Paolo TOSTI
(1846 - 1916) Goodbye;
Jules MASSENET
(1842 – 1912) Manon: "Instant
charmant ... En fermant les yeux;
Arthur SULLIVAN
(1842 - 1900) The Lost Chord;
Paolo TOSTI:
Addio;
Giacomo PUCCINI
(1858 – 1924) La bohème:
"Che gelida manina";
Charles GOUNOD
(1818 - 1893) Faust: "Quel
trouble inconnu … Salut, demeure";
Georges BIZET
(1838 – 1875) Les pêcheurs
de perles: "Je crois entendre encore";
Moises SIMONS
(20th Century) Marta;
Isaac ALBENIZ
(1860 - 1909) Quisiera olvidar tus
ojos;
SANDOVAL (?)
Eres tu;
DE CRESCENZO
(?) Triste maggio;
Nicolai RIMSKY-KORSAKOV
(1844 - 1988) Sadko: "Chanson
Hindoue";
Pietro MASCAGNI
(1863 – 1945) Cavalleria
rusticana: "Tu qui, Santuzza?"
(w. Dusolina Giannini)); Cavalleria
rusticana: "No, no, Turiddu"
(w Dusolina Giannini);
Franz SCHUBERT
(1797 – 1828) Ständchen;
Louis NIEDERMEYER
(1802 - 1861) Pietà, Signore;
Gioachino ROSSINI
(1792 – 1868) Stabat Mater:
"Cujus animam";
Ernesto DE
CURTIS (1860 – 1926) I’ m’arricordo
‘e te; ‘A canzone ‘e Napule;
This disc covers the
years 1931 and 1932 and might be regarded,
together with the next disc in this
complete series, as the period when
Gigli was at his best. The voice had
lost nothing of its youthfulness but
some more power had been added. At about
this time he was planning to go back
to Europe after more than a decade at
the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
One of the sessions represented here
is for RCA made in New York, but otherwise
he recorded from now on for HMV in,
mainly, London and Milan. His well known
vices and virtues are of course present
here too, but whatever you think of
sobs and intrusive "h"-s they
are worth enduring, considering how
fabulously well he sings in all other
respects. There are quite a lot of popular
songs here, not only the traditional
Neapolitan fare. I could of course spend
the rest of this evening writing in
depth of each of the tracks but I will
withstand that temptation and point
to some really outstanding numbers.
Of the opera arias,
all are classics and they remained in
the catalogue until the end of the shellac
era in the early 1950s.The Manon
aria is sung in an exquisite half voice
with perfect breath control, Rodolfo’s
"Your tiny hand is frozen"
is delivered with obvious affection
and apart from a few not too distracting
sobs the singing is exemplary with a
glorious high C. He ends it with a wonderful
pianissimo, marred by a last "di-hi".
Since the cover photo
also shows Gigli as Rodolfo I can’t
resist relating an episode, which I
probably read in Gigli’s memoirs. He
was singing La Bohème
at Covent Garden in 1938, Vittorio Gui
conducting. In the first act he, the
poet, burns his play in the stove and
some minutes later, when he is singing
his famous aria, he suddenly hears crackles
and sees smoke pouring forth from the
stove. While still singing he empties
a bottle of water over the flames, but
to no avail, so he signals to the wings,
interpolating "Please, fire"
Please, fire!" in the aria and
gets a jug of water but not even that
is enough. While Mimi keeps things going
in her aria, Gigli rushes out in the
wings and gets a whole bucket of water
– and that defeats the flames. And then
he is back in his role, joining Mimi
for the concluding duet. And not a note
was missed! The next day one of the
morning papers had the headline "Gigli
puts fire into La Bohème!"
Faust’s Cavatina was
a long-standing favourite with Gigli
and again he is so marvellous with that
half-voice, so effortless. He sings
it in Italian of course, but that hardly
matters, just as little as it does in
the even more famous Romance from the
Pearl Fishers. This is seamless legato
singing that has probably never been
superseded, possibly equalled – but
not often. Nicolai Gedda in his 1953
recording, singing in French, is even
more stylish. His 1961 version, from
the complete recording is just as good,
not quite as honeyed and, believe it
or not, I heard him singing it in Stockholm
at a concert celebrating forty years
since his debut at the Royal Opera.
His debut was in April 1952, so he was
67 when I heard him and was still singing
with the freshness of a 27-year-old.
Do try, however, to find an Arte Nova
disc (74321 85297 2) with Zoran Todorovich.
That is indeed legato singing! He does
a couple of very good Puccini arias,
as well – plus a few that are not quite
on that level.
But back to Gigli there
is also the Chanson Hindoue from
Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sadko, and
again it is magically sung, in French
for once. The dramatic verismo singer
is also represented on this disc in
the long duet between Turiddu and Santuzza
from Cavalleria rusticana. Here
the dramatic Dusolina Giannini is at
her vibrant best, obviously inspiring
Gigli to one of his most intense performances,
and here his singing is practically
free from excessive histrionics.
On the lighter side
we get not only Tosti’s Goodbye,
but also a hitherto unpublished take
of the song, sung in Italian. The differences
are minimal. Interesting it is to meet
Gigli in a trio of Spanish songs, sung
in Spanish. These songs were set down
during his last New York session and
he is lively, arduous, playful. Albeniz’s
Quisiera olvidar tud ojos is
in fact a vocal version of the famous
Tango. His Ständchen is
probably not the last word in stylish
Schubert singing, but of its kind it
is very endearing. His dynamic shadings
are so precise, so exquisite, but they
never for a moment sound calculated.
He is obviously singing straight from
the heart.
All nineteen tracks
on this disc have something valuable
to offer, with the possible exception
of Pietà, Signore, where
there is really too much of intrusive
"h"s, and I got a feeling
that the as usual exemplary audio restoration
engineer, Mark Obert-Thorn, felt the
same, since he left a few very audible
clicks on this track.
With a good note by
Alan Blyth, generous playing time and
full documentation this can hardly be
bettered. Those who are collecting this
series should of course buy this one
with confidence, those who are not yet
collecting it could just as well start
here.
Göran Forsling
See also reviews
by Robert
Farr and Jonathan
Woolf
Beniamino Gigli (tenor), Dusolina Giannini (soprano)(Mascagni);
Orchestras/John Barbirolli, Eugene Goossens,
Nathaniel Shilkret; La Scala Orchestra/Carlo
Sabajno 
