La patria chica (Chapí)

Carlos Munguía, Joaquín Portillo, Dolores Cava, Manuel Ausensi, Ana María Iriarte, Miguel Ligero. Gran Orquesta Sinfónica, c. Ataulfo Argenta
Alhambra BC 3300 [LP, nla]

Chapí's brief score is not consistently tailored for home listening - the "Pom, pom" dúo for Ausensi and Iriarte, for example, seems banal away from its stage context. Nor is the casting here ideal: both those two characterful singers are on the unwieldy side for their roles, with Iriarte's Pastora turning in a breathy, charmless "Te quiero" (nobody has surpassed Victoria de los Angeles in this witty miniature.) Cava's Pilar is anonymous, though the three tenors are well-contrasted and amusing. However, Argenta's reading of the great Preludio is magnificently evocative of distant Spanish memories, and the sooner this performance is issued on CD the better.

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