Gigli was born in Recanati, in the Marche, the son of a shoe-maker and an opera buff.
In 1914, Gigli won first prize in an international singing competition in Parma. His operatic debut came on October 15, 1914 when he played Enzo in Amilcare Ponchielli's La Gioconda in Rovigo, following which he was in great demand. Gigli made many important debuts, in quick succession and always in Mefistofele: Teatro Massimo di Palermo (March 31, 1915), Teatro San Carlo di Napoli (December 26, 1915), Teatro Costanzi di Roma (December 26, 1916), La Scala (November 19, 1918), and finally the Metropolitan (November 26, 1920).
Other roles Gigli became particularly associated with included Rodolfo in Giacomo Puccini's La Bohème and the title role in Umberto Giordano's Andrea Chénier, both of which he would later record in full.
Gigli rose to prominence after the death of Italian tenor Enrico Caruso in 1921. He was often called "Caruso Secondo", though he much preferred to be known as "Gigli Primo."
Gigli left the Met in 1932, ostensibly after refusing to take a pay cut. Giulio Gatti-Casazza, the Met's General Manager at the time, was furious at his company's most popular singer; he spread numerous lies to the press, e.g., that Gigli was the only singer not to accept the pay cut. There were several others, e.g., Lily Pons and Rosa Ponselle. And it is well-documented that Gatti-Casazza gave himself a large pay increase in 1931, so that after the pay cut in '32 his salary remained the same as it had been. Furthermore, Gatti was careful to hide Gigli's counteroffer to the press, in which the singer offered to sing five or six concerts gratis, which in dollars was worth more than Gatti's imposed pay cut.
After leaving the Met, Gigli returned again to Italy, and sang in houses there, elsewhere in Europe and in South America. He was criticized for being a favorite singer of Benito Mussolini, and toward the end of World War II was able to give few performances. However he immediately returned to the stage in 1945, and the audience acclaim was greater and more clamorous than ever.
In the last few years of his life, Gigli gave concert performances more often than he appeared on stage. Before his retirement in 1955, Gigli undertook an exhausting world tour of Farewell Concerts. This impaired his health in the two years that remained to him, during which time he helped prepare his Memoirs (based primarily on an earlier Memoir, fleshed out by a series of interviews). Gigli died in Rome in 1957.
Like many artists, Gigli was a man of contradictions. On the one hand, he gave more fundraising concerts and raised more money than any other singer in history -- one thousand benefit concerts! He was deeply and genuinely devoted to Padre Pio, his confessor, to whom he donated a huge amount of money. Also, Gigli sang an unusual amount of sacred music (especially in the 1950s), atypical of a leading operatic tenor. Additionally, he was throughout his life deeply devoted to the sacred music of Don Lorenzo Perosi.
On the other hand, Gigli's relationships with women were all tainted by scandal. He lied in his memoirs, saying that he was married six months earlier than he really was. This was to conceal that his wife Costanza was pregnant before reaching the altar. Gigli had two children with Costanza, Enzo and Rina. (The latter was a famous soprano in her own right.) Later, Gigli is well-known to have had a second family with Lucia Vigarani, producing three children. Gigli is rumored to have had at least three other children with as many different women. Like Caruso, Schipa, Björling, Tagliavini, and other of history's greatest tenors, Gigli's exact number of offspring will probably never be known.
There is little disagreement that Beniamino Gigli possessed the most beautiful lyric tenor voice of his time. It was also a large voice, which—with Gigli's extraordinary technique and vocal understanding—permitted Gigli to make frequent forays into repertoire normally reserved for spinto and dramatic tenors. Andrea Chénier was Gigli's favorite role. Another role in which he was unsurpassed was that of Des Grieux in Manon Lescaut. Both of these roles are supposedly for "heavier" voices, not lyric tenors.
Gigli's heart, which he infused into every phrase he sang, made him a natural in the realm of popular song. Whereas Caruso sang every song like it was his last, Gigli made each song or aria sound like he could sing twenty more with equal ease. And he sometimes did: Gigli's stamina was such that, after an opera, a piano would be wheeled onto the stage, and Gigli would sing an improvised concert of 10, 20, sometimes 30 encores. Virtually all of these post-opera concerts were fundraisers for which Gigli did not receive a penny. Gigli sang like this for 41 years without interruption. It is likely that neither Gigli's vocal longevity nor durability will ever be surpassed.
His remarkable singing can still be appreciated in the numerous recordings he made, both acoustical and electrical, primarily for RCA Victor (formerly known as the Victor Talking Machine Company). RCA even recorded Gigli's final performance in Carnegie Hall in 1955.
La canzone dell'amore
Beniamino Gigli Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
piccola bimba del cuor,
io vorrei nell'estasi
sospirar chino ai tuoi piè.
Ogni segreto dolor
scorderò,
sol per te.
va la canzone mia.
Come in un sogno di passion
tu sei l'eterna mia vision.
Una vision d'amore
che mi tormenta il cuore
e nel mio sogno vivo per te,
sol per te, Lucia.
Solo per te, Lucia,
va la canzone mia.
Come in un sogno di passion
tu sei l'eterna mia vision.
Una vision d'amore
che mi tormenta il cuore
e nel mio sogno vivo per te,
sol per te, Lucia.
The song La canzone dell'amore is a romantic ballad that opens with the singer addressing his beloved as a "little girl of his heart" and a minstrel of love. He expresses his desire to be able to sigh at her feet in ecstasy and forget all the secret pains only to be devoted entirely to her. He then goes on to sing solely for her, where she is the eternal vision of his passion and love that torments him, but he lives only for her, hoping to be with her one day.
The song captures the intense emotions of a man deeply in love that he is willing to forget his own sorrows just to keep his beloved happy and content. The singer's yearning for his beloved is apparent as he sings in a dream-like state of his passion for Lucia, where she is the only one he sings for, and he lives solely for her. He sees her divine presence in his every imagination and is all-consumed by his love for her.
La canzone dell'amore is a masterpiece of a ballad that radiates with the beauty of love and devotion. The lyrics are simple yet profound, and the melody is mellow, hence creating a beautiful and serene ambiance. The song has been performed by many artists throughout history and has been considered a timeless classic. The singer's expression of love and devotion to his beloved is where it draws its timeless appeal.
Line by Line Meaning
Qual menestrello d'amor,
I am a minstrel of love,
piccola bimba del cuor,
And you, my dear, are the little girl of my heart,
io vorrei nell'estasi
I wish to lose myself in ecstasy
sospirar chino ai tuoi piè.
As I sigh at your feet.
Ogni segreto dolor
Every hidden pain
scorderò,
I will forget
sol per te.
Only for you.
Solo per te, Lucia,
Only for you, Lucia,
va la canzone mia.
My song is dedicated to you.
Come in un sogno di passione
Just like in a dream of passion
tu sei l'eterna mia vision.
You are my eternal vision.
Una vision d'amore
A vision of love
che mi tormenta il cuore
That torments my heart
e nel mio sogno vivo per te,
And in my dreams, I live for you,
sol per te, Lucia.
Only for you, Lucia.
Writer(s): Bixio Cherubini, Cesare Andrea Bixio
Contributed by Isabelle Y. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@Mrivero23
Que voz tan hermosa y que bella cancion!!!!! Gracias por permitirnos escuchar esto. Un saludo desde Argentina.⚘⚘⚘⚘⚘
@user-nu6qb5oe9w
Душа улетает! Улетает в космос и дальше ....
@grantheron4595
Bella voce e canto
@hrbooksmusic7878
Non ci credo...ho visto un 👎🏻 ... Esiste veramente qualcuno a chi non piace la voce bellissima di Beniamino Gigli? Anche la sua tecnica vocale è straordinaria! 💖⭐️💖
Grazie per questo video meraviglioso da sognare... 🙏🍀
@eugeniogentili1048
Sara' qualche fan di Grigolo o di Florez.
@hrbooksmusic7878
@@eugeniogentili1048
Può darsi che abbia ragione... solo che non riesco a capire il perchè... Sono una fan di Gigli (tra altri), ma non rendo cattivi i tenori a cui sono meno affezionata... Mi sembra un segno per un carattere discutibile...
Sopratutto la bellezza della musica e della voce umana... ⭐️
Grazie per la Sua risposta e tanti saluti! 🍀
@eugeniogentili1048
@@hrbooksmusic7878 Franco Corelli lo conosci? Anche lui marchigiano tenore lirico spinto dall'innegabile fascino.
@eugeniogentili1048
https://youtu.be/Zzb9uwfgD1w
@hrbooksmusic7878
@@eugeniogentili1048
Certo che lo conosco! Un tenore eccitante con una voce splendida di gran valore di riconoscimento!
Grazie per questo link... sono curiosa di vedere dove mi porterà...
@benjaminchernuhin3894
Difficult to say what is better - magnificent voice of B. Gigli or marvellous music of C.A. Bixio. And what to say when they are together?