Tito Gobbi (1913 - 84)

Note by Alan Bilgora











"As an interpreter of Scarpia he is an expert. He understands the cruel police chief with his suave, smiling surface. He plays him for all he is worth, and he is a good enough musician to give point and emphasis to the musical aspects of the powerful role."

Howard Taubman of the New York Times reporting on Gobbi’s Metropolitan debut, 13 January 1956

A very few operatic artists gain a great reputation for their vocal talent and for their ability to create a believable character on stage. Tito Gobbi was such artist; one who could distil the essence of his roles thus offering his audiences a complete and unforgettable experience. Like a famous baritone predecessor Mariano Stabile (1888-1968) Gobbi’s legacy is of highly individual performances, - in the theatre, on film, and in countless recordings, - that remain benchmarks for succeeding generations.

It should be remembered that at the time of Gobbi’s theatrical debut in the late 1930s Italy was still enjoying the performances of Riccardo Stracciari (1875-1955) one of the last of a hugely gifted line of baritone singers from the so called ‘Golden Age’. Following on from Stracciari were; Benvenuto Franci; Umberto Urbano; Enrico Molinari; Cesare Formichi; Giovanni Inghilleri; Giulio Fregosi; Enrico de Franceschi; Gaetano Viviani; Gino Lully, Carmelo Maugeri; Luigi Montesanto; Carlo Galeffi; Carlo Tagliabue; Armando Borgioli; Mario Basiola; Leo Picccioli; Gino Vanelli and Giuseppe Manacchini. At the end of this illustrious list we must add Gino Bechi and Paolo Silveri (Gobbi’s most serious rivals); Giuseppe Taddei; Antenore Reali; Enzo Mascherini; Rolando Panerai; Giuseppe Valdengo and, a little later, Gian-Piero Malaspina; Gian-Giacomo Guelfi; Renato Capecchi; Aldo Protti; Mario Sereni and Ettore Bastiannini. Even this impressive roll-call of singers is far from complete. All of them had quality and all were active on the international scene. Each one was the possessor of a ‘big’ voice; indeed, when discussing the various merits of these artists the older Italian opera-goer would often be heard to remark of Gobbi, ‘Certainly a great artist, but really, compared with [names such as those above], not too much voice’. But of course comparisons are odious and Gobbi would, in any case, demonstrate conclusively that he had sufficient natural vocal gifts to support an extraordinary career and to become one of the most celebrated Italian baritones of the 20th Century.

Tito Gobbi was born in Bassano del Grappa near Venice on 24 October 1913 the third son in a family of three boys and two girls. During the First World War a bomb exploded near his home and the shock induced in the boy a temporary stammer which was subsequently (and miraculously) cured when he struck his head jumping from a moving pony-and-trap. Curiously the great baritone and renowned teacher Antonio Cotogni (1831-1918) also suffered from a stammer throughout his life; hardly to be recommended for anyone wanting to pursue a singing career.

The young Tito had a happy childhood. He seems to have been recognised as a fairly gifted painter but did not exhibit any special vocal talent at school. A family friend, Barone Zanchetta, gave him some voice lessons in his late teens and was the first to suggest the possibility of a singing career. However, Gobbi senior insisted that Tito either enter the family business or study law. He continued to sing as a hobby until his mother eventually managed to persuade his father to take him to Rome. There, through the good offices of a Sicilian cousin, they went to seek the opinion of Giulio Crimi (1885-1938) a former star tenor (also Sicilian) with an international reputation. Crimi had been the creator of several major roles: Avito in the English première of Montemezzi’s Amore di Tre Re; Paolo in the world première of Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini; Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi and Luigi in Puccini’s Il Tabarro. At the audition Crimi called upon a young lady, a friend of his daughter, to accompany Gobbi at the piano. She was Tilde de Rensis, daughter of one of Italy’s most distinguished musicologists. She eventually became Gobbi’s wife. (Her sister Franca married the distinguished Bulgarian bass Boris Christoff and the brothers-in-law went on to appear in many memorable performances together during their careers, particularly in Verdi’s Don Carlos and Simone Boccanegra.)

Crimi accepted Gobbi as a student and his father paid the tuition fees and living expenses until his financial circumstances weakened. After that Gobbi was able to earn enough for food and lodgings, by selling paintings to tourists in Rome, but was unable to pay his tuition fees. To his great credit Crimi immediately postponed all payment to a later date and even took Gobbi into his own house. So began a collaboration and friendship that would last until Crimi’s death.

Gobbi met many important musicians through the de Rensis family, among them the conductor Bernadino Molinari who, in 1935, arranged Gobbi’s first stage appearance. He sang the bass role of Count Rodolfo in a semi-professional production of Bellini’s La Sonnambula. It was not a success. Fortunately Gino Marinuzzi (1882-1945) the conductor and manager of La Scala organised an audition for Gobbi. This resulted in a small contract allowing Gobbi to study with the various ‘house’ coaches and to gain experience by attending rehearsals and performances. In his amusing autobiography ‘My life’ Gobbi recalls that while watching a performance of Pizetti’s Orseolo he was summoned to stand in for one of the supporting singers. He had only to announce the arrival of the Doge to Orseolo (being sung by the great bass Tancredo Pasero) but entered too early. Pasero was forced to stop and the composer, who was conducting, was heard hissing from the podium "You idiot! Who sent you here? Go to hell".

At Crimi’s urging Gobbi entered and won a singing competition in Vienna.Also at this time he was contracted to appear in a film I Condottieri - the first of some 25 feature films – in which he played a young troubadour who is seen performing in a number of different countries. His earnings from this venture enabled him to propose to Tilde. They were married in April 1937 with Crimi as best-man and the young Giuseppe Taddei singing at the service.

Gobbi made his professional debut in 1937 at the Teatro Adriano in Rome singing Germont père in La Traviata, with Jolanda Cirillo as Violeta and Giovanni Voyer as Alfredo. The great Tulio Serafin, who was at that time director of Rome’s Teatro Reale (later Teatro dell’Opera), heard Gobbi at one of these performances. Serafin offered Gobbi a contract and he spent the next six years learning the repertoire and gaining confidence. Gobbi made his house debut on 29 December 1937 as Lelio in Wolf-Ferrari’s Le Donne curiose. He graduated to major roles in standard works and sang in a number of esoteric operas including: La Bohème; ll Dibbuk ; Tristan and Isolde; Fra Gherado; La Traviata; Boris Godunov; Lodoletta; Carmen; La Rondine; Monte Ivnor by Rocca; Madama Butterfly; Fedora; Falstaff; Götterdämmerung; Ecuba by Malipiero; La Locandiera by Persico; Don Carlo; Simone Boccanegra; Un Ballo in Maschera; Cecilia by Refice; Cassandra by Gnecchi; Pagliacci; L’Elisir d’Amore; Tosca; Don Pasquale, and Gounod’s Faust. This huge number of roles first studied and then undertaken with the Company stood him in good stead throughout his career.

Gobbi made his first appearance in his signature role of Scarpia at the Rome Opera. In 1937 he sang for the first time on Italian radio (RAI) as Crespel in I racconti di Hoffmann (Tales of Hoffmann). In the summer season of 1938 he appeared at the open-air Terme di Caracalla singing supporting Wagnerian roles and in 1939 he sang Sharpless in Madama Butterfly at the Teatro Flavio Vespasiano in Rieti. He made his debut in Naples at the Teatro San Carlo in 1940. Just before the outbreak of war in Europe Gobbi lost both his brother Bruno (in an airplane accident) and also his teacher,mentor, and friend Giulio Crimi.When Italy entered the war Gobbi and all the members of the Rome Opera were singing in Berlin, an unfortunate circumstance which gave rise to unfounded accusations of fraternization.

Throughout the 1940s Gobbi was heard in various regional opera houses in Italy. He also made his first recordings at this time, appearing on La Voce del Padrone (Italian HMV) in 1942. Audiences in Genoa, Bologna and Venice were able to enjoy his considerable talents. He appeared on 6 June 1945 at Il Teatro Estivo Moderno, Messina in Rigoletto. His exuberance and youthful personality attracted attention and led to more roles in Italian feature films and filmed operas. He appeared in the first of three versions of Il Barbiere di Siviglia in 1946 with co-stars Tagliavini, Nelli Corradi and Italo Tajo. There were film productions of L’Elisir d ’Amo re ; La Fo rza d e l De stino ; Guillaume Te ll; Lucia di Lammermoor. He sang in Pagliacci with a young Gina Lollobrigida, miming to the Nedda of Onelia Fineschi, and the distinguished baritone Afro Poli, miming to the Canio of one of Italy’s greatest dramatic tenors Galliano Masini. He also appeared on film in Rigoletto, Il sogno di Butterfly, Tosca and La Traviata.

In 1947 Gobbi sang Rigoletto in Stockholm to great acclaim and English-speaking audiences were charmed by his dramatic appearance in the feature film The Glass Mountain. Gobbi made a tour of Great Britain, including a concert at the Albert Hall and an appearance at one of the Promenade Concerts. In 1948 he returned to La Scala appearing as Jochanaan in Strauss’s Salome. Gobbi’s considerable cachet, due in part to the international popularity of his films, was now recognised in the US. He made hisAmerican debut on 11 October 1948 with the San Francisco Opera appearing as Belcore in L’Elisir d’Amore. In the cast were the charming Brazilian soprano Bidu Sayao as Adina, Ferrucio Tagliavini as Nemorino, and the famous basso-buffo Salvatore Baccaloni as Dulcamara.

In 1950 Gobbi was in Salzburg, at the request of the conductor Furtwängler, where he sang Don Giovanni on 27 July alongside Elisabeth Schwarzkopf as Donna Elvira, LjubaWelitsch as Donna Anna and Anton Dermota as Don Ottavio. In September that year he appeared at Covent Garden as Belcore in L’Elisir d’Amore with the visiting La Scala Company. He also played Ford to Bechi’s Falstaff when the scheduled Paolo Silveri was unable to appear at one performance. He was invited to play Falstaff himself in Florence in early 1951 and prepared the role withMaestro Serafin. He had played Ford in various productions and the subtleties of the principal character of the fat knight had long fascinated him. He took as his role model Mariano Stabile who had made the part his own over many years. His reputation was given a further boost when he undertook a concert tour of South Africa with Beniamino Gigli (1890-1957). Gigli, who was still in fine form in the early 1950s, was a tremendous draw and the joint concerts cemented Gobbi’s own standing.

Gobbi created the title role of Alban Berg’s Wozzeck at the Italian première on 5 June 1952 at La Scala and not long after he went to South America where he appeared with Maria Callas for the first time in La Traviata, Lucia di Lammermoor and Tosca. This artistic association (which included Giuseppe Di Stefano) is legendary and their version of Tosca has become almost iconic. In July 1954 Gobbi appeared for the first time in the great openair amphitheatre at Verona as Amonasro in Aida. Also in 1954 Carol Fox, who had resuscitated the Chicago Lyric Opera after a hiatus of some six years, engaged Callas, Gobbi, Di Stefano and Giulietta Simionato. Gobbi sang Figaro in Il Barbiere, Germont Père in La Traviata and Scarpia in Tosca. At the end of the year he appeared in Florence in Nabucco with the sensational dramatic soprano Anita Cerquetti whose promising career was cut short by poor health. The following seasons in Chicago saw Gobbi in Aida, La Bohème, Rigoletto, Il Tabarro, La Fanciulla del West, Andrea Chenier, Otello, Pagliacci, Le nozze di Figaro, Falstaff, Adriana Lecouvreur, Gianni Schicchi, Simone Boccanegra, Un Ballo in Maschera, and Don Carlo. His partners consisted of virtually every top-flight soprano or mezzo-soprano then singing on the international scene and his eminent tenor colleagues included Leopold Simoneau, Mario Del Monaco, Jussi Björling, Carlo Bergonzi, Di Stefano and Richard Tucker. He maintained links with Chicago until 1969 returning not only to sing but also, in his final seasons, to direct.

At the end of 1955 Covent Garden contracted Gobbi to sing one of his most deeply researched and effective roles, that of Iago in Verdi’s Otello. Unfortunately he was unavoidably absent from an important rehearsal and the Musical Director, Raphael Kubelik, rather imperiously replaced him with the Czech baritone Ottakar Kraus. This very real slight was eventually overcome, but only some years later. On 13 January 1956 Gobbi made his long awaited debut at the Metropolitan in New York singing Scarpia alongside ZinkaMilanov and Di Stefano. Long term contracts elsewhere prevented him from making further appearances at theMetropolitan until 1958 when he sang Iago in Otello. In a perfect summing up of Gobbi’s art Howard Taubman of the New York Times wrote;

"He is not a sinister, sinuous Iago in action. He plays the part of Otello’s ancient with a good deal of open-faced geniality. But this approach is permissible so long as the character is limned in all his bitter evil through the voice. Musically Mr Gobbi knows his business thoroughly. He phrases with subtlety of tone and rhythm. At times he fashions a pianissimo line that has an ominous velvetiness: one can understand that it would work on Otello lik e a diabolical torture weapon. Mr Gobbi can also pour out his rage at a futile world in a rousing ‘Credo’. This is a good voice, if not a great one ... (Gobbi) is an artist who has a grasp of style ... he understands Verdi: he helps to communicate the tempestuous drama that the composer poured into Otello."

Gobbi appeared at the Metropolitan for two decades notwithstanding the stiff competition presented by the popular American baritones Leonard Warren, Robert Merrill and Cornell McNeil. His admiring New York audiences heard many of his most popular roles in performances of distinction and often in partnership with outstanding contemporaries.

Gobbi was heard again at Covent Garden on 5 July 1956 in Rigoletto with Hilde Gueden as Gilda and the Greek tenor Ncola Filacuridi as the Duke. The Times called Gobbi’s performance ‘vocally exemplary and dramatically conceived as a piece’. Herbert von Karajan’s reign as director of the Vienna State Opera began in 1956 and Gobbi was an automatic choice. He appeared with Boris Christoff in Simone Boccanegra in Rome in 1957 and the following year at Covent Garden they sang in a splendid new production of Don Carlo with Jon Vickers as Carlo and Gre Browenstein as Elisabeth. Together with Luchino Visconti’s production and Carlo Maria Giulini’s conducting this staging became the talk of the operatic world. It was perhaps all more remarkable as Gobbi and Christoff, despite being family, did not always get on.

The next few busy seasons included a Gala performance of Falstaff in Rome in honour of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, and Otello with Del Monaco in Venice and Tokyo. Gobbi also accepted an invitation to present master classes at the Villa Schifanoia in Florence which he did from 1971 almost to the end of his life. In 1962 Gobbi sang Macbeth with Amy Shuard at Covent Garden and was also presented with a golden disc marking 20 years’ of recording for HMV. The following year he was busy with performances of Falstaff, Tosca, Don Carlo and Don Giovanni at Covent Garden. In 1964 he was asked to make a number of television programmes demonstrating his ideas on stage make-up and characterization. He was appearing in Tosca at Covent Garden, in a performance to celebrate Maria Callas’s come-back, when an urgent summons came to appear in a New York Tosca with Renata Tebaldi who was marking the end of a two-year absence from the theatre. Back in London he sang in Otello with the American James McCracken and was invited by David Webster, the chief executive of the Royal Opera House from 1945 to 1970, to produce and direct Simone Boccanegra.

Gobbi’s schedule remained active throughout the late 60s and early 70s. He made appearances in Chicago and London plus occasional ‘guest’ performances elsewhere. He took on more producing and directing and was a popular lecturer on the characterization of operatic roles. He sang Scarpia to the Tosca of Marie Collier in South Africa and Australia and appeared in New York, Chicago, Rome, Copenhagen, Florence, Berlin, Monte Carlo, the Edinburgh Festival (where he was asked to produce Gianni Schicchi), and Zurich where he produced and sang in Tosca. In Lisbon the President of the Republic decorated him with the Order of Officer of Saint Iag in honour of his services to the Teatro de San Carlos where he had made his debut in 1951.

Gobbi sang his last Falstaff in London in 1974. At the end of the performance he was showered with flowers from the upper boxes and gallery to cries of “Tito, Tito, don’t go! Come back!” Over the next year or so Gobbi took his last solo bows in many opera houses around the world. He remained active as a singing teacher and lecturer until his death in Rome on 5 April 1983 from cancer, an illness he had borne with great dignity and fortitude.

For this compilation Prima Voce has chosen the early 78rpm disc recordings. Gobbi’s fortissimo singing cannot match the opulent tones of some other baritones. Nonetheless, these recordings captured his voice at its most lyrical, persuasive and attractive. He presents a mature timbre and an easy production of high notes. His voice is technically well controlled and always alive to the possibilities of colour. When required he can produce a mezza-voce that evokes the true morbidezza (tenderness) which is the essential feature of the best Italian singers. Even at the beginning of his career it is clear that Gobbi was extremely adept at using contrasting tones to give the impression of a beautiful voice, if not quite a great one.

The Deh vieni alla finestra is sung with the same unaffected style and lightness of touch to be found in all the titles from the first recording session in 1942. Note also the beautiful legato in Per me giunto…O Carlo ascolta, the long death scene from Don Carlo, where the voice takes on a more heroic timbre and the high tones are both plangent and passionate. Buona Zaza and Zaza piccola zingara have been recorded by many famous baritones but Gobbi’s version displays more powerfully than most the heartfelt, unrequited love that Cascart has for the heroine Zaza. This is often missed by singers who only revel in the fullbloodied verismo melody. In the pastoral aria Come due tizzi accesi from Cilea’s L’Arlesiana, which is not often recorded, Gobbi colours and softens the tone beautifully, exactly as directed by the composer. Gobbi’s voice is six years older and has taken on a darker and more robust character for the Largo al Factotum and Prologo from Pagliacci. Both arias are sung with élan and surely rank with the best versions on record. Likewise in the Otello arias he is able to do justice to the drama of the Credo by a subtle roughening of the vocal quality and in contrast produce a magical mezza-voce for Era la notte.

By 1950, with thirteen years theatrical experience under his belt, Gobbi has clearly established his interpretations. His address to Violetta in Di provenza il mar is masterly. This is no hectoring parent demanding a courtesan to release his son, but a father pleading for the honour of his family. Gobbi’s moving use of a mezza-voce in this aria rank it as one of the most affecting versions ever recorded. The Pari siamo is another outstanding performance, infused with all the dread of a superstitious man who compares his wounding barbs of sarcasm as a court jester to the sharp knife of the assassin. Gobbi understands the rapidly alternating moods of anger and remorse found in Eri tu. He handles this famous aria of mistaken infidelity with great skill, keeping an immaculate vocal line and delivering some dramatic top notes. Gobbi makes us feel the ominous foreboding underlying the aria Urna fatale from La Forza del Destino: what might be uncovered when Don Carlo unlocks Don Alvaro’s chest of personal belongings. We can hear why he made such a good Belcore in his swaggering delivery of the duet Venti scudi, and we can admire the experience and cultivated style of both Non piu andrai and Aprite un po from Figaro.

Tito Gobbi was the master of over 100 roles and a singer and teacher of the very front rank. He will be remembered as one of the greatest singing actors.



BIBLIOGRAPHY

Metropolitan Opera Annals (W. H. Wilson Co., New York, 1957-68)
Dal Costanzi all’Opera (Edizioni Capitolium, Rome, 1961)
Vito Levi: Il Comunale di Trieste (S.P.L.T.D. Udine, 1962)
Il Teatro all Scala (G. Ricordi, Milan, 1964)
Josef Kaut: Festspiele in Salzburg (Residenz Verlag, Salzburg, 1965)
Ronald L. Davis: Opera in Chicago (Appleton-Century, New York, 1966)
Arthur Bloomfield: 50 years of the San Francisco Opera (San Francisco Book Co., 1972)
Opera in Musica 1857-1976 (Edizione del Teatro Municipale di Reggio Emilia, 1976)
Tito Gobbi-My Life (Macdonald and Janes, London, 1979)
Due Secoli di Lirica a Genova (Edilio Frassoni SIAG, 1980)
Teatro Regio di Citt\ di Parma (Grafiche STEP, Co-operativa di Parma, 1981)
50 Anni di Oper lirica all RAI 1931-80 (Eri/Edizioni RAI, Turin, 1981)
Giuiseppe Uccello: Lo spettacolo nei secoli a Messina (Publisicula Editrice, Palermo, 1986)
Il Teatro di San Carlo (Carlo Marinelli Roscioni Guida editori, Naples, 1987)
Adrea Seebohm: The Vienna Opera (Rizzoli Int. Inc. New York, 1987)
Guido Leone: L’Opera a Palermo (Publiscula Editrice, Palermo, 1988)
Il Teartro la Fenice (Albrizzi Ediori Marsilio, Venice, 1992)
Mario Morreau e Hugin Editores: O Teatro de S. Carlos (Lisbon, 1999)
Teaatro Solis Montevideo (Wesleyan Universisty Press, Middletown, 2003)
K. Wlaschin: Opera on Film (Yale University Press, New Haven, 2004)


© 2007, Alan Bilgora

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