"Gli Operai"

by Luigi Speranza for "Gli Operai" jlsperanza@aol.com

----A HISTORY OF THE TENOR. The following are notes regarding the tenor role in Italian opera productions. I am thinking of the best way to catalogue this material so bear with me. CHRONOLOGY. We will work with standard piano-reductions and instrumental tracks. What are the earliest specimens? We don't have instrumental trackings of early opera, but the well-known two-cd series. Let's revise the contents of them. Pavarotti has well-known recordings of some early offerings here:

---- BONONCINI, "Griselda" (Ernesto's aria)
---- LAGRENZI, Che fiero costume.
---- SCARLATTI, Gia il sole dal Gange.

The earliest instrumental trackings that are easily available include only 19th century Italian opera onwards. They include a few. But before that, one 18th century item:

--- MOZART, Dalla sua pace la mia dipende. Don Ottavio's aria in Atto I "Don Giovanni"

19th century:

ROSSINI. 'Ecco ridente in cielo'. Rossini. Barbier di Siviglia. In what ways is this opera historically important? It is said that belcanto was almost a thing of the past when this came out, so the historical importance of "Barbier" is overrated.

Donizetti, "Tu che a Dio spiegasti l'ali"
--------------"Sogno soave e casto" di Don Pasquale
--------------"Una furtiva lagrima" e "Quanto e bella" -- L'elisir d'amore
--------------"Spirto gentil" -- "La Favorita".

VERDI
-- Choral works -- "Nabucco"
-- "La donna e mobile" (Rigoletto).
-- aria di "Don Carlo"
-- aria di "Ernani" (coro di Ernani)
-- miei bollenti spiriti (La Traviata)

FLOTOW
-- "M'appari" di Marta

GOUNOD
-- "Salve, dimura casta e pura" dal Fausto

PONCHIELLI
"Cielo e mare" -- La Gioconda

BOITO
Aria of Mefistofele

MEYERBEER
O Paradiso, L'Africana

LEONCAVALLO
"Ridi pagliaccio"
"Musetta! Testa adorata" (La Boheme)

MASCAGNI
Mamma, quel vino e generoso (Cavalleria Rusticana)

GIORDANO
"Amor ti vieta" (Fedora)

CILEA
E la solita storia del pastore (L'Arlesiana)

We actually end with Puccini.
PUCCINI
"Donna non vidi mai" -- Manon Lescaut
"Che gelida manina" -- Boheme
The two arias by Pinkerton, "Madama Butterfly" (Dovunque and Addio fiorito asil).
"E lucevan le stelle" and "Recondita armonia" (Tosca)
"Che ella mi creda libera e lontano" (La fanciulla del West)
"Avete torto" Gianni Schicchi
Aria of "La Rondine"
The two arias by Calaf in Turandot: "Nessun dorma" and "Non piangere, Liu"