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Giovanni Martinelli is for me the greatest tenor of the recorded era: what I wouldn’t give to have heard live his performances of Otello or Il Travatore. Luckily he was quite well recorded, albeit not always in the best quality (his best recordings were made between about 1915 and 1941 so that is not so surprising), but they do none-the-less capture the excitement and quality of the voice. A short biography of Martinelli can be found here, Biography, whilst reviews and opinions about him can be found here, Reviews. In this section I will look what has been written about Martinelli, including reviews of his performances, retrospective appraisals of his singing, and I will look at the records and CDs that are available now for Giovanni Martinelli and where possible also look at the reviews and reaction to these releases. The page was last updated on 3rd May 2007. If you have patience or broadband (the file size is 5.7Mbyte), listen to a heart-rending performance of Rachel, quand du Seigneur from La Juive, Act IV, Scene 1, recorded in 1927 And here is a short video of Martinelli singing the opening of Celeste Aida Martinelli singing Nessun Dorma from Turandot Martinelli sings Apri la tua finestra from Iris Martinelli sings Las tu donc oublie from Samson and Delila Martinelli sings Celeste Aida from Aida Martinelli sings Cammina Morello and Dark Eyes Martinelli's reportory which I have taken from this website. Aida (Messenger)-Montagnana, Sociale, 12 September 1908
The exemplary sleeve notes are by Alan Blyth and the performance as I have mentioned ingrains itself on the memory: in Alan Blyth's words, 'Never in my experience of modern performances has the cut and thrurst of musical speech encountered here been equalled.' Blyth writes in some detail about certain key passages, for example, 'and in that one aching phrase Otello/Martinelli encapsulates his whole tragedy as Martinelli invests it with an almost unbearably sad sigh of remembrance.'
I quote from the sleeve notes by
John L. Briggs, 'The tight, intense timbre of Martinelli's voice -
like chevre, caviar and oysters - is often an acquired taste, and then
becomes an addiction. There are no mannerisms with Martinelli, just
impeccable breath control and phrasing. His diction, like Tito Schipa's
was so perfect you could take diction from it if you knew shorthand.
There's a sense of elegance, of timing, and of the meaning of text
that are unsurpassed in my experience. Listen to the control and timing
in Esultate! or the passion and intensity in the love duet, the fury
of his long second act scene with Iago, the resignation and despair
of the end. It is, to A review of this performance in the Gramophone magazine by Alan Blyth is shown on the right: I quote, 'The perfectly focussed tone, long breath, sustained line and impassioned but unexaggerated emotion of his reading remain unsurpassed....and listen just to the cry of "Miseria mia" in Act II - it's emotionally shattering...'. Try this short extract (1.04Mbytes)
from this performance, as Otello questions Desdemona with increasing
fury about the whereabouts of the handkerchief he gave her: Martinelli talked of his assumption of the role of Otello: 'Otello was an opera which I had thought about and prepared for for many years. I had discussed the character of Otello with Arrigo Boito as far back as 1916 after I had heard Zanatello sing the part. In 1912 I had also heard Franz sing the role in London. I finally decided I could sing the opera after I had got thtrough Respighi's La Campana Sommersa at the Metropolitan. The terrific strain of dramatic declamation and repeated high notes had not hurt my voice and I now felt I should begin a serious study of Otello. I was then 45 years of age. I sang part of the second act that season of 1930 at a Sunday night concert with Giuseppe Danise. Years before I had also been over Otello's part carefully with Victor Maurel, who had created Iago at the initial performance under Verdi's direction. I then went to Toscanini and asked for his help. Toscanini also had participated in the initial performance as a cellist in the orchestra. I, frankly, was frightened. The
intensity of the declamation could ruin my voice and despite the glory
and grandeur which I hoped to achieve, I could arrive with nothing.
I loved my lyrico-spinto reportoire - especially the Lucias, the Lakmes
and the Bohemes and the Fausts which I had been singing. Would Otello
compensate if I had to give these up? I wondered - and proceeded to
absorb the score slowly. Toscanini pointed out to me that for every
three pages of dramatic declamation in the score there were seven pages
which were lyric and that by emphasis on accent and diction I could,
with the dramatic intensity of the text, convey the impression of a
dramatic voice. I did not have the power of a Tamagno or
the baritone qualities of a Zanatello. I was still a spinto and as
a spinto I had to sing. Otello's opening war cry is the most difficult
bit of declamation in the score. Far back on the stage one must thunder
forth the phrases of Esultate! L'orgoglio musulmano sepolto e in mar,
nostra e del ciel e gloria! Dopo l'armi lo vinse l'uragano. Just 40
seconds of singing topped by a high B. It was some entrance - but then
the long and beautiful love duet with the phrase - Gia nella notte
densa - had to have a lyric line and a sustained legato. In the middle
of this duet come the words Tuoini la guerra - thundering of war -
this must be dramatic - but it should be uttered as a dramatic phrase
and not sung in a manner to distort or destroy the line. The second
act is also lyric - even Ora e per sempre addio. Only the recitative
- Tu? Indietro! Fuggi! - M'hai legato alla croce! - dramatic but that
drama is conveyed in words. However, when Si pel ciel arrives one must
summon voice and give with all the power at one's command or be drawfed
by the baritone and the floods of orchestration Verdi loosened at this
point. Dio! mi potevi There are reportedly two more Martinelli Otellos available, a 1940 recording with Rethberg and Tibbett and a 1938 recording with Caniglia and Tibbett. John Steane writes about the former performance in his book, The Grand Tradition: 'The best of the complete recordings from the stage is that taken on 24th February 1940. Rethberg is recognisably 'the worlds greatest soprano' again here, and Tibbett is the excellent Iago. Panizza conducts with decision and flexibility, at a fantastically fast allegro in the first scene, very much school-of-Toscanini in drive and intensity, but allowing a relaxation of tempo and more room for the expression of tenderness than in Toscanini's recording. 'Esultate' and 'Abbasso le spade' command attention by the tense, knife edge cleaness, and an essential chafing in Otello is caught as the blood begins to rebel. The love duet draws it line sin long, smooth curves, retracts to a pianissimo that expresses this inheld emotion in which there is the tension of fear for the future ('I do fear my soul hath her content so absolute....'). Martinelli is specific in his grasp of that particular phrase in the Italian, the pathos of its irony made implicit in his tone; and this is typical, for from Iago's first insinuations we are to see the suffering Otello as in some kind of X-ray of the nerves, the neurosis of unsure power, remaining aristocratic and commanding however the weakness and anguish are exposed. It would take a separate essay to comment analytically, but every phrase calls forth its own colouring and distinction, from the lurking sadness in 'Quel canto mi conquide' to the fury and loathing of 'quella vil cortigiana che e sposa d'Otello'. Martinelli's Otello was the last grand creation of an epoch. It marked the climax of his career and the end of an age.' An excellent review of Martinelli's Otello can be found in John Steane's book, Voices, Singers and Critics.
A more complete edition of all his
early acoustic recording between 1912 and 1924 can be found on the
excellent Ward Marston transcribed, Romophone 3 CD collection, 82012-2.
The CD includes recordings of Tosca, La Boheme, La Gioconda, Rogoletto,
Manon Lescaut, Aida, Pagliacci, Un Ballo in Maschera, Il Travatore,
L'Africana, Ernani, Carmen (with Geraldine Farrar), Lucia di Lammermoor,
Marta, Iris, Guglielmo Tell, La Traviata, Don Pasquale, Faust, werther,
La Boheme, Madama Butterfly,
All material on danploy.com is the copyright of danploy.com (2004-2008) unless otherwise acknowledged | ||
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A
second release of a live Metropolitan Otello followed from Music and
Arts, CD645. This performance of 12th February 1938, offers better
sound, with the continued benefits of Tibbett and Panizza and also
with the advantage of Elizabeth Rethberg replacing Roman. Martinelli
is also in fresher voice then. 
me,
beyond all praise.'
scagliar
- is also expressed in a half-choked, half-demented voice, as the almost
suffocated Otello says Dio! m potevi - scagliar - tutti i mali - della
miseria - della vorogna etc. Only two-thirds through the aria does
Otello begin to give more than half voice and he virtually chokes with
his final B flat. His asides on his throne are also lyric utterances
and only occassionally does he give vent to an animalistic scream which
is not a beautiful sound but is expressive of his agony, as for instance,
Anima mia, ti maledico. His farewell, the glory of his life gone, is
sung in a style more reminiscent of a parlando with an occassional
lyric flash as the exhausted and beaten man prepares for his own death
- Nium mi tema etc., and his final words Un altro bacio are a whisper
as he dies. Otello can be exhausting from a vocal standpoint, but the
union of the fabulous power of Verdi with the magnificent text of Boito
can exhaust a man just in speaking the part, let alone singing it.
I first sang Otello in 1936 in San Francisco at 51 years of age. Then
in the spring of 1937, I had the honour of singing the part in London
during the Coronation season and then in December of 1937, at the Metropolitan.
My final Otello was in 1947 in Philadelphia, when I was 62 years of
age.'
That
last Otello performance from April 16th, 1948 in Philadephia is also
available on CD, Grammofono AB 78 935/36 although it is an abridged
version with June Kelly as Desdemona and Cesare
Bardelli as Iago and conducted by Giuseppe Bamboschek.
One
of the most legendary performances of Martinelli's career was his performance
of Turandot given during the Queens Coronation year of 1937. The performance
seemed to be the subject of various contractual arguments which delayed
its release, but fortunately the extracts are now available on a CD,
(EMI CDH761074 2), albeit only as tantalizing extracts. To quote the
sleeve notes of Richard Bebb, 'With John Barbirolli at his magical
best in the pit, and two of the greatest voices of this century singing
with total commitment and a white-hot intensity of expression, these
recording are, without doubt, among the most valuable that the gramophone
has preserved for us.' You can also read, on the left, a review of
this CD by John Steane, from the Gramophone magazine. 
I
think the best introduction to Martinelli is the Nimbus CD from their
Prima Voce collection, NI7804. It includes extracts from all his earlier
operas, Ernani, Guglielmo Tell, Aida, Andrea Chenier, La Forza del
Destino and Pagliacci. The recordings are made between 1915 and 1928.
Zaza,
Eugene Onegin, Don Carlo, Aida (with Rosa Ponselle) and La Juive as
well as a number of songs. A review of this CD is given on the left,
again from the Gramophone magazine. The excellent sleeve notes are
by John Steane and also provide some additional biographical information.
For example in discussing the 'legend' that is Martinelli he notes
that his death was reported as front page news in The New York Times,
'Martinelli the tenor is dead'. Steane also gives some information
regarding the supposed anomaly as to his date of birth: I quote, 'His
birth certificate, a copy of which exists signed by him "Visto
- confermo", gives the date 22nd October 1885, making him 83 at
the time of his death. He was, however, widely understood to be older:
an unauthenticated report this effect (with a not implausible, though
I think incomplete, account of the reason) is included in an issue
of The Record Collector (vol.25, 7-9 p.151) devoted to him. Italian
authorities have dismissed the idea of a falsified birth certificate
as iimpossible: but in an interview on BBC television in 1967 he gave,
as I remember it, a ruefully 
humourous
assent when the interviewer, Lord Harewood, said that he believed the
tenors actual age to be even greater than the official 81. In a ltter
to me Lord Harewwod confirmed that this was his memory too, although
he could not be sure about how many years were involved. I made a note
at the time that 'five' was mentioned, and this is in accord with The
Record Collector.'