Franco Corelli
"Thrilling" is the word that inevitably seems to come up in discussion of Franco Corelli, whether in reference to his powerful, immediately identifiable voice or his matinee idol good looks. (He was one of the few tenors whose appearance was actually enhanced by Renaissance style tights, and after one such appearance was nicknamed "The Golden Calves.") While he was no stylist, or rather, sang everything "Corelli style," altering rhythms to suit his voice, inserting or prolonging high notes whenever he felt like it, and almost never displaying a high level of finesse, nuance, or sensivitiy to phrasing, for his admirers, he was the quintessence of operatic excitement.
Rather unusually, he did not come from a musical family, discovered his own talent relatively late in life, and was almost completely self taught. He had studied for an engineering career, but friends encouraged him to think about music, and he briefly studied at the Pesaro Conservatory when he was in his early twenties. In 1951, he won the Maggio Musicale competition, but decided to discontinue formal musical studies shortly afterwards. Instead, he spent his time listening to recordings of great tenors of the past, particularly Caruso, Gigli, and Lauri-Volpi, in the repertoire which he himself hoped to sing. He made his operatic debut as Don Jose in a production of Carmen in Spoleto, also during 1951.
Despite not having the network of teachers that many students have, he quickly grew in reputation, appeared in a television production of Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, and made his La Scala debut in Spontini's La Vestale as Licinio, in 1954. His Covent Garden debut in 1957 was as Cavaradossi in Puccini's Tosca, and his Metropolitan Opera debut as Manrico in 1961. While he had a definite "bleat" in his voice during his early years that led to some critics dubbing him "PeCorelli" (Italian for "goat"), he did learn to overcome that, and also to add a ravishing pianissimo to his singing, though his phrasing remained more or less crude. Over the coming years, La Scala and the Met were the houses where he appeared most frequently. He constantly suffered from stage fright, and many of his divo antics, offstage and on, might have stemmed from that, but on stage, he cut a dashing figure, though somewhat more inclined to pose than to act. In one memorable staging of Don Carlo, feeling that Boris Christoff, the bass singing King Philip was getting too much audience attention, he provoked a genuine sword fight with the no less feisty Christoff during the auto-da-fe scene, until a brave supernumerary (spear carrier) physically separated the two. In yet another staging of the same scene and opera, he didn't come out onto the stage until long after his cue; he had been in the middle of a dispute backstage, and wanted to win that before he came out to sing.
He sang a wide variety of roles from the Italian and French repertoire, including several works that had been relative obscurities, such as Meyerbeer's Les Hugenots and Donizetti's Poliuto. Appropriately, considering how he learned to sing, he made several recordings, mostly for EMI/Angel. Among the recordings that capture him at his best are an Andrea Chenier, conducted by Santini (EMI CDS5 65287-2) and a selection of arias and songs (EMI Double Forte CZS 569530 2.)
© Ann Feeney /TiVo
Artistes similaires
-
I Pagliacci Highlights & Verdi Choruses
Tito Gobbi, Mario Spina, Franco Corelli
Opéra - Paru chez P4Y le 25 nov. 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Giordano · andrea chénier
Franco Corelli, Antonietta Stella, Gabriele Santini, Orchestra del Teatro dell'Opera di Roma
Classique - Paru chez G.O.P. le 29 mai 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
Vicino a te (Live On The Ed Sullivan Show, September 18, 1966)
Franco Corelli, Renata Tebaldi
Classique - Paru chez SOFA - AV Catalog DD le 13 janv. 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
O soave fanciulla (Live On The Ed Sullivan Show, August 14, 1966)
Dorothy Kirsten, Franco Corelli
Classique - Paru chez SOFA - AV Catalog DD le 14 août 1966
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
L'incredibile Franco Corelli
Lounge - Paru chez Universal Digital Enterprises le 3 mars 1956
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Stasera All'Opera Franco Corelli (Verdi Il Trovatore Ah! Si Ben Mio ,Di Quella Pira)
Franco Corelli, Gabriella Tucci, Angelo Mercuriali
Opéra - Paru chez Teatro Records le 23 juin 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Pagliacci (feat. Maria Grazia Allegri, Giulietta Simionato, Coro del teatro alla Scala de Milano, Gian Giacomo Guelfi, Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano, Gianandrea Gavazenni)
Opéra - Paru chez Carillon Music le 5 mars 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
For theatre: pagliacci
Mafalda Micheluzzi, Tito Gobi, Franco Corelli
Opéra - Paru chez OperaPrima-Carillon le 23 avr. 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bizet: Carmen, extraits (Mono Version)
Pia Tassinari, Franco Corelli, Orchestra Sinfonica della RAI di Torino, Arturo Basile
Divers - Paru chez BNF Collection le 1 janv. 1958
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Lolita (feat. Gian Stellari et son orchestre) (Mono Version)
Pop - Paru chez BNF Collection le 1 janv. 1957
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi: il trovatore
Franco Corelli, Ettore Bastianini, Fedora Barbieri, Mirella Parutto, Oliviero de Fabritiis, Orchestra e Coro del Teatro dell'Opera di Roma
Classique - Paru chez Mangora Classical le 14 févr. 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Leoncavallo · pagliacci
Franco Corelli, Lucine Amara, Lovro von Matacic, Orchestra del Teatro della Scala di Milano
Classique - Paru chez G.O.P. le 24 avr. 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mascagni · cavalleria rusticana
Franco Corelli, Victoria de los Angeles, Gabriele Santini, Orchestra del Teatro dell'Opera di Roma
Classique - Paru chez G.O.P. le 17 mars 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
De Curtis: Tu, ca nun chiagne/'O surdato 'nnammurato/Torna a Surriento (Medley/Live On The Ed Sullivan Show, November 20, 1966)
Classique - Paru chez SOFA - AV Catalog DD le 8 août 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini · turandot
Lucille Udovich, Franco Corelli, Fernando Previtali, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano della Rai
Classique - Paru chez G.O.P. le 30 juin 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Récital (Mono Version)
Divers - Paru chez BNF Collection le 1 janv. 1958
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Leoncavallo & Bellini: Airs d'opéras (Mono Version)
Opéra - Paru chez BNF Collection le 1 janv. 1958
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bizet: Carmen, extraits chantés en italien (Mono Version)
Pia Tassinari, Franco Corelli, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI di Torino, Arturo Basile
Divers - Paru chez BNF Collection le 1 janv. 1963
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi: Aida, extraits (Mono Version)
Maria Curtis Verna, Franco Corelli, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI di Torino, Angelo Questa
Divers - Paru chez BNF Collection le 1 janv. 1963
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Récital Franco Corelli, vol. 3 (Mono Version)
Franco Corelli, Arturo Basile, Orchestra Sinfonica della RAI di Torino
Divers - Paru chez BNF Collection le 1 janv. 1958
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo