100 Singers - CESARE VALLETTI

Cesare Valletti, Tenor (1922-2000)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart DON GIOVANNI
Il mio tesoro
Conducted by Max Rudolf
Recorded 1953

My personal opinion: A solo recital by Cesare Valletti is adorned with an ambitious title: "The last Tenore di Grazia". Of course, he wasn't, and fortunately it was only an advertising slogan and did not reflect reality. The line of the "Graceful Tenors" continued with Alfredo Kraus and Juan Diego Florez (to name two famous exponents); even the young Pavarotti had the qualities that features a "Tenore di Grazia": A lightweight, lyrical and very flexible voice for elegical and ornamented roles in many Belcanto operas by Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti. Perhaps, however, Valletti was one of the last exponents, who was able to use this qualities also outside the relevant repertoire of a "Tenore di Grazia". He sang Puccini's Pinkerton in the 1956 MADAMA BUTTERFLY stereo-recording (under Leinsdorf) with elegance and noblesse. Even Jussi Björling (then recording TOSCA the same time with Leinsdorf) was irritated by Valettis light voice, and according to an anecdote, he gave Valletti some advice how to sing the role "correct". In spite of all that, Valletti sang Pinkerton beautiful, and I can't imagine the thin voice of Florez in such a part. That's the difference: After Valletti, many Tenore di Grazia were overbred, and lost the weight of their voices. A voice without weight, volume and healthy middle register sounds impersonal and "white" ("una voce bianca"). Such a voice has little or no timbre. For many listeners, even the voice of the great Alfredo Kraus was dry, crisp and without warmth. Cesare Valletti continued the tradition of Fernando de Lucia and Tito Schipa, his teacher. For critic C. L. Osborne, Valletti even surpassed his master: "No one else, not even Schipa, knows how to paint so skillfully with colors, and no one else build a swelling phrase with such an instinct". Cesare Valletti could energize his voice without losses of the resonance. Therefore, some "Lyrico Spinto" roles were in his range. Certainly Valletti had not those qualities, that made Pavarotti a big star: He lacked verve and attack to hit the high C's in Tonio's great aria in LA FIGLIA DEL REGGIMENTO with comparable sovereignity. The result is a transposition. But he sings the final aria "Tu che a Dio spiegasti l'ali" from LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR with much more melancholy and "dolore" than Pavarotti. As Rossini's Almaviva, Valletti is far superior to the short and thin-dimensioned Luigi Alva, who owned the role for more than 10 years. Critic Will Crutchfield wrote, that Alva's colorature in "Ecco ridente" is only a mash. Cesare Valletti in the 1958 Leinsdorf recording (with Robert Merrill as Figaro in RIGOLETTO-style) is more eloquent and masculine than Alva. To be honest, I've never understood Alva's fame as Almaviva. Just listen to the excellent english tenor Bruce Ford or to the best of all Almaviva's on records, to Francisco Araiza (whose "Canto fiorito" is far superior to Alva). Both make clear that Almaviva is more than a "tenorino".
One of the most underrated and unnoticed studio performance of DON GIOVANNI is the 1953 production under Max Rudolf with a young Giuseppe Taddei in the name part, and Cesare Valletti as Don Ottavio. He proves that even in this pale role is a lot of potential. Cesare Valletti makes Ottavio a passionate and flourishing lover; the counterpart to Edda Moser's geriatric fiancé Kenneth Riegel in the strange Joseph Losey movie. Perhaps it was Valletti's most significant role. He debuted also as Ottavio in October 1953 at the Met, sang in more than 100 performances and after a 1960 dispute with Rudolf Bing during a rehearsal for L'ELISIR D'AMORE, Valletti was replaced with the uninteresting Dino Formichini - and his Met career was over. Formichini became a substitute for Gedda, and Valletti came back: But only 23 years later as one of the honored guests in the 1983 Centennial Gala. After a last performance as Nerone in Monteverdi's POPPEA, Valletti retired from stage in 1968 (and made a new career as a businessman). He died, age 78, in 2000.
His recordings are fine memories of "The Golden Age of Singing".

That was my personal opinion. What's yours? Please let us know!

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Cesare
• Valletti
• Tenor
• Belcanto
• Canto
• fiorito

[tenorvoicefan]

@Guguriese1

Ja, leider ist das so. Und was für ein Armutszeugnis für die heutige Ausbildung. Wo ist das bel canto nur geblieben? Oh, wie ich das vermisse......

[Guguriese1]

Immerhin Singt er besser als jeder andere Tenor der in manchen Opernhäusern in moment angestellt ist. 

[tenorvoicefan]

Mag sein, dies ist die falsche Arie, um ihn zu beurteilen. Denn wenn ich das höre, dann klingt in meinem Ohr der unvergleichliche Fritz Wunderlich. Und gegen ihn ist jeder andere eben nur ein müder Versuch, das zu singen.

Und ehrlich, Pinkerton? Nein, das kann ich mir beim besten Willen nicht vorstellen. Hier fehlt mir jede Dramatik und jeder Schmerz, jede Doppeldeutigkeit in der Stimme.

Tut mir leid, aber das ist für mich kein Hörgenuss. Mag sein, ich bin da verwöhnt und überkritisch.

[capricornmonik]

It's my first meeting with this magnetic voice...so...what can i say-he was unique!It's pity he stayed in the shadow when he could be the best tenor in the world!That's life-sometimes a mother other times a step-mother!

[CharlotteinWeimar]

He was a very fine Alfredo opposite Callas in La Traviata in Covent Garden and gave a beautiful song recital in Wigmore Hall. Lovely singing and no strain.

[Herur22]

Who knows if Bing ever regretted dismissing Valetti from the Met. The public probably did.

[PEAinSwe]

Although many fine qualities, his voice is often a bit strained/pressed as soon as it's moving up in the registers. He sounds like a singer taking the notes from "below".