COMPOSERS: Catalan
LABELS: Sony
WORKS: La Wally
PERFORMER: Eva Marton, Francisco Araiza, Alan Titus; Münchner Rundfunkorchester & Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks/Pinchas Steinberg
CATALOGUE NO: 88697575892
Finally, Catalani’s La Wally proves a damp squib – though Eva Marton, here vocally rather tired if charismatic, can be heard to better advantage in chronologically the most recent opera in the batch (Korngold’s Violanta of 1916). The misalliance of a soprano worn out by the German repertoire with a tenor (Francisco Araiza) more at home in Rossini and Mozart is compounded by dimly recorded, spiritless Munich forces under Steinberg and a Europudding supporting cast. It’s not a great opera, but at least I’m glad to have heard it. David Nice