Tito Gobbi - Complete solo Recordings
This 5 CD set, devoted to the outstanding Italian baritone Tito Gobbi, is a further release in the EMI Classics ICON series. The bulk of this set is devoted to all the solo recordings that Gobbi made during his entire career, brought together for the first time.
The first CD begins with seven operatic arias (by Cilea, Leoncavallo, Mozart, Verdi and Puccini), and two songs (‘Musica proibita’ by Gastaldon and ‘Famme sunn’a cu’tte’ by Ruccione) that Gobbi made for the Italian branch of EMI in 1942. The songs were released only in Italy on a 78rpm record that had extremely limited circulation because of the Second World War, and are re-issued here by EMI for the first time.
The programme continues on CD 1 with further recordings that Gobbi made for EMI from 1948 onwards of operatic arias and songs, including two songs (‘La montanara’ and ‘Take the Sun’) that were featured in the 1949 film The Glass Mountain that brought the baritone to a wide cinema audience. He eventually appeared in more than 20 films.
CD 2 contains the rest of the songs and arias made up to the end of the 78rpm era, and finishes with the song ‘Nenia d’amore’ recorded in Italy in 1953 for the film Canzoni a due voci.
In 1955, Gobbi made his first LP recital album (with the forces of the Rome Opera), but it was not released at the time due to concerns about the technical quality of the recording. With the advance of technology the problems were subsequently able to be corrected and Gobbi later gave permission for material from the album to be released in various LP collections. The whole album is now heard here complete for the first time.
In 1964, EMI made a two-LP set called The Art of Tito Gobbi in which each of the four LP sides was devoted to a different genre, namely Operatic Arias, Classical Songs and Arias, Italian and Neapolitan Popular Songs, and Romantic Songs. The programme repeated some of the repertoire on the as yet unpublished 1955 album but ranged much more widely, especially in the field of song. The operatic arias were made with the Philharmonia Orchestra under Alberto Erede; the classical songs with a small chamber ensemble consisting of harpsichord, cello and guitar; the popular songs with members of the Orchestra of the Rome Opera, and the romantic songs with the distinguished pianist Gerald Moore. This project marked the end of Gobbi’s recording career in solo repertoire.
The rest of the set covers extracts from some of the acclaimed complete opera recordings that Gobbi made for EMI, including Lucia di Lammermoor, Tosca, Aida and Rigoletto with the legendary soprano Maria Callas. Other operas featured are L’elisir d’amore, Simon Boccanegra, Don Carlo, Aida, Il tabarro, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Pagliacci and Gianni Schicchi. The programme ends with a memorable reminder of one of Gobbi’s finest assumptions, the title role in Verdi’s sublime Falstaff. ( EMI )
Tracklist
CD 1
The 78rpm Recordings
Francesco Cilea 1866 - 1950
1 Come due tizzi accesi (L’arlesiana)
Ruggero Leoncavallo 1857 - 1919
Zaza
2 Buona Zaza
3 Zaza, piccola zingara (Zaza)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1756 - 1791
4 Deh vieni alla finestra (Don Giovanni)
Giuseppe Verdi 1813 - 1901
Don Carlo
5 Convien qui dirci addio!...Per me giunto
6 O Carlo, ascolta...Io morro ma lieto in core
Giacomo Puccini 1858 - 1924
7 Minne, dalla mia casa son partito (La fanciulla del West)
Stanislaus Gastaldon 1861 - 1939
8 Musica proibita
Ermenegildo Ruccione
9 Famme sunn’a cu’tte
Members of the Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano / Umberto Berretoni
Giuseppe Verdi
10 Era la notte (Otello)
Gioachino Rossini 1792 - 1868
11 Largo al factotum (Il barbiere di Siviglia)
Ruggero Leoncavallo
12 Si puo - (Pagliacci, Prologue)
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra / Alberto Erede
Nicola Valente 1881 - 1946
13 Torna!
Francesco Paolo Tosti 1846 - 1916
14 ’A vucchella
Luigi Denza 1846 - 1922
15 Occhi di fata
Rodolfo Falvo 1874 - 1936
16 Dicitencello vuje
Orchestra / Alberto Erede
Giuseppe Verdi
17 Urna fatale (La forza del destino)
18 Vanne!...Credo in un Dio crudel (Otello)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Le nozze di Figaro
19 Non piu andrai
20 Aprite un po’ quegli’occhi
Philharmonia Orchestra / James Robertson
Luigi Pigarelli
21 La montanara (from the film The Glass Mountain)
Accordion - Guitar
Nino Rota 1911 - 1979
22 Take the Sun (The Glass Mountain)
CD 2
Geni Sadero 1886 - 1961
1 Gondoliera veneziana
2 Amuri, amuri
Orchestra / Philip Green
Giuseppe Verdi
3 Di Provenza il mar (La traviata)
4 Pari siamo! (Rigoletto)
Philharmonia Orchestra / Walter Susskind
5 Pieta, rispetto, amore (Macbeth)
6 Alzati! la tuo figlio...Eri tu (Un ballo in maschera)
London Symphony Orchestra / Warwick Braithwaite
Teodoro Cottrau 1827 - 1879
7 Santa Lucia arr. Gibilaro
Eduardo di Capua 1865 - 1917
8 ’O sole mio
Francesco Paolo Tosti
9 Marechiare
Traditional
10 Fenesta che lucive arr. Meglio
London Symphony Orchestra / Armando la rosa Parodi
Dino Olivieri
11 Nenia d’amore (Canzoni a due voci)
Orchestra / Dino Olivieri
Hector Berlioz 1803 - 1869
12 Chanson de la puce (La Damnation de Faust)
Gioachino Rossini
Guillaume Tell
13 Guglielmo, sol per te...La valanga
14 Resta immobile
Giuseppe Verdi
15 Vanne!...Credo in un Dio crudel (Otello)
16 Ah, prigioniero io sono...Dio di Giuda! (Nabucco)
17 Perfidi!...Pieta, rispetto, amore (Macbeth)
18 Quand’ero paggio (Falstaff)
Umberto Giordano 1867 - 1948
19 Nemico della patria (Andrea Chenier)
20 La donna russa (Fedora)
CD 3
Francesco Cilea
1 Ecco il monologo (Adriana Lecouvreur)
Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari 1876 - 1948
2 Aprile o bella (Serenata) (I gioielli della Madonna)
Giacomo Puccini
3 Minnie, dalla mia casa (La fanciulla del West)
Coro e Orchestra del Teatro dell’Opera di Roma / Oliviero di Fabritiis
Gioachino Rossini
4 Resta immobile (Guillaume Tell)
Gaetano Donizetti
5 Come Paride vezzoso (L’elisir d’amore)
Giuseppe Verdi
6 Plebe! patrizi! (Simon Boccanegra)
7 Vanne!...Credo in un Dio crudel (Otello)
8 Quand’ero paggio (Falstaff)
Francesco Cilea
9 Ecco il monologo (Adriana Lecouvreur)
Umberto Giordano
10 La donna russa (Fedora)
Philharmonia Orchestra
Alberto Erede
Francesco Cavalli 1602 - 1676
11 Beato chi puo (Xerse)
Antonio Vivaldi 1678 - 1741
12 Piango, gemo (Piango, gemo)
Giacomo Carissimi 1605 - 1674
13 Vittoria, vittoria mio core
Francesco Durante 1684 - 1755
14 Vergin, tutto amor preghiera
Giuseppe Giordani 1743 - 1798
15 Caro mio ben
Giovanni Paisiello 1740 - 1816
16 Nel cor piu non mi sento (La molinara)
Traditional Neapolitan
17 Tre giorni son che Nina
Alessandro Scarlatti 1660 - 1725
18 O cessate di piagarmi (Il Pompeo)
Claudio Monteverdi 1567 - 1643
19 Rosa del ciel (Orfeo)
Roy Jesson harpsichord (11 - 16, 18, 19) -
Derek Simpson cello (11 - 14, 16, 18, 19)
Freddie Phillips guitar (15, 17, 19)
Traditional
20 Fenesta che lucive
Teodoro Cottrau 1827 - 1879
21 Santa Lucia
Gaetano Lama 1886 - 1950
22 Silenzio cantatore
Luigi Pigarelli
23 La montanara
Ernesto Tagliaferri 1889 - 1937
24 Piscatori ’e Pusilleco
Giovanni D’Anzi 1906 - 1974
25 O mia bella Madonnina
26 Mattinata fiorentina
Geni Sadero
27 Gondoliera veneziana
28 Amuri, amuri
Members of the Orchestra del Teatro dell’Opera di Roma /
Annibale Bizzelli
Stanislaus Gastaldon
29 Musica proibita
Ottorino Respighi
30 Nebbie
Traditional arr. Wolf-Ferrari
31 Se gli alberi
CD 4
Francesco Paolo Tosti
1 Malia
2 Donna, vorrei morir
3 ’A vucchella
4 Ideale
Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari
5 Serenata
6 Commiato
Renato Brogi 1873 - 1924
7 Visione veneziana
Pietro Mascagni
8 Serenata
Luigi Denza
9 Occhi di fata
Mayer
10 Biondina in gondoletta arr. Moore
Gerald Moore piano
Gaetano Donizetti
Lucia di Lammermoor
11 Cruda, funesta smania
12 La pietade in suo favore
13 Che fia - ...Se tradirmi tu potrai
L’elisir d’amore
14 La donna e originale ...Venti scudi
Nicola Monti tenor
Orchestra del Teatro dell’Opera di Roma / Gabriele Santini
Giuseppe Verdi
Rigoletto
15 Pari siamo
16 Figlia! Mia padre!
17 Ah, veglia, o donna
18 Povero Rigoletto.....Cortigiani, vil raza dannata
19 Della vendetta alfin giunge l’instante!....Lassu in cielo
Maria Callas (16, 17, 19) & Luisa Mandelli (18) sopranos
Giuse Gerbino mezzo-soprano (16, 17)
Giuseppe di Stefano tenor (17, 19)
Renato Ercolani tenor (18) - William Dickie baritone (18)
Carlo Forti (18) & Nicola Zaccaria (19) basses
Coro e Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano
CD 5
Simon Boccanegra
1 Dinne...Figlia! A tal nome palpito
Victoria de los Angeles soprano
Orchestra del teatro dell’Opera di Roma / Gabriele Santini
Aida
2 Ciel! mio padre!...Rivedrai le forests imbalsamate
Maria Callas soprano
Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano / Tullio Serafin
Don Carlo
3 Questo arcano...Dio, che nell’alma infondere
4 Per me giunto e il di supremo
5 O Carlo, ascolta
Mario Filippeschi tenor (3) - Plinio Clabassi bass (3)
Coro e Orchestra del teatro dell’Opera di Roma / Gabriele Santini
Giacomo Puccini
Tosca
6 Tre sbirri, una carozza
7 Tosca e un buon falco!
8 La povera mia cena fu interrota
Maria Callas soprano (8) - Angelo Mercuriali tenor (6)
Dario Caselli bass (7)
Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano
Victor de Sabata
Il tabarro
9 Nulla! Silenzio!
Orchestra del Teatro dell’Opera di Roma
Vincenzo Bellezza
Gioachino Rossini
Il barbiere di Siviglia
10 La ran la le ra... Largo al factotum
11 All’idea di quel metallo
12 Dunque io son
Maria Callas soprano (12) - Luigi Alva tenor (11)
Philharmonia Orchestra / Alceo Galliera
Ruggero Leoncavallo
Pagliacci
13 Si puo -
Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano
Lovro von Matacic
Giacomo Puccini
Gianni Schicchi
14 Ladro!...Via! via!...Lauretta mia...Ditemi voi, signori
Victoria de los Angeles soprano - Carlo del Monte tenor
Ensemble (Anna Maria Canali - Adelio Zagonara - Lidia Marimpietri
Claudio Cornoldi - Saturno Meletti - Paolo Montarsolo - Fernando Valentini - Giuliana Raymondi - Alfredo Mariotti)
Orchestra del Teatro dell’Opera di Roma / Gabriele Santini
Giuseppe Verdi
Falstaff
15 L’onore! Ladri!
Philharmonia Orchestra
Herbert von Karajan
