The Great Gigli sings "Salut, demeure, chaste et pure," from Faust. (In Italian).

The great tenor, in this recording, presents a spectacular piece of lyricism. The tessiture of this aria is high, and the high C notoriously exposed. Gigli performs the seeming impossible feat of singing the C full voice on the vowel "u" of the word fanciulla. The sound is very exciting and very rare. To sing so narrow a vowel so high is quite extraordinary. But many will argue that Gigli was the greatest tenor of all time, and for so remarkable a tenor, perhaps the extraordinary is not so extraordinary.

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Category:

Music

Tags:

• Beniamaino
• Gigli
• sings
• salut
• demeure
• chaste
• et
• pure.
• Faust
• Gounod
• tenor
• opera

[racheleleeba]

A real pleasure to find this video this morning. Today is off to a good start! Many thanks.

[EdmundStAustell]

My pleasure. Gigli is a god.

[serenaluce]

@EdmundStAustell Well, I just adore Gigli! He moves my heart, and I don't want to analyse much this rendition and how he sings! It's such a treasure for me! I agree with you, this sounds godlike! Bravissimo! Thanks for posting so many gems.

[EdmundStAustell]

@serenaluce Thank you very much, my friend. Yes, this is early Gigli. His voice was very lyrical and high at this point in his life. He did not often sing notes as high as a C natural, but in his youth, when he did, it was quite spectacular. The tessiture of this aria in general is high. When he sang on stage for the first time, he was only 15, and played the part of a girl:) I forget the name of the old operetta.

[hiyadroogs]

@EdmundStAustell The reason Gigli could sing the high C on the pure OO vowel, Edmund, is because the pure OO can only be sung in head register alone above the passagio. Any introduction of the chest register instantly distorts the vowel to OH or AWE. This is bel canto technique, & the reason why todays tenors cannot sing the pure OO vowel on high notes anymore. Remember my message to you so long ago, about listening for the OO vowel timbre in all vowels on upper notes of the great tenors? ; ))

[EdmundStAustell]

@hiyadroogs I do remember that, in fact, and I was impressed then, and remain so. What you say makes a lot of sense.

[hiyadroogs]

@EdmundStAustell It's the dominance of the head register in the sung tone throughout the technique that gives the older singers their radiant glow in the voice. & you can hear that soul satisfying glow from gigli to Tagliavini, all the way to Lauri-Volpi, Bjorling, Caruso, Melchior & Tamagno. & even in early Gobbi & PInza!

[hiyadroogs]

@hiyadroogs My Maestro had me singing the pure OO vowel on high D, & even high E!! There's no cheating or attempting to bring in the chest register up there!!

I remember a story he told me about Heddle Nash singing Salve Dimora. They wanted him to sing the C on 'Pura'. Heddle, who had perfect diction while singing, but spoke in a cockney tongue, replied; 'You don't get me singing the ****ing OO vowel on high C! - I'll sing it on SALVE! : )))

[listeningtoit]

Gigli´s beauty of tone was really remarkable! He also had that amazing "mezza voce", a true master of "chiaro´scuro". He lacked in taste, of course. In this recording he tosses out one of his rare recorded high Cs, a note some people insisted to say that he could not reach! My father saw him in an astonishing performance of "Tosca" here in Rio in 1951, aged 61, on which he repeated "E lucevan..." 3 times for a crazy audience!!! Could open the "passagio" with no voice damage.

[meltzerboy]

Whatever one might think of the singing of Richard Tucker, he did name three tenors as his favorites: Caruso, Gigli, and Tagliavini. In this--and so many other of Gigli's recordings--one hears why. Thanks for sharing, Edmund.