Mozart: Cosi fan tutte (1956) Schwarzkopf/Cantelli

Описание: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Cosi fan tutte (Opera in Two Acts)

Fiordiligi - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
Dorabella - Nan Merriman
Despina - Graziella Sciutti
Ferrando - Luigi Alva
Guglielmo - Rolando Panerai
Don Alfonso - Franco Calabrese

Guido Cantelli, conductor
Teatro alla Scala Orchestra & Chorus

Recorded Live January 27, 1956
in Piccolo Scala, at La Scala, Milan

We are fortunate to have this recording. Made in 1956 in a festival to celebrate the 200th Anniversary of Mozart's birth, it gives us the only opera recording made by Guido Cantelli. It also gives us what many believe to one of the greatest performances of this opera, featuring Schwarzkopf, Merriman, and Sciutti.

This restoration was a suggestion of a subscriber, who wanted to know if it was possible to restore it with better sound. There was loud humming from the heating system which had to be removed as much as possible. The recording is also notoriously "tinny".

Our examination based on the original theater dimensions suggested that this was more a matter of an acoustic effect of the hall than anything else. Since we are dealing with a stage only 20 feet wide, (about the size of a small Legion Hall), there is little that can be done since the hall simply could not handle large soundwaves. Other than restoring the original spatial acoustics of the hall no other efforts seemed advisable.

There is also an issue with the entire second half of the recording which resembles the old Met broadcasts sent over the telephone lines back in the 60s. Without documentation there is nothing to account for this, but clearly the source for Act I and II are not the same.

As for the performance, it probably never gets any better than this. Mozart was the Godfather of lyric opera, and the present performance is a wonderful balance of a story that questions the very nature of fidelity between whimsy and grandeur.

It certainly does make us aware of what a loss to the operatic world the early departure of Cantelli actually was.

Full Fidelity restoration (2026): Paul Howard - The Yucaipa Studio

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