With the thirteenth
volume of Beniamino Gigli’s complete “single” recordings this
series takes on a new direction. To date his 78s, including
some previously un-issued takes, have been presented chronologically.
The remaining volumes, to quote the producer’s notes, “will
be devoted to those commercial recordings issued during the
singer’s lifetime, which are not already available in the Testament
series”. The reasons are twofold: firstly EMI had, by the end
of the 1940s, begun to record on magnetic tape, sources that
are not available to Naxos and thus the sound-quality would
not be as good as on the Testament discs; secondly much of the
material recorded was not published until after Gigli’s death
in 1957 and is consequently not out of copyright. Some of them
will not be until the year 2032.
The present issue
reflects new directions in Gigli’s recording career in terms
of repertoire. He had always mixed arias with Neapolitan songs
and other “light” material. Towards the end the latter became
ever more dominant. This also mirrored his “live” career, which
was mainly devoted to concerts. An strand of this activity was
his singing of what are generally known as arie antiche,
songs and arias by Italian composers of the early and middle
baroque. Arranged and transposed to comfortable keys these hardly
qualify as “authentic”. Gigli’s way of performing them further
removes them from what must originally have been heard. Nevertheless
he lavishes all his customary care and devotion on whatever
material he chooses, making them attractive listening, even
though the predominant minor keys, slow tempi and gloomy atmosphere
result in a sameness that makes it advisedly to digest them
one or two at a time. On this disc we get a full dozen of them
and Scarlatti’s Già il sole del Gange (track 19) is the
one that sticks out by being lively and springy. Gigli is here
at his most ebullient. Among the others Monteverdi’s Lamento
di Arianna (track 10) is given a deeply felt reading, Giordani’s
Caro mio ben (track 11) is caressed with his most honeyed
tone and Care selve (track 16) is sung at a ravishing
pianissimo all through.
He also squeezed
in a couple of Sicilian songs (tracks 9, 15) of which the latter,
Tango notturno, is an atmospheric, very slow tango, hardly
danceable. Here he sounds uncharacteristically strained and
adds some very audible sighs. In general though he retains the
high standards of his vocal armoury, wisely employing his still
very beautiful and perfectly controlled mezza voce. When
more heroic singing is required he shows his mettle with top
notes still ringing out brilliantly – not as effortlessly as
ten or more years earlier but there is practically no widening
of the vibrato. A remarkable voice!
The disc opens with
Das Veilchen, sung in Italian. In spite of not being
a Mozartean Gigli sings the song with light tone, much of it
in his most suave half-voice – unidiomatic but lovely! Godard’s
Berceuse, sung in French - sort of - is endearing, one
or two near-sobs apart. Ah! Sweet mystery of life, in
his best (?) English, is heroic and Moya’s Song of songs
is a nice piece, sung with Gigli’s normal whole-hearted commitment
and well-judged dynamic shadings. The final note, albeit thrilling,
is a bit over the top.
Opera lovers may
feel a bit short-changed with this issue. True, there are no
less than seven excerpts from baroque operas among the arie
antiche, but the “real” opera singer is limited to two arias.
Track 13 offers an excerpt from Don Juan de Mañara by
Alfano, who is best known as the one who completed the final
pages of Puccini’s Turandot. He was also a competent
composer in his own right. This Don Juan opera was first played
as early as 1914 but Alfano reworked and renamed it. Gigli sang
the role in 1941 after having studied the work with the composer
and also suggested changes to the score, one of them being this
aria, which was originally a duet. He sings it with affection,
as he does the aria from L’amico Fritz, a role that he
first essayed in 1937. He later declared L’amico Fritz
to be his favourite Mascagni opera. This is possibly the best
proof on the disc that he could still, in 1948, muster the required
heroic tone. The famous Cherry duet, by the way, will
appear on the next volume in this series, recorded in 1951 with
Gigli’s daughter Rina.
With good sound,
excellent transfers, insightful notes, as usual, from Alan Blyth
and discographical details a model of their kind this is another
worthy addition to the series. Gigli completists will need it
but so will anyone interested in good singing, especially when
so impressively delivered by a tenor approaching sixty years
of age who had been singing for 35 years!
Göran Forsling
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Beniamino Gigli (tenor)
