The long running
Gigli series from Naxos now no longer needs to sport the parenthetical
note to collectors that it’s ex-Romophone. The company folded
before these transfers could be utilised. Accordingly this is
terra incognita so far as collectors are concerned with regard
to Mark Obert-Thorn’s work, which happily is consonant with
his previous fine work in this extensive series.
Recorded between
1941 and 1943 they show no diminution of power, plangency or
range and the powerful tension Gigli could impart is evident
throughout. His Cilea immediately alerts one to the sustenance
of dramatic tension at reduced dynamics and of a floated head
voice of still almost incandescent beauty. The inserted B natural
at the end gives the disc a cumulative power it might otherwise
not have possessed.
Naturally he does
sob a little – try the sole Puccini extract here - but in the
extract from Mascagni’s Lodoletta we find the half catch alternating
with a pungent and virile stream, a compelling duality. The
examples of his Mascagni are in fact some of the most welcome
of all these sides; hear the fresh vocalism that courses through
the Isabeau aria Tu ch’odi or the manly heroism of E
passera to glimpse something of his presence, one that vaults
the grooves and locks the listener in a tight embrace. And what
a stentorian bark he gives us in the Giordano and how massively
theatrical he was. His Verdi – La forza del
destino – is quite simply superb.
Balancing the verismo
and other operatic repertoire is the light Gigli. In Militello’s
Ninna he can fine down his voice deliciously and yet
still vest the song with as much march and lyric profile as
it needs. There’s a laugh in his voice in the Nardella and even
in the brace of Bixio songs a command of the idiom, albeit one
accompanied by a voguish dance-band-sounding orchestra. One
will also find his daughter Rina joining him (not very successfully)
in Carmen, a role he first sang in 1941 in Italian – which is
presumably what led to this souvenir recording.
If you’ve collected
thus far you will inevitably need volume eleven. Clearly it’s
not the place to start for the tenorial novitiate but for Gigli
adherents the transfers, repertoire and price will prove impossible
to resist.
Jonathan Woolf
see also Review
by Göran Forsling
Beniamino Gigli
(tenor) 
