Francesco Marconi - Tu che a Dio spiegasti l'ali (1908) скачать в хорошем качестве

Francesco Marconi - Tu che a Dio spiegasti l'ali (1908)

Francesco Marconi (1853-1916) was born in Rome to an ironmonger and his wife. Raised in humble circumstances, Marconi (“Checco” to all those who knew him) began his working life as a carpenter, building coffins, among other things. In his later years, Marconi was quite proud of his working class beginnings and enjoyed showing off the handiwork of his youth to visiting friends. As he toiled away at the carpentry shop, Marconi could often be found singing to himself. The teen also enjoyed sharing his voice with the local girls. One of his favorite pastimes was sauntering down to the banks of the Tiber, where he would serenade young ladies, hoping to catch their attention. Eventually, Marconi caught the attention not of a young lady but of the esteemed baritone, Ottavio Bartolini (1821-1894). At the time of his first meeting with Bartolini, the 22-year-old Marconi was a largely uneducated and unsophisticated young man who sang on instinct rather than technique. Bartolini took the young singer under his wing and agreed to instruct him, free of charge, and help him to build the foundations of a solid technique. After about a year of study, Marconi made his debut as Faust in Boito’s Mefistofele at Florence’s Teatro Pagliano. Appearances in other small, provincial houses followed until Marconi’s “official” debut as Gounod’s Faust at the Teatro Real in Madrid in 1878. He was hailed as the successor to the beloved Julián Gayarre and was soon on his way to a major international career. Marconi was quite popular on the stages of major houses in Milan, Naples, Rome, Barcelona, Lisbon, Paris, London, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Warsaw, Buenos Aires, Montevideo and other world opera centers. His one appearance in New York seems to have been a failure, however. In 1888, famed tenor and impresario Italo Campanini contracted Marconi to sing the title role in Verdi’s Otello at the New York Academy of Music. Marconi’s voice was completely unsuited to the demands of the Moor and the production was an unmitigated disaster. After only two performances, Marconi bowed out and Campanini stepped into the role. Marconi excelled in the lyric tenor realm and built a repertoire that included such roles as Fernando in La Favorita, Carlo in Linda di Chamounix, Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Nemorino in Elisir d’Amore, Gennaro in Lucrezia Borgia, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Arturo in I Puritani, Elvino in La Sonnambula, Riccardo in Ballo in Maschera, the Duke in Rigoletto, Alfredo in La Traviata, Romeo in Romeo e Giulietta and Lionel in Martha. Marconi’s was essentially a lyric tenor voice that took on spinto characteristics as he matured. However, the tenor did not carefully guard his vocal resources and took on such roles as Radames in Aïda, Don José in Carmen, Raoul in Gli Ugonotti and the title role in Tannhäuser, which were simply beyond the scope of his instrument. By the early 1890s, Marconi was beginning to show signs of vocal deterioration and by the time he reached his early fifties, his stage career was essentially over. Luckily, the phenomenal wealth of his lucrative career enabled the tenor to retire at a relatively early age. Marconi enjoyed a decade of leisure, occasionally lending his voice to a benefit concert or charity event, and died at his palatial Roman estate in 1916 at the age of 63. Francesco Marconi made just over two dozen recordings for the Gramophone & Typewriter Company. Sadly, the 50-year-old tenor’s voice was already in decline, sounding dry and somewhat unsteady when he first stepped before the horn at G&T’s Milan studios in 1903. By the time of his final sessions in May of 1908, Marconi’s voice was often throaty and even hoarse and the top notes are quite effortful. That being said, there are flashes of brilliance that give the listener an understanding of why this tenor was one of the most important operatic artists of the 19th century. Here, Marconi sings Edgardo's death aria, "Tu che a Dio spiegasti l'ali" from the final act of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. Although this recording finds Marconi in somewhat dry voice, the tenor gives a very sensitive reading of the music, with great detail being paid to dynamics and phrasing. This recording was made in Milan for G&T in May of 1908.