MADAMA BUTTERFLY:Puccini
Patanè; Scotto, Aragall, Love, Edwards, Atherton
Original Air Date: 12/17/1977
SID.20080747
Aragall only has 38 Met performances in his nine season tenure. His two broadcasts are Esclarmonde with Sutherland and this Butterfly with Scotto in close to her very best voice. Few tenor voices had such unforced beauty. His Met farewell comes in Boheme two days after this broadcast Aragall suffered from severe nervousness which could affect his pitch. Luckily his two Met broadcasts capture mostly just the remarkable voice, one much respected by his peers– Carreras, Domingo, and Pavarotti. Patane lamentably died much too young at 54 while conducting at the Bavarian State Opera, Munich. He was an excellent maestro in the Met’s Italian wing, and is the conductor for Pavarotti and Ricciarelli’s Ballo in Maschera telecast/DVD. He also is number four in Gioconda performances at 25 (Cleva at 65 (Milanov and Tebaldi); Serafin at 55, Toscanini at 29 surpass him).