In 1950, the 25 year old baritone Carlo Bergonzi took a few months
to retrain as a tenor; for the next thirty years he excelled in
performing bel canto, Puccini, verismo and, above
all, Verdi operatic rôles. Having sung so well for so long, he
was obliged by persistent problems with flatness gradually to
abandon the stage for the concert platform, eventually retiring
to run his hotel I Due Foscari in Busseto, home town of
his beloved Verdi, where he still lives today.
This
recital consists mainly of his famous 1958 debut album. It is
in superb sound, leaving plenty of air around a voice in prime
condition. The programme is essentially a round-up of favourite
tenor arias but you’d be hard pushed to find them better sung
by anyone else. Bergonzi’s voice is instantly recognisable,
with his endearing little lisp, quick vibrato and penetrating
timbre. He has all the Verdian virtues: weight of tone, perfect
legato, trumpeted high notes, crystalline diction – and he even
manages a passable trill in “Ah si, ben mio”. Gavazzeni’s accompaniment
is vital and pacy. It is possible to make little carping criticisms:
he never attempts, in any of his recordings of “Celeste Aida”,
the almost impossible diminuendo Verdi wrote for the culminating
B-flat; in the same aria he wobbles on the second “Ah”; he misses
the last degree of tenderness in the prelude to “O dolci baci”
– but these are tiny flaws in the face of so much superlative
singing.
Comparisons
with later recordings reveal that Bergonzi remained remarkably
consistent in his interpretations. There was little need to
change that which was already demonstrably so good. His delivery
of the great “Forza” showpiece aria is marginally weightier
in the complete 1969 recording under Gardelli, and he holds
a top B more impressively in the “Ballo” aria in his 1962 recording
for Solti – but these are negligible differences. The wonder
is that a so fundamentally lyric a voice endured for so long
singing some of the most demanding spinto roles in the repertory,
when his great contemporary Giuseppe Di Stefano fell by the
wayside. No doubt this was due to Bergonzi’s superior technique,
wiser pacing and more restrained lifestyle. It is probably true
that the recording slightly flatters the real amplitude of his
voice, but the sheer youthful vehemence of Bergonzi’s attack
continues to amaze, as does the beauty of his softer singing.
The
three bonus tracks are from the frenetic series of live opera
radio broadcasts undertaken by RAI in 1951 to celebrate the
fiftieth anniversary of Verdi’s death. Inevitably the sound
is a bit crumbly and constricted but perfectly acceptable. Bergonzi’s
voice still clearly evinces traces of baritone heft and darkness.
He has not yet acquired the squillo which developed over
the next year or two but he has clearly found his correct Fach.
As long as you are not wedded to modern sound, you
will find that these performances are very good in their own
right and many are still available on the Cetra/Warner Fonit
label. Meanwhile, these excerpts serve as a pleasing and historically
fascinating sample of Bergonzi’s earliest recordings just after
his change of tessitura.
The
best representative sample of Bergonzi’s art remains the Decca
double CD “Carlo Bergonzi: the sublime voice”, which features
three of the items on this 1958 recital with the rest culled
from complete recordings, but this single Regis disc is beautifully
transferred and available at super-bargain price. All lovers
of this aristocrat among tenors and great tenor singing in general
should snap it up.
Ralph Moore
