Beniamino Gigli (1890-1957)
The Gigli Edition Vol. 13 • London Recordings 1947-1949
By the time the present recordings were made Gigli was in
his late fifties, yet his career showed little sign of of declining. As he
recounts in his autobiography he was in demand all over the world, and -
indefatigably - he kept up a heavy schedule of concerts, mixed with sporadic
appearances in opera. Indeed he relates that he is not going to bore readers
with the many places he visited as it would become like a railway timetable.
His popularity was enormous, his singing loved by a public well beyond those
who regularly attended opera houses.
Gigli made these recordings at the time he was touring
around Britain, in the winter, 1947-8, and the spring of 1949. Although there are
now a few threads in the golden tone, they are seldom apparent. In this fourth period
of his career he sensibly reserved his resources, using the middle register of
his voice to alluring effect, although he shows in the moments he puts pressure
on his tone in the upper register, that he is still capable of sustaining his
top notes with appreciable élan, and the quiet mezza voce is as honeyed
as ever, as he evinces in almost all of these songs.
Gigli's
concerts often began with arie antiche, a kind of amorphous term to
cover songs and airs by Italian composers bridging the 17th and 18th centuries.
Today we are re-discovering the works of composers such as Alessandro
Scarlatti, Cesti and Caldara, and performing them in what is considered an
authentic manner. In Gigli's day they were virtually forgotten apart from their
occasional performance by Gigli and other singers in recitals, transposed to
suit the voice in question. As is his wont, Gigli pours his heart out in these
predominantly sad, minor-key pieces, adjusting them to his own requirements and
gently caressing the line in his own inimitable way. Heard on end they can seem
monotonous, but taken one at a time, as was the intention in the days of
shellac discs, they are all beguiling. 'Arianna's lament', all that survives of
Monteverdi's lost opera on the Ariadne legend, is really a mezzo piece, but
nobody is going to criticize Gigli for including it in his repertory when he
sings it with so much feeling. The same goes for Cara selve from Handel's
Atalanta.
Gigli had an eclectic repertory, as this CD eminently
illustrates. It begins with an entirely unidiomatic account of Mozart's Das
Veilchen sung in Italian (Gigli was not afraid to sing in French and English,
as the next two items tell us, but baulked at German). Nevertheless, even given
the dullish orchestral arrangements, Gigli makes the music his own. The
often-sung 'Berceuse' from Godard's otherwise forgotten Jocelyn, was
always a Gigli favourite in concert, and he lavishes his silkiest tone on its
endearing melody. There his French is strongly accented, as is his English in 'Ah!
Sweet mystery of life' from Victor Herbert's once-popular operetta. Later in
this programme he sings two typically Sicilian songs, one by Mazziotti and one
by Gibilaro, originally paired on a ten-inch 78rpm record. These were obviously
favourites with the tenor, and he brings to them all the passionate sincerity
that was always a hallmark of his interpretations, including audible sighs in
the second of them.
In some ways the most interesting pieces on the whole disc
are those originally paired on DA 1937. These are arias from operas that Gigli
undertook comparatively late in his career, and he has something discerning to
say about both in his memoirs. Alfano's Don Juan de Manara was
originally presented as L'ombra di Don Giovanni in 1914. Later the
composer worked on it constantly, making many emendations. In its revised form
it was given its première at Florence's Teatro Comunale in 1941 with Tullio
Serafin conducting. Gigli studied his rôle with the composer and made several
suggestions for altering the score, one of which caused a duet to be turned
into the gloriously lyrical aria we have here. No wonder it proved the evening's
greatest success. In spite of the opera's triumph at the time, Gigli
perceptibly comments that, for all its merits, the work is flawed, as it shows
Don Juan as a reformed character from the start and has no drama worth speaking
of.
Four years earlier, at the Rome Opera, Gigli first attempted
the title part in Mascagni's pastoral comedy, L'amico Fritz. He relates
that it became his favourite Mascagni opera, and we can hear why, listening to
his perfect incarnation of the shy but passionate hero displayed here and in
the better-known 'Cherry Duet', which he recorded in 1951 with his daughter
Rina (to be included in Vol. 14). One can judge why Gigli thought the rôle
perfectly suited to his voice, while realising that the opera's
characterisation was one-dimensional.
In spite of rather dozy accompaniments, from a presumably
compliant conductor and orchestra, this disc shows that the great tenor still
had much to offer in the latter stages of a career that had a few years to run.
Above all, the performances disclose once more Gigli's highly individual
timbre, his outgoing personality and self-evident charm of style.
Alan Blyth © 2006
