Beniamino Gigli - Vainement, ma bien-aimée (1922)

Recorded March 1922.
Aria from Édouard Lalo's 'Le Roi d'Ys.'

One of the most beautiful recordings ever from any singer. Much better than his later recording of the aria (also posted on youtube, see the response).

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Beniamino
• Gigli
• Vainement
• ma
• bien
• aimee
• le
• roi
• d'ys
• edouard
• lalo
• Mylio
• french
• italian
• tenor
• young
• opera
• singing

[meltzerboy]

I love Gigli's voice and singing, but in the right repertoire. Please, everyone ,come to your senses! Gigli, great lyric tenor that he is, cannot sing in French; he lacks the pronunciation as well as the style for an aria such as this. Legay is much better; even Melba, whose French is far from perfect, does a better job due to the extreme purity of her tone and her perfect legato.

[GermanOperaSinger]

Your argument is valid. I love this recording because of young Gigli's wonderful voice paired with the beautiful music. Yes I am aware that my reason sounds rather elementary, I will admit I know little of the French repertoire itself, but I can recognize French style, which Gigli obviously lacks. If we were looking for wonderful French stylism Legay's recording is certainly far superior. I am however impartial when it comes to the individual arias. The role may require French stylism, but...

[GermanOperaSinger]

...I find nothing wrong with Gigli recording this aria from a role outside of his normal repertoire. I am glad he did. By the way, thanks for sending the Legay recording. I hadn't heard of him before, but what a wonderful French tenor, I love hearing that exotic (now extinct) French 'voix mixte'.

[tomfroekjaer]

Wow !!! Incredible. That voice, clear as a bell, and such emotion.

I'm wondering if we would have had more from Gigli in this quality without the film industry?

[Lovelytenor1]

He could sing this in Martian & it just wouldn't matter. It would still be beautiful. I normally don't like to hear "Che Gelida Manina" sung in German but when I heard Joseph Schimdt do it, it just didn't matter. I note that BG doesn't distort this one w/his usual mannerisms. Quite lovely.

[luclafor]

@Bregowald

Son français est terrible

[Bregowald]

@meltzerboy Speak ENGLISH!!!!!!!

[SlipLegluant]

je comprend pas un mot sur 10 ><

Mais la voix est magnifique.

[michaelcassidymusic]

I am sorry but there is something about this version that sends shivers down my spine. Undoubtedly Legay has a greater range and may be superior technically but Gigli's version is full of raw power and emotion. It knocks me out every time I listen to it. I believe every word he sings regardless of how poor his french is. Vainement ma bien aimee is Beniamino Gigli.

[michaelcassidymusic]

I am sorry but there is something about this version that sends shivers down my spine. Undoubtedly Legay has a greater range and may be superior technically but Gigli's version is full of raw power and emotion. It knocks me out every time I listen to it. I believe every he sings regardlessof how poor his french is. Vainement ma bien aimee is Beniamino Gigli.

[bigus]

the reason being that a nasal sound is also a throaty sound created by the front of the larynx. when the higher notes are made the tones need to be further back so the chords have an easier time stretching to make pitch in true voice. a properly produced sound vocally from a singing stand point will never be nasal. sure to the french linguistic ear it may not be correct but the sound will be superior from a musical and vocal standpoint. to do things perfectly french limits vocalism substantially

[meltzerboy]

@bigus I beg to differ! I am half-French and must say that the French do NOT prefer a non-French singer singing French. Most often (there are exceptions) only a native French speaker can sing French music with the proper pronunciation and style, although sometimes the diction can be faulty. One cannot be too French with respect to tone production. I agree with you that Gigli is a better singer than Legay in many ways and has one of the most beautiful voices, BUT he butchers the French language.

[bigus]

@meltzerboy the only problem with legay is that technically he is too french in his production IMO. so he goes nasal when singing. true french is a nasal language but the french themselve generally prefer a non french singer singing french because of the tendency to sing nasally which just isn't as pleasing even if it keeps the true nasality of the word in the language. technically gigli is hands down superior to legay which is for me more important but i can be narrow minded in my opinions LOL.