0163-2 GRAND DUCHESS DE GEROLSTEIN (Offenbach)

The 1959 vintage recording of Jennie Tourel, with the American Opera Society from Carnegie Hall in New York City (also avaialbe at greater cost on CD as Line Music 5-02053), in the title role of "La Grande Duchesse de Gérolstein" is a memento of her glorious career. However, her success, vocally speaking, is rather mixed. Tourel's coloratura, for one thing, outmeasures her skill in handling rapid-fire patter in which she aspirates the words just slightly rather than delivering them with more elegant ease. Also, her high range, vibrantly present in ringing tone, fares better than her low range, which sounds rather gusty, giving her overall a rather maternal vocal image of the duchess who, after all, according to the libretto, is only 20 years old. The same cannot be said of André Turp, who would have been 38 years old at the time of this performance, sounding gloriously youthful and frisky most of the time. Even if somewhat variable at various points in this rendition of the operetta, he steals the spotlight from Tourel. His fellow Québecker, Louis Quilico fares well. The lovable Laurel Hurley, one of my very favourite singers at the Metropolitan Opera during those years, is not in her best form, but she is lively and girlish-sounding as Fritz' betrothed, whom the duchess is trying to displace in Fritz' affections (unsuccessfully, of course). The work of the chorus and orchestra is okay enough, although they fall short of the glories of the ensemble vocal and orchestral forces in the famous studio recording which the greatest Offenbach conductor on record, René Leibowitz, directed in his 1958 LP recording. In all, this is a performance of mixed merit, but one that still deserves hearing, even if replacing spoken dialogue with a narrator was not exactly a wise decision. Premiere Opera's sound, in another relaase of the recorded performance, is astonishingly better than what comes through more feebly in some other LP and CD labels' efforts at sonic documentation of this performance.

The 1959 vintage recording of Jennie Tourel in the title role of "La Grande Duchesse de Gérolstein" is a memento of her glorious career. However, her success, vocally speaking, is rather mixed. Tourel's coloratura, for one thing, outmeasures her skill in handling rapid-fire patter in which she aspirates the words rather than delivering them with more elegant ease. Also, her high range, vibrantly present in ringing tone, fares better than her low range, which sounds rather gusty, giving her overall a rather maternal vocal image of the duchess who, after all, according to the libretto, is only 20 years old. The same cannot be said of André Turp, who would have been 38 years old at the time of this performance, sounding gloriously youthful and frisky most of the time. Even if somewhat variable at various points in this rendition of the operetta, he steals the spotlight from Tourel. His fellow Québecker, Louis Quilico fares well. The lovable Laurel Hurley, one of my very favourite singers at the Metropolitan Opera during those years, is not in her best form, but she is lively and girlish sounding as Fritz' betrothed, whom the duchess is trying to displace in Fritz' affections (unsuccessfully, of course). The work of the chorus and orchestra are okay enough, although they fall short of the glories of the ensemble vocal and orchestral forces in the famous studio recording which the greatest Offenbach conductor on record, René Leibowitz, directed in his 1958 LP recording. In all, a performance of mixed merit, but one that still deserves hearing, even if replacing spoken dialogue with a narrator was not exactly a wise decision. Premiere Opera's sound is astonishingly better than what comes through more feebly in some other LP and CD labels' efforts at sonic documentation of this performance.