COMPOSERS: Beethoven,Donizetti,Humperdinck,Puccini,Verdi
LABELS: Nimbus Prima Voce
CATALOGUE NO: NI 7848
Nimbus do almost (but not quite) as well by Giacomo Lauri-Volpi, Mussolini’s favourite tenor and a trumpeting, aristocratic singer whose artistry and sense of line set new standards for his successors. However, the most lyrical Italian tenor of the period was undoubtedly Tito Schipa, a sort of Latin John McCormack whose sensitivity to words and musical inflection are represented in this round-up by so-so transfers of broadcast recordings made between 1939 and 1959 in Germany and Holland, featuring duplicate versions of various songs.
While Schipa was singing in Berlin, the world was on the brink of war and a great operatic era was drawing to a close. Margherita Perras was recording Mozart, Erna Berger was heard in duet with Gino Sinimberghi, and Lauritz Melchior, Frida Leider, Lotte Schöne and Alexander Kipnis were still fresh in the memory. Nimbus’s wide-ranging collection of clarion calls from the Berlin State Opera reminds us that, thanks to CD, we still have easy access to those treasured voices.