Search - Gigli, Serafin, De Fabritiis :: Geniamino Gigli

One of the best this century has ever seen...

Rachel Howard | ocklawaha, Florida United States | 10/27/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This review will have to be based on my knowledge of the vinyl releases of these performances, so there's a caveat about the sound of this CD release: I don't know how good the transfers will be. Based upon the digital transfers I have heard of Gigli's voice, I can say anyone who enjoys a great lyric tenor voice, backed by heartfelt passion and stunning techniques can't go wrong here. Gigli was one of those rare performers who could traverse back and forth between dramatic roles and lyric roles with neither the voice nor the styles suffering for it. I will say that Bocelli fans should find Beniamino Gigli to their taste, if they can get past the antiquated sound. I do admit to a similarity between the two voices, although Gigli had the power needed to sing Manrico and Canio on stage and unamplified.
For my taste, I like Gigli even better than Bjorling, which is high praise, believe me. His piano (soft) singing was sweet as honey, with passionate high notes that thrill the ear and the heart. Mario Lanza fans should also take note of Gigli. Many of the admirable points of Lanza's singing were present in spades in Gigli's work. The older singer seemed to feel the music he sang deep within his soul, just as Lanza did.
Andrea Chenier was one of Gigli's greatest roles, as well as Rodolfo in Puccini's La Boheme. One point about his singing is well worth pondering: Gigli had a long, long career, filled with hard and passionate singing, but his voice retained it's expressive viola d'amore sweetness to the end of his career. Those interested in a finely honed singing technique ought to listen to him just for the vocal lessons. Gigli was an expert with head voice, as well as full-throated singing reminiscent of Enrico Caruso, and he was not afraid of using and mixing both techniques in the same aria or song."

A wonderful selection of Gigli songs

Anthony Louis | USA | 01/23/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Anyone who likes Gigli (and its hard not to) will enjoy this set of 2 CDs. There are about 2 hours of recordings from arias to popular songs, some of which I can still remember my mother listening to when I was a little boy. Gigli had one of the great voices of the past century and it is a delight to have this representative collection from his long career. The sound quality is generally good but does vary from recording to recording."