DESCRIPTION:
6 October 1904; Gramophone & Typewriter, Ltd. (2156L) 52081

Impalpable pianissimi and dizzy diminuendi, rubati full of expressive hesitations..........

Beautifully capturing the melancholic atmosphere of the opening sections with smooth, veiled arpeggios, Don Fernando (de Lucia) unfolds a miniaturized narrative. I love his phrasing in that lingering, self-conscious way... his thoughtfulness in "una speme, un terrore, un desio"... his ability to hold the joyful moment: gio______ja_______________

De Lucia's recordings of arias from Donizetti show off his vocal characteristics. They contain a studied display of fioritura, rubato, limpid phrasing and portamento which appears to be a deliberate re-statement of the so-called bel canto style practised by previous generations of Italian tenors; or perhaps more accurately, a re-statement of that style's surviving mannerisms. These mannerisms were already dying out in the early 1900s when audiences, seduced by Enrico Caruso's resplendent vocal outpourings, came to prefer their tenor idols to sing in a more full-blooded, robust and straight forward way:

Enrico Caruso - Spirto gentil (from Donizetti's La Favorita) 1906:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsBgwJlMLWs

-------------------------------------

La Favorite (The Favorite, Italian title: La Favorita) is a grand opera in four acts by Gaetano Donizetti. It premiered on 2 December 1840 in Paris. The opera is now more commonly given in Italian rather than French.

Early 14th-century Spain. A love triangle involving the King of Castile Alfonso XI, his mistress ('the favorite') Leonora, and her lover, Fernando, the story unfolds against the background of the Moorish invasions of Spain and power struggles between church and state.

Act 1. Scene 1. In the Monastery of St James, the monks are making their way to worship. Superior Balthazar (bass), father of the Queen of Castile, enters with Fernand (tenor). Balthazar knows that Fernand is preoccupied by something. Fernand confesses that he has fallen in love with a beautiful, but as yet unknown, lady...

FERNANDO
Una vergine, un'angel di Dio
presso all'ara pregava con me.
Una speme, un terrore, un desio
scese all'alma e di gioia l'empiè.
Ah, mio padre, mio padre!
Quant'era mai bella!
Quant'era mai bella!
Ah, mio padre, mio padre!
M'ha involata la pace del cor.
Ah, volgo al nume la mente, ma quella
allo sguardo presente m'è ognor.

-------------------------------------