Beniamino Gigli - The Very Best of Beniamino Gigli (2003)

Gigli made his debut in 1914 and began recording in 1918; the recordings on these CDs were made between 1931 and 1949. They are, in fact, not “the very best” of Gigli. Early was better in this tenor’s case, mainly because bad habits began to creep into his singing once he became very famous. He started to sob and bend the vocal line; he overstated dynamic changes irritatingly and aspirated vowels (so that for instance, “Addio” came out “Ad–hee-hee-o”); he believed that more was more. Those observations aside, were we today in the presence of such singing as we find in this two and a half hours, we likely would fall prostrate at the tenor’s feet.

The tone is simply gorgeous–pure honey, with a ping at the top, capable of being drawn to a whisper or pushed to a great exclamation. The sustained pianissimo singing in the first line of Alvaro’s big scene from Forza, including the A-flat on “seno”, the sweet, long line in Des Grieux’s “Sogno” and in Faust’s “Salva dimora” (this last with a glorious high-C), a heartbreakingly beautiful beginning to “E la solita storia”–these are golden and unmatchable. But a maudlin ending to the L’Arlesiana aria, a weirdly insensitive close to “Una furtiva lagrima”, manic overstatement in Chenier’s arias, and a near sob-fest in Riccardo’s third-act aria from Un Ballo make sustained listening difficult. This is not to denigrate Gigli’s art, but this two-CD set should be listened to in smallish doses–Gigli’s myriad mannerisms can make you as crazy as his glories can soothe and delight. But again, we are in the presence of one of the 20th century’s great tenors–no doubt about it.