Franz SCHUBERT
(1797 – 1828) Ständchen
Cesare A. BIXIO
(20th Century) Desiderio
- Dir nur gehört mein Herz (Desiderio)
Johannes BRAHMS
(1833 – 1897) Wiegenlied,
Op. 49 No. 4
Giulio CACCINI
(1550 – 1618) Amarilli
Wolfgang Amadeus
MOZART (1756 – 1791) Don
Giovanni - Dalla sua pace (act 1)
De CRESCENDO
(? - ?) Notte d’amore
Paolo TOSTI
(1846 – 1916) Aprile
Giuseppe VERDI
(1813 – 1901) La traviata
- Ah si! da un anno … Un di felice (act
1)(with Maria Caniglia) - Oh! mia Violetta
... Parigi, o cara (act 3)(with Maria
Caniglia)
Wolfgang Amadeus
MOZART Don Giovanni - Il
mio tesoro (act 2)
Di CHIARA
La spagnola
Sebasitán
De YRADIER (1809 – 1865) La
paloma
Stefano DONAUDY
(1879 – 1925) O del mio amato
ben
Ernesto De
CURTIS (1875 – 1937) Maria,
tu sei per me la vita
BUZZI-PECCIA
(? - ?) Lolita
Giuseppe PIETRI
(1886 – 1946) Maristella
- Io conosco un giardino (act 1)
Giuseppe VERDI
Il trovatore - Se m’ami ancor ...
Ai nostri monti (act 4)(with Cloe Elmo)
Umberto GIORDANO
(1867 – 1948) Fedora - Amor ti vieta
(act 2)
Cesare A. BIXIO
Mamma – Se vuoi goder la vita
Giacomo PUCCINI
(1858 – 1924) Manon Lescaut
- Che avvien? ... No! Pazzo son (act
3)(with Giuseppe Noto)
Giuseppe VERDI
Il trovatore - Di quella pira (act
3)
With this issue Naxos
have reached volume 10 in their reissue
series of the complete Gigli "singles".
These have been restored by Mark Obert-Thorn
and were previously released on Romophone
in 2002. On this disc Gigli also reaches
his 50th year and it is remarkable
to notice that there is very little
difference from his recordings of, say,
8-10 years earlier. I remarked, when
reviewing the previous volume that it
was possible to discern a slight hardening
of tone and more of a spinto quality,
enabling him to tackle for example Radames
in Aida. At the same time he
still retained his lyric characteristics:
his ravishing half-voice, his pianissimos
and sensitive phrasing; also, but actually
to a lesser degree than before, his
scooping, his intrusive "h"s and his
theatrical sobs.
All of this is true
also when we come to the present disc.
Vocally it seems that his voice was
in exceptionally fine fettle, not least
during the 1939 sessions (tracks 5 –
14). During this period World War Two
also broke out, which meant that he
wasn’t able to make recordings in London,
where so many of his most successful
discs were recorded, and his live performances
were confined to Italy and Germany.
Here we also have, as far as I can remember,
the only recorded examples of Gigli
singing in German, and generally speaking
they are none too successful. Never
a Lieder-singer, Gigli nevertheless
tried to widen his repertoire into this
area, and tracks 1 and 4 on this disc
finds him on well-known territory: Schubert’s
Ständchen and Brahm’s Wiegenlied
(Cradle Song). Neither of them goes
to a top position in the pantheon of
Lieder interpretations. In Schubert
his voice is strong and steady and has
fire and he ends in ravishing half-voice,
while the Brahms is sung very softly
and with considerable beauty. Other
excursions to foreign worlds include
the two tenor arias from Mozart’s Don
Giovanni and of course he cannot
compete with collegues like McCormack
and Tauber. Especially in the second
act aria Il mio tesoro (track
11) he displays something approaching
Mozartean style, lighter and less scoopy
than the first, but his runs are a bit
rushed. Even further back in music history
he tackles Caccini’s early baroque "hit"
Amarilli, and beautiful it is.
His mezza voce is at its most suave.
Not what is expected today in this kind
of repertoire but, as Alan Blyth says
in his essay: "So much the worse for
today’s views."
As usual there is a
fair share of "Neapolitan songs" (the
quotation marks implying that they are
not necessarily from Naples) and here
he is on home ground. One can pick almost
any of these tracks and find performances
that few other tenors have challenged,
let alone surpassed. Let me point out
O del mio amato ben (track 14),
where one must admire his fine legato
and the beauty of his piano singing,
and Lolita (track 16) – so restrained,
but so beautiful, when not bawled out.
La spagnola (track 12), with
castanets, finds him in exuberant form
in his last London session. The next
track, recorded a month and a half later
in Milan, La paloma, is more
backwardly balanced but his singing
of this old war-horse is fine indeed.
The two Bixio songs, recorded in November
1940 are very much dance music of the
era and in Se vuoi goder la vita
(track 21) we even hear an accordion
in the introduction. In this piece Gigli
is extremely lively, obviously enjoying
himself greatly but his singing never
becomes coarse and about two minutes
into the song he makes one of his most
enchanting diminuendos.
We also meet the opera
singer Gigli, not only in Mozart. His
almost ideal Alfredo in La traviata
is heard in the two duets recorded
in Kingsway Hall on June 5th
1939 with his regular partner Maria
Caniglia. Parigi, o cara (track
10) is a wonderful example of simple,
unaffected, beautiful singing. Caniglia’s
big voice wasn’t an ideal instrument
for Violetta and she can be a bit squally,
her voice sometimes over-powering the
poor microphone. She manages, though,
to scale it down and sound suitably
affected by tuberculosis in the third
act duet.
Two excerpts from Il
trovatore are also included. The
Manrico – Azucena scene from act 4 (track
18) is one of the highlights with lyrical,
finely nuanced singing from both Gigli
and the splendid Cloe Elmo, restrained
but deeply involved. Di quella pira
(track 23) was written with a quite
different type of voice in mind. Gigli
sings heroically but he is a size too
small. He is much better suited to Des
Grieux in Manon Lescaut and the
third act scene recorded here is full
of passion and despair – and also a
fair share of sobs.
The remaining two opera
excerpts again find him at his best.
He premiered the opera Maristella
in 1940 and fell in love with Io
conosco un giardino recorded here,
which he added to his concert repertoire.
It is a beautiful aria and Gigli is
audibly inspired. The front cover, incidentally,
reproduces a photo of Gigli in this
role. The other is the well-known Amor
ti vieta from Fedora. Andrea
Chenier by the same composer, Giordano,
was a favourite role, which he also
recorded complete, but his voice is
certainly well suited to this aria too.
Good sound considering
the period, the London sessions more
forward and with more detail, good documentation
and the usual perceptive essay by Alan
Blyth, all make this another essential
buy for the Gigli collector. It can
also be confidently recommended to every
other admirer of good tenor singing.
Göran Forsling
reviews
of previous volumes in this series
Can be confidently recommended to Gigli
collectors and every other admirer of
good tenor singing. ... see Full Review
Beniamino Gigli (tenor), Maria Caniglia
(soprano) (tracks 9, 10), Cloe Elmo (mezzo)
(track 18), Giuseppe Noto (baritone)(track 23).
Orchestras/Dino Olivieri (tracks 1–4, 15–16
and 20–21), Lawrance Collingwood (tracks 5–12),
Luigi Ricci (tracks 13–14), Umberto Berrettoni
(tracks 17–19 and 22–23) 
