I don’t know how many
further volumes there will be in this
series but Gigli went on singing for
several years after these sessions.
If I remember correctly there was once
an LP issued with a live recital recorded
in Sweden (Gothenburg ?) around 1953.
I never heard it but a review I saw
years later was quite harsh. No cause
for harshness about this issue, though.
It is true that Gigli was well past
55 and it is also true that there are
signs of wear, but surprisingly little,
considering that he had been singing
professionally for more than thirty
years. One can notice strain in his
forte singing but the voice still rings
out with that glorious tone we remember
from his heydays in the 1920s and 1930s.
His mezza voce (half voice) is as ravishing
as ever. Wisely he also chooses repertoire
according to this; some of the songs
on this disc are unabashed tear-jerkers,
but – so what? I could very well live
without half of these songs but I will
certainly listen to some of them once
in a while without blushing. Even if
the songs are no great art the singing
certainly is.
By now most regular
readers will know how much I like Gigli,
warts and all. They also know that I
will end the review with a recommendation.
But while listening I made my customary
notes and it’s a shame not to report
some remarks I made. So here we go:
Eleazar’s aria from
La juive, once made famous by
Caruso, offers impassioned singing,
marred by intrusive ‘h’s, but he sings
it in the original French, as he does
the following aria from Lalo’s Le
Roi d’Ys, today a rarity but much
feted by tenors of the Golden Age –
McCormack made a memorable recording
but Gigli on his best behaviour runs
him close and the end is magical. The
two Massenet arias are, alas, sung in
Italian, but Massenet always suited
Gigli’s voice and no one can doubt his
conviction. The Werther aria
in particular is a wonder of vocalism
– and the man was 56! He also sings
O Lola from Cavalleria rusticana,
performed to harp accompaniment as part
of the prelude behind the curtain. He
recorded the opera complete with the
composer conducting a few years earlier
but obviously wasn’t very satisfied
with it and here got an opportunity
to set it down again. We should be happy
that he did for it shows his heroic
tenor in good shape.
In between this handful
of arias we are treated to the usual
lighter fare: Neapolitan songs by Tosti,
Cardillo, Cittadini and Falvo. This
was always repertoire where he excelled.
Core ‘ngrato for example is sung
with a pathos that puts Pavarotti in
the shadows – even though some portamenti
are a bit overdone – but the final notes
are glorious. But there are also some
more unexpected items, for instance
Murray’s I’ll walk beside you,
rather sentimentally done but I think
that’s the way it has to be sung – or
not at all. Anyway he lavishes all his
technical skill on it with a lovely
final tone as an extra bonus. Adeste
fideles and Silent night
were probably bestsellers, recorded
just weeks before Christmas 1947. The
former is in the grand manner while
Silent night is intimate and
nobly sung in his inimitable half voice.
Nothing cheap about this reading but
the orchestra might have sounded healthier
without that overdose of saccharine.
Ave Maria may not be the last
word in Schubertian stylishness, and
here he excels in intrusive ‘h’s again,
but especially the last lines of the
song are marvellously beautiful and
inward. And poor Chopin’s E major etude
is of course best heard in the piano
version but the melody is so pure, something
no arrangement can spoil and one can’t
help admiring Gigli’s voice control.
Mark Obert-Thorn has
again managed to lift Gigli’s voice
out of the old shellacs and present
him to us in the best possible light.
This late in the 1940s it was fully
possible to get a fairly lifelike orchestral
sound too.
Maybe this disc doesn’t
add very much to our picture of Beniamino
Gigli but it is still so marvellous
to hear him in such good shape, so,
believe it or not, here is another "must
buy" for the Gigli enthusiast.
A safe recommendation for the general
lover of good singing.
Göran Forsling
BUY
NOW Crotchet