I have posted these excerpts from Roberto Devereux, Carnegie Hall, 1965 as a response to all the positive or negative feedback to both Met's Devereux featuring the soprano Sondra Radvanovsky in the leading role and the Genova one, where the leading soprano is Mariella Devia. The Met's poor presentation of the Tudor trilogy did not come as a surprise to me. With the exception of the great Catalan tenor, Celso Albelo, none of the singers from the cast has any noted belcanto achievements. The revival was mainly done for the leading soprano, S. Radvanovsky, who was a major disappointment; ones defend her saying how difficult is to sing these roles, how tired she was, how sick she was; others condemn her for the poor performance, but the truth is that she could never cope with this repertoire, not even at her best; the lack of a good belcanto coach maybe; the lack of a flawless legato, strange sound emission, loss of control in the dramatic moments, strange ornamentation that she cannot sing, rough top, missing lows, horrible Italian and the list may continue.... In Italy, the sensation was created by a passed her prime, reasonably good belcanto singer, Mariella Devia. But she simply doesn't have the voice nor the personality for these dramatic roles; never had. How would a tiny, monochromatic voice, that now is a bit sharp with the personality of a maid, be able to interpret the role of a QUEEN? Even with a perfect diction and phrasing, the very limited voice and technique cannot break through. One can come with the age argument or the "perfect technique" argument, that has been such a cliché regarding Devia or Freni; but I simply cannot buy it; range limitation and tempos cheating hardly indicate any perfection.
Let's think back to the great artists and the reason why dramatic belcanto became famous after the revival. Singers like M. Callas, V. Zeani, G. Raimondi, M.Caballe, L. Gencer, B. Sills and later K. Ricciarelli, A. Maliponte, J. Omilian, N. Miricioiu just to name a few, were part of the great Donizetti revival. The reason is not because it was the beginning; and the audience was excited about some new operas; but they were truly great artists, even if they also had some limitations or mannerisms; they had ideas HOW to perform these roles, how to hide their weaknesses and highlight their abilities, great personality, intelligent approach. This art is completely lost; now I can only hear struggling singers, I hear cheating singers or singers that seem not to know or to understand the libretto. Anyways, enjoy Caballe's singing as much as you can, feel the drama and her wonderful artistry. Sadly, she is not coming back on stage for us.

Roberto Devereux
Gaetano Donizetti
Roberto-Juan Oncina
Elisabetta I-Montserrat Caballe
Duke of Nottingham – Walter Alberti
Sara – Lili Chookasian
Lord Cecil – Mauro Lampi
Conductor, Carlo Felice Cillario
New York (Carnegie Hall), 1965

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