Umberto Giordano: Siberia

When he lay dying in 1948, Umberto Giordano's thoughts turned to the opera he most loved, "Siberia". It had been first performed at La Scala in December 1903 and then made its way to the Sarah Bernhardt Theatre in Paris ( now known as the Théâtre de la Ville ) after which Gabriel Fauré wrote an appreciative review. In 1911 it was heard at the Paris Opera itself.The story of "Siberia" concerns Vassily, an infanty officer who has fallen in love with the beautiful Stephana, his godmother and a woman with a shameful past. Vassily's rival is Prince Alexis and, after Alexis is wounded in a duel, Vassily is sent to a Siberian prison camp. Stephana joins him there as she wants to redeem herself. Later, Gleby, who had been Stephana's pimp, is sent to the jail for fraud. He wants to offer Stephana the chance to escape with him through a dried up well but she refuses, telling him that she has rediscovered love. Gleby takes revenge by telling everyone about Stephana's past. Ashamed and humiliated, Stephana tries to convince Vassily to escape through the well but, as they lower themselves into it, Gleby gives the alarm. Stephana is shot and dies in Vassily's arms.The plot, then, is fairly typical veristic fodder. Although the opera is set in a Siberian prison camp, don't expect another "From the House of the Dead". The setting is not essential to the opera except in the sense that it provides a framework for the story. Giordano uses Russian folk songs, including the Volga Boatman, but they are not well integrated into the opera's fabric. Giordano lacked Puccini's extraordinary ability to create a feeling of "place" in his operas but, like his great contemporary, he was concerned to keep the action moving and, although there are many fine lyrical passage there is only one detachable aria, Vassili's "Orride Steppe" from Act 2. Giordano also lacked Puccini's ability to maintain a musical argument over enormous time spans so the musical interest in "Siberia" comes and goes but the opera is well paced and holds the interest. Musically, Act 2 is the strongest.There are three recordings of "Siberia" currently available though if you look hard enough on specialist websites you may find a recording made at the Wexford Festival in 1999 which I haven't heard. Besides this new version, the other recordings are one conducted by Manlio Benzi, also on Dynamic, and one conducted by Danilo Belardinelli on Bongiovanni. I rather expected this new recording to sweep the board but, except in terms of recording quality, it doesn't though it does deserve a place alongside the others. Noseda's main focus, like Belardinelli's, is on the drama and he grips throughout but I preferred Benzi's more lyrical and expressive conducting, in Act 1 in particular. This opera can so easily sound over-wrought. Benzi adopts slower speeds, giving the melodies more time to breathe, yet there is no lack of excitement when Giordano screws up the tension. The main difference between the principals is that Amadeo Zambon, singing for Belardinelli, is a true Italian tenor in a way that Jeon-Won Lee in Benzi's recording, fine as he is, is not. Giorgio Stura, in Noseda's recording, is also an "Italian" tenor; he does sound strained at times, though. As Stephana, I preferred Scaini's more focused voice in Benzi's recording to Yoncheva who sings for Noseda and Maragliano in Belardinelli's version.It really is very difficult to choose between these recordings. I could go into more detail about each version's merits and demerits but I'm not sure that would make the position clearer. All three sets are worth hearing though none is ideal. If you have either of the older recordings there is no need to replace it. All three were recorded live, Benzi's in a slightly warmer acoustic than the others. Of the three, by a very small margin, his would be my choice in spite of some stage noise and intermittent birdsong ( ! ) but you can't go wrong unless you don't buy any of these sets and I do think that other reviewers who have picked holes in the older recordings or even dismissed them as "inadequate" are being absurdly ungrateful. By the way, Benzi's recording may be prohibitively expensive in its CD incarnation but it is included with Amazon Prime. Both of the older versions ( not the Opera D'Oro version of Belardinelli's recording ) contain a libretto in Italian with an English translation. So do Noseda's discs.If you know "Andrea Chénier" and "Fedora", the next Giordano opera to get to know is "La Cena delle Beffe". The recording conducted by Olivero de Fabritiis is the one I return to most often.