Giovanni Martinelli & Giuseppe de Luca - Invano Alvaro

Dead Tenors’ Society wraps up the month of June with our final week of encores, showcasing a collection of previously featured vocalists in recordings never before heard on this channel.

Giovanni Martinelli (1885-1969) was a beloved Italian tenor whose five-decade career encompassed stage, screen, radio, television and records. Born in Montagnana in the province of Padova, Martinelli’s first musical experiences were as a clarinet player in a military band. His voice was discovered during his military service, however, and he began studies with Giuseppe Mandolini in Milan. His operatic debut came about a month before his 23rd birthday when he sang the Messenger in Verdi’s Aïda at his hometown theater, the Teatro Sociale. Realizing that further study was required, Martinelli withdrew to the voice studio where he worked intensely for the next two years. He re-emerged for a second, official debut on December 29, 1910 as Verdi’s Ernani at the Teatro dal Verme in Milan. His success was phenomenal and the young tenor quickly went on to make debuts in the important theaters of Naples, Rome, London and Paris.

On November 18, 1913, Martinelli made his Met debut as Cavaradossi in Tosca. He remained a stalwart member of the company for the next 32 consecutive seasons, singing well over 900 performances of 36 diverse roles including Radames in Aïda, Riccardo in Un Ballo in Maschera, Don Alvaro in La Forza del Destino, Manrico in Il Trovatore, Gabriele in Simon Boccanegra, Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Vasco da Gama in L’Africaine, Enzo in La Gioconda, Dick Johnson in La Fanciulla del West, des Grieux in Manon Lescaut, Rodolfo in La Bohème, Calaf in Turandot, Canio in Pagliacci, the title role in Andrea Chénier, Loris in Fedora, Pollione in Norma, the title role in Samson et Dalila, Arnold in Guillaume Tell, Jean of Leyden in Le Prophète, Raoul in Les Huguenots, the title role in Gounod’s Faust, Gérald in Lakmé, Don José in Carmen, Eléazar in La Juive and, probably his greatest triumph, the title role in Verdi’s Otello. During his tenure at the Met, Martinelli sang the world premieres of Giordano’s Madame Sans-Gêne (Lefêbvre), Granados’ Goyescas (Fernando), as well as the Met premieres of Weber’s Oberon (Huon), Wolf-Ferrari’s I Gioielli della Madonna (Gennaro) and Verdi’s Don Carlo (in the title role). In addition, Martinelli sang Paolo in the U.S. premiere of Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini and Lensky in the U.S. stage premiere of Yevgeny Onegin (in Italian!).

Martinelli’s final performance at the Met in a complete role was as Pollione in Bellini’s Norma on March 8, 1945 (the tenor participated in a gala on the Met stage the following year). The 59-year-old singer continued to perform throughout the U.S. and appeared extensively on radio and, later, television. Following a final Samson et Dalila in Philadelphia in 1950, Martinelli, now in his 65th year, retired from the stage.

Although he was no longer actively performing, the veteran tenor was still very much in evidence on the New York music scene. He regularly attended performances at his old stamping grounds, the Met, and was a frequent panel guest on the Metropolitan Opera Quiz broadcasts. Martinelli remained busy well into his eighties, coaching young singers, giving lectures and masterclasses, making new recordings and even appearing as the Emperor in a Seattle production of Turandot at age 81! The ever-youthful artist enjoyed robust health until the very final days of his life. It was a rupture of an aortic aneurism that brought the 83-year-old Martinelli’s life to a sudden and unexpected end on February 2, 1969.

Giovanni Martinelli’s voice is a hard one to classify. He’s been referred to as a dramatic tenor, a spinto, a lirico-spinto, a spinto-dramatic…nobody seems to be able to make up his mind as to exactly what type of voice the man possessed. In all honesty, I think that Martinelli was a combination of ALL these different tenorial sub-categories at different periods of his career. Also, I believe that Martinelli adapted the weight of his voice to suit the role he was singing at the time. After all, the voice of Edgardo is NOT the voice of Samson. Regardless of which type of tenor Martinelli was, he was certainly unique…there is absolutely no mistaking him for any other tenor. After hearing one or two notes, you KNOW that you are listening to the voice of Giovanni Martinelli.

Martinelli had an extraordinarily long recording career…56 years. His commercial discs were made for Edison, H.M.V. and Victor between 1912 and 1939 and broadcast transcriptions of performances and private recordings continued throughout the 1940s, ‘50s and ‘60s. In this recording, Martinelli joins forces with his friend and colleague, baritone Giuseppe de Luca (1876-1950) for the duet "Invano Alvaro; Le minaccie, i fieri accenti" from Verdi's La Forza del Destino. This was recorded on two discs for the Victor label in New York on December 8, 1927.

Видео Giovanni Martinelli & Giuseppe de Luca - Invano Alvaro канала Dead Tenors' Society