Search - Tito Schipa :: Neapolitan Songs

A singer I can listen to all day and night.

John Austin | Kangaroo Ground, Australia | 01/17/2001

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Although born on the southern coast of Italy, this great tenor could sing the popular songs of Naples with style, distinction and in the correct dialect. This CD contains 18 of them and runs for seventy minutes. It is one of those CDs packaged in Italy with a pretty picture on the front of the package, a list of contents on the back, and almost no further information provided. Comparing and checking in my own Schipa records, I can report that the tracks found here were recorded between 1927 and the early 1940s. The four from the 1940s have piano accompaniment. None, of course, was originally in stereo, but the package states "Stereo". The remastering and transfers compare favourably with most others I have checked; all carry some added resonance. Schipa is a singer I can listen to all day and night. Collecting his CD issues involves the duplication of popular items, of course, but I went for this one because it contains four tracks that are new to me, including a song composed by Schipa himself. I hope this information helps prospective buyers."

A Correction

Anne L. Duke | Las Vegas, NV USA | 09/19/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Even though the timing of this CD is listed at over 70 minutes, it is in reality just over 50. Not that this would deter any Schipa aficianados. I prefer the opera recordings, but these later recordings sport surprisingly agreeable sound. Check out the early recordings on Nimbus and I believe Romophone also to see what this great lyric tenor was all about. These recordings, some ten or 15 years past prime show how even more than Gigli he was able to preserve his basic sound through a combination of rest and repertoire. This obscure release contains my favorite version of that (too?) much recorded old saw Core n'grato, here raised to a thing sublime."