Tito Gobbi’s voice
is one of the iconic voices of the 20th
Century. His development as an artist
was paralleled by the development of
the recording process so that his recorded
legacy spans the seven arias recorded
in 1942 for domestic use in Italy through
to some of the finest complete Italian
operas ever recorded. Along the way,
of course, his is the voice, together
with that of tenor Giuseppe di Stefano,
which is most closely associated with
Maria Callas.
This enterprising disc
brings together a selection of Gobbi’s
recordings from the first decade of
his recording career. He made his debut
with the La Scala company in 1935, but
did not make any recordings until the
1942 sessions. These are all now quite
rare and Regis have included all seven
of them (Don Giovanni’s Serenade, Posa’s
death scene from ‘Don Carlo’, arias
from Leoncavallo’s ‘Zaza’, Cilea’s ‘L’Arlesiana’
and Puccini’s ‘Fanciulla del West’.
The next recordings were three arias,
‘Iago’s dream ‘Era la Notte’, Figaro’s
‘Largo al factotum’ and the prologue
to ‘Pagliacci’) recorded in London for
HMV in 1948. Gobbi’s first post-war
engagement outside Italy had been in
Stockholm in 1947 and it was in 1948
that his long love affair with the British
public began.
Two years later, in
1950, he recorded a group of arias with
the newly formed Philharmonia Orchestra;
from these sessions Regis have included
‘Urna fatale’ from ‘La Forza del Destino’,
Iago’s ‘Credo’ and Figaro’s two arias
from ‘La Nozze di Figaro’ (in later
life he played the Count rather than
Figaro). Later in 1950 he recorded Germont
pere’s aria from ‘La Traviata’ and Rigoletto’s
monologue ‘Pari siamo’ with Walter Süsskind
and the Philharmonia. Gobbi was in London
as part of the La Scala company’s short
opera season at Covent Garden. Finally
in 1950 he recorded arias from ‘Macbeth’
and ‘Un Ballo in Maschera’ with the
London Symphony Orchestra. ‘Eri tu’
from ‘Un Ballo in Maschera’ is included
here; but unfortunately the fine ‘Macbeth’
take, which was unpublished until it
was included in the HMV set ‘The Art
of Tito Gobbi’ in 1979, is not here.
Finally, Regis have included two extracts
from the 1953 complete recording of
‘Tosca’ with ‘Callas’ and di Stefano.
Whilst it is good to have a sample of
Gobbi’s Scarpia on the disc, it is a
pity that Regis could not have sourced
an alternative to the well known complete
recording.
Walter Legge once referred
to Gobbi as ‘The Acting Voice’, and
it is this quality which is most apparent
in these recordings. With some singers,
listening to a selection of arias you
are aware of technical ability but must
take some dramatic ability as read,
sensing that the singer would make most
impact in a complete recording or in
a live performance. But with Gobbi,
each aria takes on its own dramatic
context immediately. Regis have not
sequenced the arias chronologically,
but in composer order. When listening
to the disc, it is tempting to try and
make your own chronological sequence.
But the way Gobbi softens and hushes
his voice in Germont’s aria (recorded
1950) contrasts thrillingly with the
darkening of his voice in ‘Urna Fatale’
from ‘La Forza del Destino’ (also recorded
in 1950), thus confounding this critic’s
theories about the changes in Gobbi’s
voice over time. It is true that the
1942 recordings do have a honeyed elegance
about them; something which never entirely
disappears but is supplemented by a
greater depth and toughness. Though
he did not sing the role until 1950
(at Salzburg), his 1942 recording of
Don Giovanni’s Serenade is notable for
its lovely, seductive elegance. And
in 1950, he dashes off Figaro’s two
arias from ‘La Nozze da Figaro’ with
a fine sense of style that makes me
long to have heard him in a complete
performance of the role.
The set opens with
the 1948 account of the Prologue from
‘I Pagliacci’; a thrillingly dramatic
account which is complemented by the
rare inclusion of the full orchestral
introduction. This is followed by the
three rarities, ‘Buono Zaza’ and ‘Zaza
piccolo zingara’ from Leoncavallo’s
‘Zaza’ and ‘Come due tizzi accesi’ from
Cilea’s ‘Arlesiana’. It is a pleasure
to have these arias in a recital which
would otherwise consist of purely well-known
items; but it is a double pleasure to
hear them in such fine performances.
Inevitably, recital
discs such as this overlap with others.
Testament released a disc in 1993 which
duplicates some of these items but which
also offers a number of rather sentimental
Italian songs. Regis are to be complimented
for assembling a disc which includes
such a large amount of Gobbi’s early
recordings.
Robert Hugill
