Fernando de Lucia, "Ah! quel spectacle...Plus blanche", Meyerbeer: Les Huguenots (rec. 1917)

Neapolitan tenor Fernando de Lucia (1860-1925) in Raoul de Nangis' aria "Ah! quel spectacle...Plus blanche" from Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots, recorded in 1917 for Italian Phonotype.

de Lucia was one of the most celebrated and widely admired Italian tenors before Caruso came to eminence (yet he lived long enough to sing at Caruso's funeral in 1921). His career straddled between the age of bel canto and the age of verismo. During his heyday, he was much sought after by composers such as Puccini, Mascagni and Giordano to create roles in their new operas. His singing epitomizes the 19th century style in which (in the words of John B. Steane) the singer took up the role of "the lord of creation" and maximized every opportunity given to him to "exploit his good or bad taste to the full." The liberties that de Lucia takes with the score may raise eyebrows, but all his recordings undoubtedly offer a fascinating glimpse into a way of singing that has long vanished into the pages of opera history. It's worth noting that he was the teacher of renowned French tenor Georges Thill.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Fernando
• de
• Lucia
• Plus
• blanche
• Meyerbeer
• Les
• Huguenots
• 1917

[meltzerboy]

A too-open placement, a sometimes obtrusive vibrato, a tendency to depart from the score, a baritonal quality to the voice with not-too-pleasant high notes: De Lucia has all of these features, but somehow it doesn't matter. Despite all of this, the poetry, color, and nuance of his voice and singing triumph, to the degree that his are often the versions of an aria or song that remain in the ear of the listener.

[paulostroff99]

Lovely.TY tim for posting.

[rawdonqueen]

I find De Lucia a convincing and very individual artiist. He shows his age here, but the phrasing is masterful.

[AulicExclusiva]

I suspect that the pitching of this disk is correct. De Lucia used transpositions for even the simplest arias and this one, at score pitch, goes up to a High C. He was a weird half-tenor who croons above high G, except for the occasional bray. He could phrase with exceptional poetry in a completely improvisatory manner, but in general I don't find him a convincing artist.

[transformingArt]

By the way, do you happen to have De Lucia's rendition of "Rimplanto" as well? I know it is already on YouTube, but the sound quality is dreadful - as this video is one of the best sounding Phonotype I've seen on YouTube, I wonder if you have it also.

[transformingArt]

I think the pitch should be little bit higher than this - I know De Lucia had quite an odd voice which makes the pitch suggestion is a total guesswork, but pitching this aria at this low key is little bit too much, even though he was quite old when he recorded this.