Bonisolli - La Donna Mobile

Here's why he was called Il Pazzo. But he certainly has the top notes.

Il Pazzo means the crazy man.

Franco Bonisolli and Franco Corelli died on the same day rather like the way John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the same day. (Amendment - apparently I'm wrong about this but I don't care)

Bonisolli was a competitor to Pavarotti in a sense. SF Opera put on Gioconda for Pavarotti. When it was revived Bonisolli replaced him. Pavarotti was smoother but Bonisolli was more fun. He struted around and he posed. And he sang some great high notes - bigger and better than Pavarotti's.

Bonisolli's voice wasn't too big when he first went international. He sang Almaviva in Barber at first. He always had the top but only later did it grow and blossom. He became a high note tenor like Filipeschi.

You can hear all the "gear changing" he needs to do in the middle voice, but all is forgiven when the line goes above the staff. He goes to squillo-land.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Rigoletto
• La
• Donna
• Mobile
• Bonisolli

[BERNARDOANUK]

He looks like totally DRUNK...

[Agorante]

@BERNARDOANUK I wonder. You hear stories about Björling being a drunk but not Bonisolli. The word is that he was erradic. In any case this is an aria sung while carousing. Often stage directors will have the duke sing this with a tankard in his hand. So maybe drunk is dramatically appropriate.

[fabrizzzio48]

Makes complete sense... he always did.

At the beginning he's announced like a circus act, or an olympic athlete stepping out to perform / compete. The mood of the audience is playful, so is his.

Anything less of that final lifting burst of expression, would just not cut it.

He knew it.

He made complete sense. He always did. Viva Franco. Ole!

[Agorante]

@fabrizzzio48 I agree. Opera sining can be a little stuffy.  Bonisolli was a hoot.

[Agorante]

Please moderate the personal attacks. Those who will not or cannot do so will be censored.

[Michaelbos]

it seems that he knew he had a great voice and he had fun with it. The Dean Martin of opera

[Agorante]

That's one way to put it. The opera establishment can be a little stuffy. Pop music and pop culture figures often behave very badly - Michael Jackson (child molester), O.J. Simpson (murderer), Robert Downey Jr. (dope fiend), and Mel Gibson (druken anti-semite). The girls (Brittany Spears, Linsey Lohan, Paris Hilton) behave badly too. So by show business standards Franco was sane, sober and sensible.

[oden60]

Pazzo? Plateale?....Unico!!!!

Wonderful!!

[PickBit]

Sono d'accordo, anche se aveva la tendenza ad esagerare, le doti di questo cantante non si discutono.

[ka2shi7]

then there he jumped !!!

UNIQUE TALENTED GREAT SKILL !!!!!!!

hahahahahahaha

[joeyeff]

Love it.

[Mr19841504]

ai mama mia ,il pazzo::)))) ma un grande tenore! bravo Bonisollo, R.I.P

[aguacun]

@Agorante Have you a brother or sister? You still think your mother and father loved you in the same way they loved your brother or sister? Same mother, same father, perhaps born in the same country, city and place... that makes you equal or different? I think your premises do not lead to that conclusion. And yes, absolutly different voices as different persons they were... that`s why they had different fans, roles, life, teachers, experience, feelings, type of voice.

[luisfelipe]

I adore bonisolli. what high notes. what confidence and VOCE ROBUSTA.

bravissimo. may the angels stop their flight to hear you sing in paradise franco.

[alfonsorama1]

Ja ja ja que persona excentrica este Bonisoli pero la voz impresionante y de primer orden. Esta actuación está más cerca del show cirquense que de la ópera, hay que tomarlo así. Por cierto el agudo final es impresionante pero el portamento que realiza para llegar a el es feisimo y de pésimo gusto.