:26 Conducted by Hans Swarowsky / recorded 1951 My personal opinion: In 1954, HMV legend Walter Legge produced the first complete recording of Rossini's IL TURCO IN ITALIA with Maria Callas as Fiorilla. The role of the poet Prosdocimo was given to the 67-year old Italian baritone Mariano Stabile. This meeting of two different singer generations became his last studio recording of an opera, five years later he retired from stage. The old singer's work in this Callas prestige production was well received; always with mild indulgence, considering that the role of the poet is only a small part. But strangely, the DON GIOVANNI under Hans Swarowsky with Stabile in the title role (made only three year earlier) is widely unknown. In this 1951 production, Mariano Stabile was already 64 - seventeen years older than, for example, Gabriel Bacquier who sounds at age 47 in the 1970 recording under Bonynge much older and more stiff. Singers like Giuseppe di Stefano, Nicolai Gedda or Placido Domingo have stressed several times, how much Mariano Stabile's excellent clear diction had impressed them. The Swarowsky DON GIOVANNI is by no means a key recording, but a small miracle in the discography of Mozart's immortal masterwork. Although most of the cast is overwhelmed (especially oratorio tenor Herbert Handt as Ottavio), Stabile as the Don is in surprisingly good voice for a man of his age: Vigorous in "Fin ch'han dal vino", tender and seductive in "Là ci darem la mano" with the lovely soubrette Hedda Heusser, tremendously eloquent in the important recitatives. Of course, it would be nonsense to claim that no indications of the baritone's age are audible. The sound is a little bit fluttering and sometimes the breath is short, but the phrasing is still exemplary. In 1959, the opera connoisseur Lord Harewood named Stabile's voice "a firm and athletic instrument" and called him "the greatest stylist amongsts contemporary Italian singers". Also the English music critic Harold Rosenthal praised the aged singer, namely for the portrayal of Verdi's FALSTAFF - with almost 1200 performances in three decades certainly the signature role of Mariano Stabile. Back in time: Stabile (debut as Marcello 1909 in Palermo) was already known in Italy and some European cities (including Saint Petersburg), when Toscanini decided in 1921 to choose him for the role of FALSTAFF. The young baritone, fat neither physically nor vocally, caused a controversial discussion and great curiosity, but he won the major challenge and subsequently he sang at La Scala the most important Italian baritone roles: Figaro in BARBIERE, Don Giovanni, Malatesta and DON PASQUALE, Iago in OTELLO and Scarpia in TOSCA. He also became a guest at the Salzburg Festival (Don Giovanni under Bruno Walter) and in the new Glyndebourne Festival Opera House (1934 Malatesta under Fritz Busch). London saw him repeating his great success as Falstaff. The Stabile recordings from this period show a voice radically different from the mighty vocal power of his contemporary Titta Ruffo, who has partly sung the same roles. Compared with 'La voce del leone', Mariano Stabile's voice was lean, its force clearly lower. Mockingly a critic wrote about the FALSTAFF performances under Toscanini (1937) and de Sabata (1951): "Fat knight, skinny voice". However, there is a special kind of vividness in Stabile's portrayal, and it shows (at least to me) it doesn't need a fat voice to sing a fat man. The famous "Monologo dell' onore" is a good example. We must admit, sometimes Stabile pretended non-existent vocal material with the help of more powerful expression and sharpened articulation of the consonants. And, to be honest, for Iago's drinking song, Scarpia's "Tre sbirri, una carozza" or Barnaba's "O monumento" (from LA GIOCONDA), he lacked the dramatic weight - even though he was able to compensate something partially with his refine skills for dynamic pronunciations. The, in the proper sense, non-dramatic voice was best placed in non-dramatic (or at least semi-dramatic) music: In Italian Mozart and opera buffa, in which he survived until the very end of his long career. Mariano Stabile was one of those singers, whose impact on the audience unfolded primarily on stage; not without reason contemporary reviewers described him as a "singing actor with graphic expression and witty self-irony". Today we have only his recordings; certainly not enough for a final verdict. What remains is the vague memory of an artist, who was once a star, now surrounded by the mists of the past. A bygone era, sometimes brightened up by old sound documents - in so far as it is possible at all...