National Symphony Chorus & Orchestra of Ukraine, Gil Rose - Barber: Vanessa (2003)

Samuel Barber’s first opera, Vanessa, enjoyed a considerable success at its Metropolitan Opera première in 1958, winning a Pulitzer Prize. Later that year, it became the first American opera to be performed at the Salzburg Festival. The original cast was recorded by RCA (10/90 – nla), with the conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos. Barber revised it from four to three acts in 1965 but it has never really secured a place in the repertory.

Gian Carlo Menotti’s libretto was inspired by the mood of Isak Dinesen’s Seven Gothic Tales, although the story also owes a bit to Arabella and The Cherry Orchard. Menotti worked very closely with Barber over the composition: ‘It is filled with many references to things and people Sam loved,’ he has explained.

The main differences are the excision of a short, brilliant ‘skating’ aria for Vanessa in Act 2, and alterations to the exchanges between Erika and her grandmother: rather than Act 2 ending with the grandmother calling for help when Erika rushes out into the night, in this version Vanessa and Anatol arrive and the scene ends with Vanessa calling his name as he goes out into the snow. Where the original version has the grandmother, in the penultimate scene, answer Erika’s question ‘Do they know?’ (about her unborn child) with the magnificent phrase ‘How can I tell? They only lie to themselves and to each other’, by 1965 this changed to just ‘How can I tell?’

It would be idle to imagine that anything could surpass the original cast: Eleanor Steber in the title-role, Rosalind Elias as Erika, her niece, Regina Resnik as the Baroness, Nicolai Gedda as Anatol, Giorgio Tozzi as the Doctor and George Cehanovsky in the small but crucial role of Nicholas, the Major-Domo. That first recording has inexplicably dropped out of the catalogue, so this new version is doubly welcome, not only as the first to use Barber’s revision, but to bring back an important work.

Ellen Chickering is a commanding Vanessa, with crisp diction. Many people felt the opera ought to have been called ‘Erika’, and although the character has no aria as such, Andrea Matthews rises to the challenge of the final scene, as she takes Vanessa’s place, and waits for the lover who will never return. Ray Bauwens as the cad Anatol, and Marion Dry as the Baroness are both fine. Philip Lima is effective as Nicholas.

The best-known moments from the opera all make their mark, Vanessa’s Act 1 aria ‘Do not utter a word’ (famous in a recital performance by Leontyne Price, 12/92), the dance trio ‘Under the willow tree’, and – the most striking passage of all – the quintet in the final scene, ‘To leave, to break, to find, to keep’. The recording was made in conjunction with a staging in Boston, organised by Richard Conrad, who sings the role of the Doctor. Conrad’s career has taken him a long way from his days as a tenor léger (for instance in the Sutherland/Bonynge ‘The Age of Bel Canto’ in 1963), and he seems to hold the drama together. He is especially touching in the arioso ‘For every love there is a last farewell’.

Gil Rose conducts the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, and there are moments, especially in the dance scene of Act 2, where the Russian mood of the music seems to be accentuated. The sound quality is clear, the balance between voices and orchestra excellent. Anyone who is attracted to American verismo will enjoy this.