Beniamino Gigli: Milan, London and Berlin Recordings (1936-1938)

By 1936 Gigli was in his mid-forties and what may be termed his third period, vocally speaking. The tone was as golden as ever, and had, if anything, gained in strength while remaining as flexible as ever. As far as his career was concerned, he was at the zenith of his popularity, acclaimed not only in the opera house but as a singing-actor in a number of charming films (the first was made in 1935, both as German and an Italian version), in which his pleasing if ingenuous character was skilfully used for sentimental purposes. As important as these were his many appearances throughout Italy and abroad in concerts. One chapter in his autobiography is entitled "The World is my Audience" and he spoke no more than the truth. Another, covering the period recalled on this CD, was headed "Here, There and Everywhere" and that was just as true. In it he recalls concerts in Germany where he was specially feted, Vienna, Budapest, London, Copenhagen, Buenos Aires. In June 1937 he sang Radames in Aida in Berlin under De Sabata: no wonder his account of Celeste, Aida made the previous month sounds so superbly prepared and delivered.

Perhaps the apex of all this activity for the singer himself was his own Summer Festival in 1937 at Porto Recanati, his home town, where he performed Andrea Chénier with Umberto Berrettoni conducting. By October that year he was making his fifth film. In November and December he gave eighteen recitals in England and Scotland before learning L'amico Fritz at Rome followed a season at La Scala that he considered "exceptionally brilliant": no wonder when one sees details of the casts. In June 1938, when the final four recordings on this disc were cut, he was in London for a four-week season.

His recordings of the period underline the supreme joy in singing that Gigli obviously had during this happy period of world-wide fame. They show him performing with the confidence of the well-loved, generous artist that he was. Making discs in Europe - Berlin, Milan, London - his voice was caught with extraordinary truthfulness as we can now hear in these superbly remastered transfers.