SIDE ONE
Band I —"I Pagliacci" (Leoncavallo): Vesti la giubba (Act I )
with MEMBERS OF LA SCALA ORCHESTRA, MILAN, conducted by FRANCO GHIONE. Recorded in Milan, July 1934.
Stage debut—Teatro Reale dell'Opera, Rome, April 7th 1942.
Leoncavallo's popular work was the first complete opera to be recorded by Gigli and this performance of Canio's recitative and
aria is, in fact, an excerpt from the recording which also featured Iva Pacetti as Ned-da and Mario Basiola as Tonto with
members of the La Scala ensemble under Franco Ghione.
The rerle of the jealousy-racked clown was one of Gigli's favourites—so much so that he continued to sing in Pagliacci right up
to the end of his operatic career. His last performa3,te.was in the conventional double-bill of "Cav" and `"Pag" a: Porto Recanati
during the summer of 1954.

Band 2 — "Rigoletto" (Verdi):La donna ì, mobile (Act 3)
with MEMrERS OF LA SCALA ORCHESTRA, MILAN, conducted by FRANCO GHIONE. Recorded in Milan, March 1934.
Gigli's début i this opera dates back to January 11th, 15:'. The performance took place at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and
other principrls of the Metropolitan Company includevi Mabel Garrison, Giuseppe Danise and Léon Rothier.
As the tenor r dints out in his memoirs—"I knew Verdi's famous opera almost by heart long before I ever had to study it. When
one thinks of the phenomenal success '.t has always had, it is amusing to recall fiat after its première at the Teatro la I 'nice,
Venice on March 11th, 1851, a Pit-is journal, the `Gazette Musicale', con=
°coned it with the words: `fl n'v a pas de melodie'."

Band 3 — "Tosca" (Puccini) : E lucevan le stelle (Act 3)
with MEMBERS OF LA SCALA ORCHESTRA, MILAN, conducted by FRANCO GHIONE. Recorded in Milan, March 1934.
Stage debut—Teatro Massimo, Palermo, February 1915.
Gigli in his prime was the ideal exponent of Put cini's music. In the summer of 1930, Gigli song at Covent Garden in four
operas, including Tosca. He had uttered the final phrase of sobbing despair in E lucevan le stelle and was expecting the first
ripple of applause to break through the short orchestral postlude to the aria. To his surprise and mortification, not a sound
came from the audience and so the conductor swept the orchestra on towards Tosca's Act III entrance. Of course, at the end
of the opera, there was a tremendous ovation for the tenor, with innumerable curtain-calls. But it was not until the following
day that Gigli, after digesting the press criticisms,

Band 4— "La Bohème" (Puccini): J Che gelida manina (Act I )
with Orchestra conducted by
SIR EUGENE GOOSSENS.
Recorded in London, June 1931.
Stage debut—Monte Carlo, March 1919.
It was during a performance of La Bohème directed by Vittorio Gui at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden on June 13th,
1938 that Gigli showed his prowess as a fireman. As Rodolfo the poet, he had consigned his "play" to the flames of the garret
stove. About halfway through Che gelida manina . . . he heard a loud crackling and saw smoke and flames issuing from the
pipe. Still singing, the imperturbable tenor emptied the contents of a bottle of water into the stove but to no avail. His SOS to
the wings "please fire, please fire" which he deftly interpolated into the famous aria, produced a jug of water, but this also was
equally ineffective. While Mimi kept the ball—and the music rolling with her aria, Gigli finally subdued the miniature
conflagration with a huge pail of water. And not a note had been lost! Next morning a Daily Herald headline read: "Gigli puts
fire into La Ilohème. - -

Band 5—"L'Elisir d'Amore" (Donizetti): Una furtiva lagrima (Act 2)
with Orchestra conducted by SIR JOHN BARBIR
in London, March 1933.
Stage debut—Teatro Colon, Buenos Aires, August Ilth 1928.
The role of Nemorino, the naive country bumpkin who finds through a "love potion",. happiness, an unexpected inheritance,
and finally, in spite of a dashing soldier rival, the girl of his choice, was always one of'= Gigli's favourites. And perhaps no
other Italian tenor ever endowed Una furtiva lagrima with such mellifluous pathos.

Band 6 — "Aida" (Verdi): Celeste Aida, forma divina (Act I )
with Orchestra cdnducted by WALTER GOEHR. Recorded in London, May 1937.
Stage debut—Teatro dell'Opera, Rome, March 1937.
Gigli, essentially a lyric tenor (or at most a lirico-spinto), after long and assiduous preparation, decided to undertake the test-
ing rate of Radames. Already pre-occupied with his imminent début, his agitation may well be imagined when on the morning
of the dress rehearsal, he received by post a black-bordered card inscribed "Today Beniamino Gigli departed this life". At first
he thought it might be a practical joke, but as the day wore on he became obsessed with superstitious forebodings of a
disastrous first night. Then it occurred to him to study the card more closely, whereupon he noticed in tiny lettering at the
bottom "The little angel was only three months old". He dis-


SIDE TWO
Band 1 Manon" (Massenet): O dolce incanto (II Sogno) (Act 2)
with Orchestra conducted by
SIR JOHN BARBIROLLI.
Recorded in London, June 1931.
Stage debut—Teatro Carlo Felice, Genoa, December 26th 1914.
Massenet's Manors was Gigli's second opera, and he found that he was to sing opposite an already celebrated soprano,
temperamental Rosina Storchio. From the first rehearsals she showed annoyance at having to partner an inexperienced wing
man, a situation which could not fail to damp the passionate ardour of the wretched Des Grieux. On the opening night, Gigli
scored a resounding success with his interpretation of "The Dream", and when the enthusiastic audience demanded an encore,
the young tenor eventually acceded to their wishes, presumably with one uneasy eye on the impatient diva. At the end of the
act the irate lady lost no time in accusing her partner of hiring a claque, an expense which id any case would have been
completely beyond the means of a mere beginner.

Band 2 "Carmen" (Bizet): II fior the avevi
a me to dato (Flower Song) (.Act 2) with MEMBERS OF LA SCALA ORCHESTRA,
MILAN, conducted by FRANCO GHIONE. Recorded in Milan, April 1935.
Stage debut—Teatro Reale dell'Opera, Rome, December 23rd 1941.
Gigli's assumption of the réle of Don José proved to • be an important lesson in the necessity for emotional control. As he says
"It was the night of the dress rehearsal. I lost myself in the part . .. I was really in love with Carmen (sung by Gianna
Pederzini), tortured by jealousy of Carmen,-consumed with longing for Carmen. In the last act when Don José implores
Carmen to come away with him and she contemptuously rejects him, I forgot the very existence of Beniamino Gigli. I was
Don José. I lived his agony of despair as tears welled up and a strange tightness constricted my throat. I broke down. An
excess of emotion had rendered singing impossible.

Band 3 "I Pescatori di Perle" (Bizet): • Mi par d'udir ancora (Act I )
with Orchestra conducted by SIR EUGENE GOOSSENS. Recorded in London, July 1931.
Although this opera does not figure in Gigli's stage repertoire he recorded the duet Del tempio al limitar twice, first in 1919
with Pacini and then in 1927 with De Luca; the duet Non hai compreso in 1951 with his daughter Rina, and the aria Mi par
d'udir also twice, in 1929 and again in 1931. It

Band 4 "Serse" (Handel): Ombra mai fu (Largo) (Act I)
with Orchestra conducted by SIR JOHN BARBIROLLI.
Organ accompaniment by Herbert Dawson. Recorded in London, March 1933.
It comes as something of a surprise to learn that the Opera Serse (one of Handel's operatic failures, incidentally) was, in fact, a
comic oliera with a plot based on Xerxes' explojts. It was not an opera buffa in the Neapolitan style of, say, Pergolesi, but a
piece rather in the manner of Alessandro Scarlatti, much admired by Handel.
The aria Ombra mai fu, sung originally by the male soprano Caffarelli and since by many great artists including Caruso and
Gigli, remains as an impressive and well loved concert piece—sole relic of an unsuccessful and forgotten comic opera.

Band 5 Agnus Dei (Bizet)
with THE BERLIN STATE Or -.A ORCHESTRA and Chorus conducted by BRUN') SEIDLER-WINKLER. conducted by
BRUNO SEIDLER-WINKLER.
Recorded in Berlin, May 1936.
On November 27th, 1921, Gigli took part in a memorial concert for Enrico Caruso given by artists of the Mew oolitan,
including Alda,' Galli-Curvi. F.. r r, Martinelli and I)e Luca
li sang one of Cart', 's favourite piece---Bizet's Agnus Dei. This is a vocal arrangers.9nt of a movement from the French con;
er's incidental music to Daudet's "L'Arlésienne".

Band 6—"Faust" (Gounod):
Salve, dimora, casta e pura (Act 3)
with Orchestra conducted by
SIR EUGENE GOOSSENS.
Recorded in London, July 1931
Stage debut—Rio de Janeiro, August 1935; Teatro
Colon, Buenos Aires, September 10th 1935.
Gounod's Faust (no less than Boito's) was a part which eminently suited Gigli's lyric tenor. There must 1; 'many pre-war
habitués of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, who recall his glowing high C at the end of Salve dimora.
The singer retained at least one painful recollection of the Colon première. Marguerite, demented, lies in her prison rn11, from
time to time vacantly strewing straw from her palliasse about the floor. Enter Faust (Gigli 1 to rescue her and to his horror
slips and falls ignominiou.,;y- flat on his back. What followed must have seemed a tragi-comic intrusion of Othello's death
scene into the opera, for Gigli in an attempt not to make matters worse by staggering to his feet, dragged himself painfully
towards Marguerite. Probably no operatic Faust had more reason to sing Ahimè! qual tormento! (Alas! what torture!) than
Beniamino Gigli on that fateful occasion.
GWYN MORRIS