Verdi: Urna fatale (from La Forza del Destino)

The privileged position of the baritone-voice in Verdi´s operas was something new at the time and developed into a vocal category of its own: the "Verdi-baritone".

Verdi's baritone-roles can roughly be divided into two categories: the fathers and rulers, who are in moral conflict between the love for their children and moral and/or political duties (Rigoletto, Amonasro, Simon Boccanegra, Nabucco, Jacopo Foscari, Guido di Montfort or father Germont), and youthful men of honour and/or villains, who usually turn out to be the tenor's rival (CarIo in "Forza", Renato, Carlo V, lago. Cote di Luna).

Forming part of Presier’s celebration of the 200th anniversary of Verdi, this collection is a unique and fascinating account of the performances over the years 1904-1950.

Rosvaenge recorded exclusively for Electrola and Schlusnus for Grammophon. They had made just one duet record for Grammophon in 1933. These broadcast recordings are among the finest these two artists ever made, when both were at the height of their careers.

Part of the Legendary Singers series, Mattia Battistini made his debut in 1878 in Donizetti’s La Favorita which was an immediate success. His career lasted almost 50 years, his last performance being given only one year before his death where his voice was apparently still in top condition.

Knut Skram is Norway’s foremost baritone. During a distinguished career since his breakthrough at Glyndebourne in 1969 as Guglielmo in Così, he has performed all the major baritone roles, including Germont in “La Traviata”, Ford in “Falstaff”, the title role in “Macbeth”, and Don Carlos in “La forza del destino”. He has appeared at major opera houses throughout the world, alongside the greatest artists of the day.

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.