Verdi: Otello

Not tall or ideally loud enough, his voice past its prime when (at over 50) he took the role into his repertoire, Giovanni Martinelli's Otello was a somewhat handicapped creation. He nevertheless... — Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 More…

Release Date: 27th Jun 2005
Catalogue No: 8111018-19
Label: Naxos
Series: Historical, Great Opera Recordings

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Verdi: Otello

Work length2:29:58

Recorded: 12 February 1938

Opening announcement by Milton Cross

Track length1:58

Act I: Una vela! (Chorus, Montano, Cassio, Iago, Roderigo)

Track length3:44

Act I: Esultate! (Otello, Chorus, Iago, Roderigo)

Track length4:43

Act I: Fuoco di gioia! (Chorus)

Track length2:20

Act I: Roderigo, beviam! (Iago, Cassio, Chorus, Roderigo)

Track length1:27

Act I: Inaffia l'ugola! (Iago, Cassio, Roderigo, Chorus)

Track length3:38

Act I: Capitano, v'attende (Montano, Cassio, Iago, Roderigo, Chorus)

Track length1:21

Act I: Ola! Che avvien? (Otello, Iago, Cassio, Montano)

Track length3:47

Act I: Gia nella notte (Otello, Desdemona)

Track length2:10

Act I: Quando narravi (Desdemona, Otello)

Track length3:23

Act I: Venga la morte! (Otello, Desdemona)

Track length7:01

Act II: Non ti cruciar (Iago, Cassio)

Track length2:49

Act II: Credo in un Dio crudel [Iago's Credo] (Iago)

Track length5:10

Act II: Eccola (Iago)

Track length1:15

Act II: Cio m'accora (Iago, Otello)

Track length4:52

Act II: Dove guardi splendono (Chorus, Iago, Desdemona, Otello)

Track length3:58

Act II: D'un uom che geme (Desdemona, Otello, Iago, Emilia)

Track length5:08

Act II: Desdemona rea! (Otello, Iago)

Track length1:41

Act II: Ora e per sempre addio (Otello, Iago)

Track length3:46

Act II: Era la notte (Iago, Otello)

Track length4:36

Act II: Si, pel ciel (Otello, Iago)

Track length6:11

Act III: Introduction

Track length1:18

Act III: La vedetta del porto (Herald, Otello, Iago)

Track length1:21

Act III: Dio ti giocondi, o sposo (Desdemona, Otello)

Track length10:14

Act III: Dio! Mi potevi scagliar (Otello, Iago)

Track length4:48

Act III: Vieni, l'aula e deserta (Iago, Cassio, Otello)

Track length3:50

Act III: Questa e una ragna (Iago, Cassio, Otello)

Track length1:48

Act III: Come la uccidero? (Otello, Iago, Chorus)

Track length1:13

Act III: Evviva il Leon di San Marco! (Lodovico, Otello, Desdemona, Emilia, Iago, Roderigo, Chorus)

Track length6:03

Act III: A terra!...si...nel livido fango (Desdemona, Emilia, Cassio, Roderigo, Lodovico, Chorus, Iago, Otello)

Track length10:48

Act IV: Era piu calmo? (Emilia, Desdemona)

Track length4:11

Act IV: Mia madre aveva una povera ancella [Willow Song] (Desdemona, Emilia)

Track length8:30

Act IV: Ave Maria (Desdemona)

Track length8:17

Act IV: Chi e la? (Desdemona, Otello)

Track length3:27

Act IV: Calma come la tomba (Otello, Emilia, Desdemona, Cassio, Iago, Lodovico, Montano)

Track length3:32

Act IV: Niun mi tema (Otello, Cassio, Lodovico, Montano)

Track length5:40

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Recorded 1938

Reviews

2010

Not tall or ideally loud enough, his voice past its prime when (at over 50) he took the role into his repertoire, Giovanni Martinelli's Otello was a somewhat handicapped creation. He nevertheless wrung the heart, as Olin Downes (New YorkTimes) put it, by conviction, subtlety and pathos: 'Mr Martinelli was Otello, in facial play and tragic bearing, the suggestion of great uncontrollable force and agony – a figure which never failed to evoke admiration and pity.' On records he does more: almost every phrase comes to take the impress of his voice and style. The taut concentration of tone matches the emotional intensity; at every point a close and receptive study of the score has yielded its reward. Certainly there are things his voice would not do (take the high A flats at the end of the Love Duet softly, for instance), but it was still an impressive instrument. Walter Legge reported of his singing the role at Covent Garden in 1937 that 'a thread of pure gold runs through his voice', and he added that it was 'unlike any other tenor in the world today' save possibly the young Jüssi Björling, 23 years Martinelli's junior. At its best, as in the monologue, Martinelli's Otello remains finest of all.
The recording was pirated from radio and its transfer now is a triumph of Ward Marston's skill and hard work. He explains in a producer's note that the originals were not available for him to work on, but he has cleaned and restored so that the performance emerges more vividly than ever before. And what a performance! The conductor Panizza was Toscanini's deputy in earlier years, and something of the master's energy is felt, in company with more flexibility and willingness to accommodate his singers. In Act 1 especially he makes frightening demands upon orchestra and chorus who, it must be said, meet them dauntlessly.
The recording, which places everything in such a bright light, is less than kind to Elisabeth Rethberg. Until recently hers had been a voice of special and most beautiful quality; but too many Aidas seem to have left their mark and the close recording catches an untoward hardness, though there is no mistaking the stylishness and a high degree of surviving mastery.
Tibbett's Iago is superbly caught, the best account of the role on records, not forgetting Gobbi. It is a mercurial portrayal, now genial, now ironic or insinuative, nakedly malignant.
Like Martinelli, his response to every phrase is specific and vivid; and his voice resonates richly.
It was for him the recording was made. Anyway, he deserves our gratitude twice over – for his own magnificent performance and for this inestimable gift to posterity.

February 2006

…Giovanni Martinelli's Otello… The taut concentration of tone matches the emotional intensity; at every point a close and receptive study of the score has yielded its reward. The conductor Panizza was Toscanini's deputy in earlier years, and something of the master's energy is felt, in company with more flexibility and willingness to accommodate his singers. Tibbett's lago is superbly caught, the best account of the role on records, not forgetting Gobbi. It is a mercurial portrayal, now genial, now ironic or insinuative, nakedly malignant.

Verdi: Otello

2 CDs

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