Pietro MASCAGNI
(1863-1945)
L’Amico Fritz – Suzel, buon dì
with Magda Olivero (soprano)
L’Amico Fritz – Suzel, buon dì
with Pia Tassinari (soprano)
L’Amico Fritz – Ed anche Beppe amò
Gaetano DONIZETTI
(1797-1848)
L’elisir d’amore-Una furtive lacrima
L’elisir d’amore- Quanto è bella
quanto è cara
Don Pasquale – Sogno soave e casto
Francesco CILEA
(1866-1950)
L’Arlesiana – E la solita storia del
pastore
Giuseppe VERDI
(1813-1901)
Rigoletto – Ella mi fu rapita
Falstaff – Dal labbro il canto
I Lombardi alla prima crociata – La
mia letizia infondere
Luisa Miller – Quando le sere al placido
La Traviata – Parigi o cara noi lasceremo
with Tassinari (soprano)
Un Ballo in Maschera – Teco io sto with
Maria Curtis Verna (soprano)
Un Ballo in Maschera – Forse la soglia
attinse
Ermanno WOLF-FERRARI
(1876-1948)
I quatro Rusteghi – Luceta xe un bel
nome
Giacomo PUCCINI
(1858-1924)
La bohème – Che gelida manina
La Bohème – Addio…dunque e proprio
finita with Pia Tassinari (soprano),
Maria Huder (soprano) and Enzo Mascherini
(baritone)
Tosca – Recondita armonia
Tosca – E lucevan le stele
Tosca – O dolci mani
Tosca – Or lasciami al lavoro
La Fanciulla del West – Ch’ella mi creda
libero e lontano
Umberto GIORDANO
(1867-1948)
Andrea Chénier – Come un bel
dì di maggio
Vincenzo BELLINI
(1801-1835)
La sonnambula – Prendi. L’anel ti dono
Gioachino ROSSINI
(1792-1868)
Il barbiere di Siviglia – Ecco ridente
in cielo
Charles-Louis
Ambroise THOMAS (1811-1896)
Mignon – Addio Mignon
Jules MASSENET
(1842-1912)
Élégie
Manon – Oh dolce incante
Werther – Dividerci dobbiam…Ma che sapete
voi di me with Pia Tassinari (soprano)
Werther – Sogno! Incanto!
Werther – Ah! Tutto il core ho qui
Reynaldo HAHN
(1875-1947)
L’heure exquise (Chansons grises No
5)
Frederic von FLOTOW
(1812-1883)
Marta – M’appari tutto amor
Georges BIZET
(1838-1875)
The Pearl Fishers – Mi par d’udir ancora
Giulio CACCINI
(1550-1618)
Amarilli, mia bella
Christoph Willibald
von GLUCK (1714-1787)
Paride ed Elena – O del mio dolce ardour
Giacomo MEYERBEER
(1791-1868)
L’Africana – O paradiso
Arrigo BOITO
(1842-1918)
Mefistofele – No. Sta l’inferno with
Pia Tassinari (soprano)
PANZERI-G. D’ANZI
Malinconia d’amore
Ho messo il cuore nei pasticcio
GALDIERI-G. D’ANZI
Voglio vivere così
Tu non mi lascerai
MARI-G MILITELLO
Ninna Nanna in grigioverder
Osman Perez FRIERE
Ay. Ay, Ay
TRADITIONAL
Amuri, amuri – transcribed Geni
SADERO
FUNARO-PORRU
Dolce sera
BONAGURA-FRAGNA
Notte a Santa Lucia
Ferruccio
Tagliavini (tenor) with
Orchestra Sinfonica dell’EIAR di Torino
conducted by Ugo Tansini
Orchestra Sinfonica di Torino della
RAI conducted by Mario Rossi
Orchestra Sinfonica di Torino della
RAI conducted by Arturo Basile
Orchestra Sinfonica di Torino della
RAI conducted by Angelo Questa
Orchestra Sinfonica dell’EIAR di Torino
conducted by Tito Petralia
Unidentified Orchestra conducted by
Cesare Gallino and Armando Fragna
Ermelinda Magnetti (piano) and Aurelio
Arcidiacono (viola) in the Massenet
Elegie
Born in Reggio Emilia
in 1913 Tagliavini was one of Cetra’s
star singers. He studied at the Conservatory
in Parma and won first prize in the
Florence May Festival in 1938. Clearly
one of the new rising stars of the Italian
tenor firmament he made an almost immediate
operatic debut as Rodolfo in Florence
in that year, progressing to La Scala
in the same role. After the War he made
the first of his American tours and
it was as Rodolfo, once again his calling
card, that he made the first of his
many Met appearances. He remained of
their books until 1954 and afterwards
began a touring schedule that saw more
heavy commitments in America throughout
1961-62 when he returned to the Met.
He sang and recorded frequently with
his wife, the soprano Pia Tassinari
whom he married in 1941. Tagliavini
died in 1985.
In the early days he
was touted as Schipa’s successor but
Tagliavini was more a tenore di grazia.
He had a delicious mezza voce and a
floated head voice that could be sustained
seemingly indefinitely (though both
were the product of rigorous training).
Virility and heft were not lacking,
nor was comic timing, but the overarching
impression left by these Cetra recordings
from the very start of his career until
his early middle age is of an uncommonly
sweet voiced tenor with a beautiful
legato and a somewhat over deployed
use of the head voice. This was later
caricatured as a bit of a croon but
there’s little sign of that here. Instead
we have a glimpse of the youthful and
very personable tenor in staples such
as Cilea’s L’Arlesiana where his head
voice takes on a voix mixte tinge whilst
remaining strongly Italianate. His Wolf-Ferrari
is sweet and delightfully inflected
but his Che gelida manina has not only
softness of expression but true grit
as well. If he did succumb to mere beauty
of tone he did so with commensurate
passion, as here. A test case of the
dilemma that surrounds him comes in
a work in which he excelled, namely
Bellini’s La sonnambula. There
is real elegance here, a certain suavity
as well, but detractors might point
to the rather swoony beauty as evidence
of the cultivation of tonal qualities
and extremes (he was the master of extremes
both at the top and bottom of his range)
ahead of more musical virtues.
Nevertheless his Falstaff
does have a superb legato, and his Recondita
armonia is honeyed, emotionally
ardent if rather gentlemanly (not bustly
at all). Emotively he kept the sobbing
to a bare minimum, though there are
examples in E lucevan le stele
where he gives us two discreet sniffles.
He shows he is every inch the stage
animal in O dolci mani and in
Rossini’s Ecco ridente in cielo
he combines elfin phrasing with increasing
colour and declamation – albeit the
cost is one of occasionally forced tone.
We can also enjoy a sliver extracted
from Mascagni’s conducting of his L’amico
Fritz, a famous complete recording made
in Turin in 1942.
In French repertoire
(often sung in Italian) he doesn’t lack
for power and passion – see Thomas’
Mignon whilst we find opposite virtues
in the Massenet Manon aria – here we
experience his floated half voice, those
deep pianissimi and the fluid run of
the voice, its perfect alignment with
the text. In the1948 Donizetti Don Pasquale
extract we can hear most of these virtues
in concentrated form; mezza voce, lightening
diminuendo with a portamenti floated
step-wise upwards, its effect one of
a sudden shake of a horse’s mane. There
is a pre-taste of his complete 1953
Cetra Werther (conducted by Molinari-Pradelli)
in the form of this 1948 aria led by
Arturo Basile. There are rare examples
of his classical repertoire in the third
disc. The Caccini was a favourite of
de Luca and Gigli – and Tagliavini is
unexaggerated and quite affecting with
it and strongly in the romantic tradition.
In the Gluck aria from Paride ed
Elena, another Gigli special, Tagliavini
is plaintive and withdrawn and he sings
it as rather more ballad than baroque
aria. His Massenet Élégie
is usually with violin or cello
accompaniment. Here we have a compromise
– it’s an unnamed violist – though Tagliavini
does rather spoil the effect with a
gratuitous sob. As the third disc comes
to an end we have some curiosities.
The startling eruption of the 1954 Verdi
Un ballo in maschera comes as
a shock after the 1940s sides. It’s
extracted from the complete 1954 opera,
on Cetra with Maria Curtis Verna (soprano)
and conducted by Angelo Questa. The
box ends with some film and popular
song – at which he was an adept – though
he is saddled with some hit and miss
dance band arrangements.
Tagliavini’s Cetra
recording career has been well documented
here. There is a booklet with full texts
in Italian but no notes. The honeyed
tenor with the expressive extensions
records well – the Cetra edge is well
contained – and collectors of his early
discs will find much to confirm their
admiration in this three disc set.
Jonathan Woolf
WARNER FONIT 5050466-3295-2-3 [3 CDs 69.37
+ 60.54 + 66.02]