Episode 463. Arie Antiche, Gigli Edition
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I’ve decided to make it Tenor Week here on Countermelody. Earlier this week, we heard Charles Kullman in a smattering of live and studio recordings. Back in November, as I was collating material for the arie antiche episode, which featured more than a century’s worth of great singers, I noticed one singer who frequently programmed such (restyled) Italian baroque songs in his concerts and recordings, the Italian tenor Beniamino Gigli, considered by many to be the greatest tenor, Italian or otherwise, since Caruso. I confess that, in all my years of listening, Gigli was a singer to whose charms I had remained mostly indifferent. But then I began to listen to his recordings of arie antiche, many of them made in the last decade of his career, and I was charmed and delighted by his performances. There is a freshness of voice, an evenness of scale, a headiness of timbre, and, most of all, a sheer delight in singing, that is completely infectious. So today I have compiled most, if not all, of his recordings of this material for an episode of pure vocal escapism. Here is Gigli, all his problematic qualities set aside, singing the songs and arias of Carissimi, Caldara, Cesti, Marcello, Scarlatti, and Bononcini, among others, in a way that invites us to leave our troubled world for a few moments and partake of his vocal stylings of these delectable faux-Baroque bocconcini.
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
Two portraits of Beniamino Gigli as Faust by the great photographer Herman Mishkin.
All tracks feature Beniamino Gigli, tenor
Tommaso Giordani: Caro mio ben. Orchestra conducted by Rainaldo Zamboni [1947]
Antonio Caldara: Sebben crudele. Orchestra conducted by Vito Carnevali [1949]
Giulio Caccini: Amarilli, mia bella. Orchestra conducted by Lawrance Collingwood [1939]
Benedetto Marcello: Il mio bel foco… Quella fiamma che m’accende. Orchestra conducted by Vito Carnevali [1949]
Giacomo Carissimi: Vittoria, mio core! Orchestra conducted by Vito Carnevali [1949]
Giovanni Battista Bassani: Ah, se tu dormi ancora… Posate, dormite. Orchestra conducted by Vito Carnevali [1949]
Antonio Caldara: Come raggio di sol. Orchestra conducted by Rainaldo Zamboni [1947]
Antonio Cesti: Selve amiche. Orchestra conducted by Rainaldo Zamboni [1947]
Francesco Durante: Vergin, tutto amor. Orchestra conducted by Rainaldo Zamboni [1947]
Antonio Cesti: Intorno all’idol mio. Orchestra conducted by Rainaldo Zamboni [1947]
Claudio Monteverdi: Lasciatemi morire (L’Arianna). Orchestra conducted by Rainaldo Zamboni [1947]
George Frideric Handel: Care selve (Atalanta). Orchestra conducted by Vito Carnevali [1949]
Antonio Cesti, arr. Alessandro Parisotti: Tu mancavi a tormentarmi. Orchestra conducted by Vito Carnevali [1949]
Giovanni Battista Fasolo: Cangia, cangia tue voglie. Orchestra conducted by Vito Carnevali [1949]
Alessandro Scarlatti: Già il sole dal Gange. Orchestra conducted by Vito Carnevali [1949]
Anonymous, formerly attributed Alessandro Stradella: Pietà, Signore. Carlo Sabajno, La Scala Orchestra [1932]
Giovanni Bononcini: Per la gloria d’adorarvi (Griselda). Orchestra conducted by Vito Carnevali [1949]