Puccini: Gianni Schicchi; Verdi: Scenes from Don Carlo & Simon Boccanegra (Tito Gobbi, Great Artists of the Century)

Puccini: Gianni Schicchi; Verdi: Scenes from Don Carlo & Simon Boccanegra (Tito Gobbi, Great Artists of the Century)

Puccini: Gianni Schicchi; Verdi: Scenes from Don Carlo & Simon Boccanegra (Tito Gobbi, Great Artists of the Century)
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Composer: Giacomo Puccini
Composer: Giuseppe Verdi
Conductor: Gabriele Santini
Orchestra: Teatro dell'Opera di Roma Chorus & Orchestra
Performer: Tito Gobbi
Performer: Adelio Zagonara
Performer: Alfredo Mariotti
Performer: Anna Maria Canali
Performer: Carlo del Monte
Performer: Claudio Cornoldi
Performer: Fernando Valentini
Performer: Giuliana Raimondi
Performer: Lidia Marimpietri
Performer: Mario Filippeschi
Performer: Paolo Caroli
Performer: Paolo Montarsolo
Performer: Saturno Meletti
Performer: Victoria de Los Angeles
Performer: Virgilio Stoco
Edition: Music CD
Format: Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2004-03-23
Music Label: EMI Classics
Soundtracks:
  1. Gianni Schicchi, opera: Povero Buoso!
  2. Gianni Schicchi, opera: O Simone?...Simone
  3. Gianni Schicchi, opera: Se tutto andrà come si spera
  4. Gianni Schicchi, opera: 'Ai miei cugini Zita e Simone'
  5. Gianni Schicchi, opera: Dunque era vero!
  6. Gianni Schicchi, opera: E non c'è nessun mezzo...
  7. Gianni Schicchi, opera: Avete torto
  8. Gianni Schicchi, opera: Firenze è come un albero fiorito
  9. Gianni Schicchi, opera: Quale aspetto sgomento e desolato!
  10. Gianni Schicchi, opera: Brava la vecchia!
  11. Gianni Schicchi, opera: O mio babbino caro
  12. Gianni Schicchi, opera: Datemi il testamento!
  13. Gianni Schicchi, opera: Nessuno sa che Buoso ha reso il fiato?
  14. Gianni Schicchi, opera: L'è permesso?
  15. Gianni Schicchi, opera: Si corre del notaio
  16. Gianni Schicchi, opera: A me i poderi di Fucecchio
  17. Gianni Schicchi, opera: Hanno saputo che Buoso è crepato!
  18. Gianni Schicchi, opera: Ecco la cappellina!
  19. Gianni Schicchi, opera: Prima un avvertimento...Addio, Firenze
  20. Gianni Schicchi, opera: Ecco il notaro
  21. Gianni Schicchi, opera: Dunque incominicio. In Dei nomini
  22. Gianni Schicchi, opera: Ora siamo alla mula
  23. Gianni Schicchi, opera: Ladro! Ladro!
  24. Gianni Schicchi, opera: Lauretta mia
  25. Gianni Schicchi, opera: Ditemi voi, signori
  26. Simon Boccanegra, opera: Act 1. Favella il Doge ad Amelia Grimaldi?
  27. Simon Boccanegra, opera: Act 1. Dinne, perché in quest'eremo
  28. Simon Boccanegra, opera: Act 1. Orfanella il tetto umile
  29. Simon Boccanegra, opera: Act 1. Dinne, alcun là non vedesti?
  30. Simon Boccanegra, opera: Act 1. Figlia! A tal nome io palpito
  31. Don Carlo, opera: Act 3. Per me giunto �¨ il d�¬ supremo
  32. Don Carlo, opera: Act 3. Che parli tu di morte?
  33. Don Carlo, opera: Act 3. O Carlo, ascolta, la madre
  34. Don Carlo, opera: Act 3. lo morrò, ma lieto in core

Music reviews of Puccini: Gianni Schicchi; Verdi: Scenes from Don Carlo & Simon Boccanegra (Tito Gobbi, Great Artists of the Century)

Music Review: Classic Gobbi-de los Angeles "Gianni Schicchi" from 1959
Rating: 5 Stars

SOURCE: EMI studio recordings. "Gianni Schicchi," complete opera, 1959; "Simon Boccanegra" excerpt, 1958; "Don Carlo" excerpt, 1955.

SOUND: "Gianni Schicchi" was recorded in legitimate, if early stereo back in 1959 and adequately re-mastered for this issuance in 2004. (Throughout most of its history, it has been available only as part of a complete set of Puccini's "Il trittico" that featured Gobbi in "Il tabarro" and de los Angeles in "Suor Angelica." Although the performances are fine, the "stereo" in the other two parts of "The Triptych" has always encountered skepticism from audiophile fans.) In the previous Amazon review, the Santa Fe listener quite properly pointed out the existence of some shatter at intense moments, nevertheless the sound ought to be more than satisfactory for all but those who place higher value on mechanical reproduction than on art.

CAST FOR "GIANNI SCHICCHI." THE SCHICCHI: Gianni Schicchi, a clever fellow with a gift for mimicry who lives near Florence - Tito Gobbi (baritone); Lauretta, his daughter - Victoria de los Angeles (soprano); THE DONATI : Zita, "La Vecchia, "the Old Woman," cousin to the recently deceased Buoso Donati - Anna Maria Canali (contralto); Rinuccio, Zita's nephew, in love with Lauretta - Carlo Del Monte (tenor); Gherardo, Buoso's nephew - Adelio Zagonara (tenor); Nella, Gherardo's wife - Lidia Marimpietri (soprano); Gherardino, Gherardo and Nella's little boy - Claudio Cornoldi (mezzo-soprano); Betto di Signa, Buoso's brother-in-law - Saturno Meletti (bass); Simone, a cousin - Paolo Montarsolo (bass); Marco, Simone's son - Fernando Valentini (baritone); La Ciesca, Marco's wife - Giuliana Raimondi (mezzo-soprano); MISCELLANEOUS FLORENTINES: Maestro Spinelloccio, a physician / Ser Amantio di Nicolao, a notary - Alfredo Mariotti (baritone); Pinellino, a cobbler - Virgilio Stoco (bass); Guccio, a dyer - Paolo Caroli (bass).

CAST, "SIMON BOCCANEGRA" EXCERPT: Simon Boccanegra, Doge of Venice - Tito Gobbi; Amelia, Simon's daughter (who has been reared as Amelia Grimaldi) - Victoria de los Angeles.

CAST, "DON CARLO" EXCERPT: Rodrigo, a Spanish nobleman - Tito Gobbi; Don Carlo, son and heir to King Phillip II of Spain - Mario Fillippeschi (tenor).

CONDUCTOR: Gabriele Santini, with Orchestra dell'Opera di Roma.

TEXTS: This CD contains a complete version of "Gianni Schicchi" (52:56) and excerpts from Act I, Scene 1 of "Simon Boccanegra," beginning with "Favella il Doge / ad Amelia Grimaldi?" (13:52) and Act III, Scene 2 of "Don Carlo" beginning with "Per me giunto è il dì supremo" (8:53).

DOCUMENTATION: No libretto for "Gianni Schicchi." Complete texts for the "Simon Boccanegra" and "Don Carlo" excerpts in German, Italian, English and French. Short essay on the life and career of Tito Gobbi. Track list is tied to a summary of the plot for "Gianni Schicchi."

COMMENTARY: Dante Alighieri (c.1265-1321) was one of the great poets. He has been hailed as the founder of the Italian language (as opposed to the many descendants of Latin scattered across the Italian peninsula.) Early in the 14th Century, at the beginning of a lifelong exile, Dante began "The Divine Comedy," his account of a voyage in the year 1300 through Hell, Purgatory and Paradise.

Dante was far more than just a poet. He had been a cavalryman in war and an active politician in peace. For a short time, he was even a member of the supreme ruling council of Florence. As a member of the vaguely anti-Papal Bianchi (Whites) Party, he had been on the losing end when the pro-Papal Neri (Blacks) conquered Florence and purged their enemies. Dante had been in Rome at the time. He never returned to Florence, for the Neri had decreed that he be burnt alive if ever he set foot in the city again.

In Canto XXX of "Hell," lines 22-44, Dante mentions his countryman, Schicchi. Dante is in the Eighth Circle of Hell, among such liars and falsifiers as Sinon, the Greek soldier left behind on the plains of Troy to explain to the Trojans that the big wooden horse was a friendly gift and monument to their bravery; Potifar's wife, who had sworn that Joseph had attempted to rape her in the Genesis story; a famous counterfeiter, and of course, Gianni Schicchi. Schicchi had been called in by the Donati family to help falsify the will of old Buoso Donati for their benefit. Schicchi had done so, but not before inserting a clause that gave him the best of the herd (whether a mule, as in the opera, or a horse, as others suggest, no-one knows.) In death, true to form, he chases down and clamps his jaws onto the throats of the others in his circle. The poor, condemned souls are quite frightened of him.

Quite clearly, the Donati family had no use for wily old Gianni. But Dante Alighieri must have had his own mixed feelings about the Donati. His wife, the mother of his children, had been born Gemma di Manetto Donati. On the other hand, the head of the Neri who had permanently exiled him had been Corso Donati.

In "La Boheme" and even "Tosca," Puccini had demonstrated that he could handle comic elements but he composed only one comedy, this unlikely farce about the old sinner hilariously perpetrating his great crime. "Gianni Schicchi," the opera is unlike anything else in Puccini's collected works. It has only two pieces in it that might be plucked out as independent arias, and only one of them, Lauretta's "O mio babbino caro," can be called a hit tune. Even though its audiences do not typically depart while whistling its airs, "Gianni Schicchi" is unquestionably a small-scale masterpiece. It works on sound recordings. It works still better on stage--when performed in accordance with Puccini's elaborate stage directions, that is, for then it becomes a genuinely funny musical gem.

Gianni Schicchi was one of the great Tito Gobbi's signature roles. This version is the first and better of his two studio recordings. This performance has always been regarded as a winner. And don't forget that Victoria de los Angeles is as much a star in this set as Gobbi. The rest of the cast is first-rate, too ... except for the unspeakable Carlo del Monte (whose unwelcome presence also blights de los Angeles' otherwise attractive recording of "La Traviata.")

Forget about minor imperfections in the technology, though. Just grit your teeth when del Monte moans and groans. Snap this one up!

Five stars.
More Puccini: Gianni Schicchi; Verdi: Scenes from Don Carlo & Simon Boccanegra (Tito Gobbi, Great Artists of the Century) free music reviews:
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