Mario Del Monaco - Be My Love
Mario Del Monaco (Florence July 27, 1915 - October 16, 1982 in Mestre) was an Italian tenor and is regarded by his admirers as being one of the greatest dramatic tenors of the 20th Century.Del Monaco was born to a musical upper-class Florentine family. As a young boy he studied the violin but had a passion for singing. He graduated from the Rossini Conservatory at Pesaro, where he first met and sang with Renata Tebaldi, with whom he would form something of an operatic dream team ofthe 1950s. His early mentors as a singer included Milocchi, his teacher at Pesaro, and Maestro Raffaelli, who recognized his talent and helped launch his career.
That career began in earnest with Del Monaco's debut on December 31, 1940, as Pinkerton at the Puccini Theater in Milan. (His initial appearance in an opera had occurred the previous year, however, in Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana at Pasero.) He sang in Italy during the Second World War and married, in 1941, Rina Filipini. In 1946, he appeared at London's Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, for the first time. During the ensuing years he became famous not only in London but also across the operatic world for his powerful, metallic voice. It was heldentenor-like in scope but Del Monaco was no Wagnerian, confining his activities overwhelmingly to the Italian repertoire.
Del Monaco sang at the New York Metropolitan Opera from 1951 to 1959, enjoying particular success in Verdi parts such as Radames. He established himself as one of the Italian tenor "superstars" of the 1950s and '60s, along with Giuseppe Di Stefano, Carlo Bergonzi and Franco Corelli. His trademark roles during this period were Giordano's Andrea Chenier and Verdi's Otello. He first tackled Otello in 1950 and kept refining his interpretation throughout his career. It is said that he sang Otello an astonishing 427 times. However, the book published by Elisabetta Romagnolo, Mario Del Monaco, Monumentum aere perennius, Azzali 2002, lists only 218 appearances by him as Otello, which is a more realistic figure. Aptly, the tenor was buried in his Otello costume.
Del Monaco made his first recordings in Milan in 1948 for HMV. Later, he was partnered by Tebaldi in a long series of Verdi and Puccini operas recorded for Decca. On the same label was his 1969recording of Giordano's Fedora, opposite Magda Olivero and Tito Gobbi.
In 1975 he retired from stage.
He was a good-looking man, and his ringing voice and virile appearance earned him the nickname of the "Brass Bull of Milan". Despite his idomatic phrasing, he was still widely criticized for beingunsubtle and unyielding in his vocal interpretations. In this regard, the soprano Magda Olivero noted in a recent interview ( http://... ) that:
"When del Monaco and I sang Francesca da Rimini together at La Scala [in 1959] he explained his whole vocal technique to me. When he finished I said, My dear del Monaco, if I had to put into practice all the things youve told me, Id stop singing right away and just disappear. The technique was so complicated: you push the larynx down, then you push this up, then you do that—in short, it made my head spinjust to hear everything he did.
"We recorded Francesca excerpts together [in 1969]. Francesca has a beautiful phrase, Paolo, datemi pace, marked piano, and then Paolo enters with Inghirlandata di violette, which also should be sung softly, delicately. Instead, del Monaco was terrible—he bellowedthe phrase [she imitates him and laughs]! When he listened to the playback he exclaimed, I cant believe it! After that soft poetic phrase I come in and what do I sound like—a boxer punching with his fists! He recorded the phrase again, but the second attempt was more or less the same because he was incapable of singing piano. He was furious with himself because he wanted to. He tried everything, but his technique would not permit him to sing softly since it totally was based on the muscles."
Del Monaco belonged to a once flourishing lineage of dramatic tenors born in Italy. Famous predecessors of his included Francesco Tamagno, Francesco Signorini, Giuseppe Borgatti, Giovanni Zenatello, Edoardo Ferrari-Fontana, Bernardo De Muro, Giovanni Martinelli and Francesco Merli, among others. His present-day Italian successor has yet to appear.
Channel: Entertainment
Uploaded: October 8, 2008 at 8:07 am
Author: MusashiTzu
Length: 00:01:50
Rating: 5.00
Views: 625
Tags: Mario My Del Monaco Be Love
Video Comments:
MusashiTzu (November 22, 2008 at 6:28 am)
just cause its a higher note you think its better, typical Lanza fan.
pipomazukamba (November 22, 2008 at 5:22 am)
no one can hit the final note like lanza did ,period
TheSHadowV (November 9, 2008 at 11:48 am)
Thanks.
hiyadroogs (November 9, 2008 at 9:18 am)
- Just listened to you sing O Sole Mio, Vincent. You've got a really nice voice. I liked the little embellishments you gave to the melody. It's difficult to find a refreshing new interpretation to such an oft repeated hackneyed piece, but you succeeded,&I enjoyed your performance very much. I may even subscribe! All the best.
hiyadroogs (November 9, 2008 at 9:08 am)
Good luck!
ShawDAMAN (November 9, 2008 at 12:14 am)
No, you're not the only one- I'm not overfond of him myself. He's a very nice man with a very pleasant voice and I like him, but he is not in the same league as the greats which you allude to .
TheSHadowV (November 8, 2008 at 11:27 pm)
I'm actually planning on recording it myself in the next month or so. Working out the details now. I'm really excited about it.
hiyadroogs (November 8, 2008 at 11:04 pm)
Very true.
TheSHadowV (November 8, 2008 at 11:03 pm)
God, am I the only one who doesn't think much of Paul Potts? He's ok and will be better in time, but he doesn't hold a candle to some of the amazing tenors in the last 100 years of recording.
TheSHadowV (November 8, 2008 at 11:02 pm)
You can also find recordings that go up to only a B Natural. This is due to the transfer from Record to Digital format. It also starts in the key of C# then modulates down into the key of C setting up for the C5 at the end. Lanza did have C# though. He uses it on a few recordings. The man was incredible and this was his song. No one does it like him.
hiyadroogs (November 8, 2008 at 10:38 pm)
Actually,shawDAMAN, I've sung along with Lanza many times to Be My Love,&the final note is high C sharp according to my tuning fork!
MusashiTzu (October 26, 2008 at 4:07 am)
and I like plenty of alive singers.
MusashiTzu (October 26, 2008 at 4:05 am)
I didnt see anyone here saying anything bad about domingo? what are you talking about?
FuerzaMexicana (October 26, 2008 at 3:42 am)
What about Domingo?? don't you guys like Doming as a dramatic tenor??, or you just don't have respect for him that he is still alive?? Why does a great singer of our times have to die for people like you guys to recognize that??Bunch of stupid locos,..hahahaha
MusashiTzu (October 25, 2008 at 7:36 am)
Would be rather pleasent to be arrested by him then:)
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