This Puritani is from a live performance from Catania in 1989. Conducted by famed bel canto conductor Richard Bonynge, it boasts Italian soprano Mariella Devia in one of her few commercially available recordings of a complete opera.
To get the more mediocre out of the way first, Paolo Washington is no great shakes as Giorgio. He's not bad, but the tone is only intermittently steady and he can't maintain an even line in his aria 'Cinta di fiori' which ends up sounding more clumsy than graceful. He is more effective in the 'Suoni la tromba' duet with Riccardo. The Riccardo, Christopher Robertson, does very well in his aria, shaping the melodic line nicely and making a good stab at the florid divisions. He perhaps doesn't have the most distinctive voice, but is able to contribute arguably a more refined performance than several better-known baritones.
Devia is a memorable Elvira. She is completely unfazed by coloratura writing, adding idiomatic embellishments in both the Mad Scene cabaletta and the earlier 'Son vergin vezzosa' ensemble. She probably doesn't have an instantly recognisable timbre and she certainly doesn't create as expressive a characterisation as Callas, but her performance here impresses me as probably the most well-sung rendition of Elvira's music that I have heard. The voice is full and round in all registers, doing full justice to slow, lyrical music as well as the more florid cabalettas. Surprisingly, hearing Devia's more recent performances on Youtube, the voice doesn't seem to have aged much at all.
Matteuzzi easily nails the (in)famous high F in the finale, even managing to include it in a perfectly sculpted legato line. It's a small-ish reedy sound, quite pleasantly plangent to my years but perhaps unsatisfying to those used to a big glowing tenor sound a la Pavarotti or di Stefano in the role. On the other hand, his approach is much more musical than the latter, elegantly phrasing rather than bawling his way through "A te, o cara" (still, nothing approaches Lauri-Volpi's version of this aria for the best of both worlds).
To be honest, Bonynge isn't really my favourite conductor in any repertoire, but he holds up his side here without being ever really inspiring. It's somewhat less episodic than his earlier recording with Sutherland but also lacks a degree of propulsiveness. The orchestra sound slightly under-rehearsed but not devastatingly so. There is some audience noise and occasionally a bit of distortion where singers are probably turning away from the microphones.
On balance, alongside the Muti with Caballe and Kraus, this might be the most consistent Puritani available.
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