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 paloma
Beniamino Gigli Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Beniamino Gigli
Il dì che lasciai la terra pel vasto mar
O madre dice una prega pel marinar
E quando il vascel dall'ancora si staccò
Col pianto la mia fanciulla mi salutò
Una colomba bianca venir leggera
Aprile il tuo balcon, non mandarla via
Ch'essa portar sol l'anima potria
La vo' lieto cantar
Gaio è il marinar quando la fronte la brezza
Carezza lieve s'increspa il mar
La vo' lieto cantar
Gaio è il marinar quando la fronte la brezza
Carezza lieve s'increspa il mar
Alfin giunti siamo a terra mio Dio mercé
Mia madre ho scorto a riva ma sola ell'é
Che fu ella tace e prendemi sol la man
Tremante con sé m'attira di là lontan
Oh che veggio una tomba e poi più nulla
Ah, la colomba bianca è la mia fanciulla
Ei, marinar tu dormi e la guardia muta
O sogno tu padron non l'ho perduta
La vo' lieto cantar
Gaio è il marinar, quando la fronte la brezza
Carezza lieve s'increspa il mar
La vo' lieto cantar
Gaio è il marinar, quando la fronte la brezza
Carezza lieve s'increspa il mar
The song La Paloma, sung by Beniamino Gigli, is about a sailor who leaves his homeland to travel across the vast sea. Before he sets sail, his mother asks him to pray for the safety of the sailor, and his girlfriend bids him farewell in tears. She pleads with him to watch for a white dove that might appear on the horizon. The sailor is told that if he is swallowed by the sea, the dove will come to his girlfriend's balcony, so he should leave the balcony door open for it to enter. The dove will stay until his girlfriend decides to set it free because it is not simply a bird, but a messenger that carries his soul.
As the sailor travels on the sea, he sings joyfully, and the breeze touches his face gently. When he finally reaches the shore, he sees his mother waiting for him. But he realizes that his girlfriend is not with her. Instead, he sees a tomb and only then does he understand that he has lost his love. He wakes up from this dream and sings again about the joy of the sailor when the breeze touches his face.
The song seems to be about the bittersweet experience of traveling and leaving behind the people you love. The sailor is torn between his love for his girlfriend and his love for the sea. The dove symbolizes the bond between the sailor and his girlfriend, which is so strong that even after his death, his soul will continue to be with her.
Line by Line Meaning
Il dì che lasciai la terra pel vasto mar
On the day when I left my homeland for the vast sea
O madre dice una prega pel marinar
Oh mother, please say a prayer for the sailor
E quando il vascel dall'ancora si staccò
And when the ship was unmoored from the anchor
Col pianto la mia fanciulla mi salutò
My sweetheart bid me farewell with tears in her eyes
Bella, se il mar m'inghiotte tu vedi a sera
My darling, if the sea swallows me, you will see a white dove coming at sunset
Una colomba bianca venir leggera
A white dove arriving lightly
Aprile il tuo balcon, non mandarla via
Open your balcony in April and do not send her away
Ch'essa portar sol l'anima potria
For she could only bring my soul
La vo' lieto cantar
I want to sing happily
Gaio è il marinar quando la fronte la brezza
The sailor is joyful when the breeze caresses his brow
Carezza lieve s'increspa il mar
The gentle caress ripples the sea
Alfin giunti siamo a terra mio Dio mercé
Finally, we have arrived on land by the mercy of God
Mia madre ho scorto a riva ma sola ell'é
I saw my mother on the shore, but she is alone
Che fu ella tace e prendemi sol la man
She is silent and only takes my hand
Tremante con sé m'attira di là lontan
She takes me tremblingly away to a distant place
Oh che veggio una tomba e poi più nulla
Oh, what do I see, a grave and nothing more
Ah, la colomba bianca è la mia fanciulla
Ah, the white dove is my sweetheart
Ei, marinar tu dormi e la guardia muta
Hey, sailor, you sleep and the guard is silent
O sogno tu padron non l'ho perduta
Oh dream, with you as my master, I have not lost her
Contributed by Layla A. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@LucianoAlighieri1
Lyrics:
Il dì che lasciai la terra pel vasto mar
"O madre", dissi, "ora prega per il marinar "
E quando il vascel dall'ancora si staccò
Col pianto la mia fanciulla mi salutò
Bella, se il mar m'inghiotte tu vedi a sera
Una colomba bianca venir leggera
Aprile il tuo balcon, non mandarla via
Ch'essa portar sol l'anima potria
La vo' lieto cantar
Gaio è il marinar quando la fronte la brezza
Carezza lieve s'increspa il mar
La vo' lieto cantar
Gaio è il marinar quando la fronte la brezza
Carezza lieve s'increspa il mar
Alfin giunti siamo a terra mio Dio mercé
Mia madre ho scorto a riva ma sola ell'é
Che fu ella tace e prendemi sol la man
Tremante con sé m'attira di là lontan
Oh, che veggio una tomba e poi più nulla
Ah, la colomba bianca è la mia fanciulla
Ei, marinar tu dormi e la guardia muta
O sogno tu padron non l'ho perduta
La vo' lieto cantar
Gaio è il marinar, quando la fronte la brezza
Carezza lieve s'increspa il mar
La vo' lieto cantar
Gaio è il marinar, quando la fronte la brezza
Carezza lieve s'increspa il mar
@amilcaremirotorressabogal8230
The best singer in the last century, all over the world.
@ajoyandbasantibaksi5236
Over 65 years ago, this was the first piece of western music I listened to seriously. Still remains one of my favorite songs and singers.
@malcolmrobertson8941
The most beautiful recorded tenor's voice of all time.
@alexanderinnz1
I own an album with Neapolitan songs sang BY Gigli. I love this album and I have listened to it for many years.
@lucyanasotir894
GIgli forever with Angels !!!!!!!!!
@lucianasotir1208
GIGLI IS THE GOD OF ITALIAN OPERA SINGERS !!!!!!!!!!
@shirleyrombough8173
Beautiful version from a wonderful Italian tenor. Bravo Maestro Gigli.
@khatunamaisashvili353
From new generation only Juan Diego Flores sings with such natural voice
@sidneikovacs5499
@@khatunamaisashvili353Camarena também. Juan tem maior potencia
@giulianacenci6140
Voce meravigliosa