TITO GOBBI PAGLIACCI and in highlights from Guglielmo Tell / BEL CANTO SOCIETY / DVD Video

UPC 789984065761

Pagliacci: Gina Lollobrigida, Afro Poli and the voices of Onelia Fineschi and Galliano Masini; Giuseppe Morelli, conductor; Rome Opera Chorus & Orchestra In Italian, with non-optional English subtitles. 1948
Tell: Voices of Gabriella Gatti and José Soler Angelo Questa, cond.; Rome Opera Chorus & Orchestra In Italian, with some unobtrusive English narration. 1947

"THE FIERY PERFORMANCE knocks all recent digital efforts into a cocked "THE hat. This is surely one of the best films of an opera." -Tully Potter, International Opera Collector

MASINI'S voice is huge, steely and ringing. Gobbi may well be the century's most interesting and complex Italian baritone. Here he plays both Tonio and Silvio, differentiating the parts not only in physical characterization and ap- pearance but in vocal color. Not content with finding one timbre for each, he offers fabulous variety of shading, beyond anything attempted by Fischer- Dieskau or Prey in their repertories. His only weak spot is lack of real tender- ness as Silvio. Fineschi puts her heart into Nedda, singing with the beguiling pomegranatelike sound of Italian sopranos of the 30s. Her screen counterpart, Lollobrigida, makes it easy to understand why the three men run amok. Soler's clarion tones make him more suitable for Arnoldo (in Tell) than anyone since. Both prints are crisp and detailed. -Stefan Zucker

"IN A VIRTUOSO DOUBLE-DIP, Tonio and Silvio are both Tito Gobbi, who even shares the screen with himself in one shot. His Tonio is tousled, mentally retarded, and morally warped; his Silvio cuts a dashing figure with slicked-back hair and a Clark Gable mustache. Vocally, Gobbi differentiates his characteriza- tions by subtleties of diction, tone color, phrasing, and texture (Silvio light and almost crooning, Tonio rough and forthright).

"Afro Poli's leonine, tortured Canio visually embodies the steel-lunged and dangerous-sounding voice of Galliano Masini. Soprano Onelia Fineschi is like- wise supplanted by actress Gina Lollobrigida. Adept at lip-synching, La Lollo- brigida also makes it clear why every man is dripping with lust for Nedda....
"One stunning shot shows a terrified Nedda prone, straight on, with the footlights arrayed behind her and rows of spectators extending beyond: a near 3-D effect." -David McKee, The Opera Quarterly

FOR FIFTY YEARS NOW, this Pagliacci has been my all-time favorite Italian film of an opera. It is the nearest thing to a film noir of any opera film, owing some of its verismo film style to the great postwar Italian film school. The final ten minutes are as well-realized a filmic presentation of opera as I have ever seen. -Joe Pearce, Secretary, Vocal Record Collectors' Society

Booklet includes an essay by Stefan Zucker on heroic vs. dramatic tenors.

• Picture format
• NTSC/B&W/Full screen
• Audio format PCM Mono
• Pagliacci: 78m. Tell: 26m.
• Region code 0 (All regions) 
• DVD format 9