Fernando De Lucia
Encyclopedia
Fernando De Lucia was an Italian opera
tenor
and singing teacher who enjoyed an international career.
De Lucia was admired in his lifetime as a striking exponent of verismo
parts — particularly Canio in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci
— and of certain roles written by Verdi and Puccini. Since then, however, he has acquired a great posthumous reputation among record-collectors for something different. They hail him as the exemplar of a type of graceful, ornamental tenor singing which originated prior to verismo and is now extinct. Especially valued are the recordings that De Lucia made of Almaviva's arias and duets from Rossini's bel canto
comic opera Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville).
, where he studied at the Naples Music Conservatory
with Vincenzo Lombardi and Beniamino Carelli
. He made his debut at the Teatro di San Carlo
, Naples, as Gounod's Faust
in 1885. Over the next two or three years he sang in Spain, South America and in the smaller Italian opera houses, in Linda di Chamounix
, Dinorah
, L'elisir d'amore
, Fra Diavolo
and La sonnambula
. While in Madrid
he was hired by Augustus Harris
and Herman Klein
for his first London appearances in the Drury Lane
season of 1887; but although Klein liked his Alfredo
, he went comparatively unnoticed due to the British debut of the charismatic tenor Jean de Reszke
. His Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia (a role later closely associated with him) was described as "truly detestable" by The Times newspaper.
, singing the role of Fritz Kobus opposite the French diva Emma Calvé
. The opera had been composed by the up-and-coming musician Pietro Mascagni
and its debut occurred in Rome at the Costanzi Theatre
. For a singer later upheld (by some) as the rarified model of bel canto
style the situation was originally quite otherwise; De Lucia was, in fact, famous during his career not as a bel canto stylist, but as a performer of Mascagni and Ruggero Leoncavallo
's earthy, melodramatic verismo characters. De Lucia capitalized on Europe's Mascagni craze of the early 1890s. Accordingly, in November 1892, he was engaged by the Florence
opera house to create the tenor lead in Mascagni's third opera, I Rantzau
. Appearing with him in the work was the virtuoso
baritone Mattia Battistini
.
conducting), of Leoncavallo's Pagliacci
, opposite Nellie Melba
and Mario Ancona
. De Lucia sang the part of Canio, which had been created a year earlier in Milan by Fiorello Giraud. Klein describes an audience breathless with excitement, and De Lucia's burning intensity in the role as a triumph of realism. Mascagni made his own London debut at Covent Garden
, conducting L'amico Fritz on June 19, 1893 with Calvé and, of course, De Lucia in the cast. Soon afterwards, again with Calvé, and accompanied by the song composer Paolo Tosti
, De Lucia sang excerpts from Cavalleria rusticana for Queen Victoria at Windsor
. On July 7 of that year, appearing in a cast which included soprano
Nellie Melba
and the baritone
s Mario Ancona
and David Bispham
, he gave the first British performance of I Rantzau at Covent Garden. (The opera was not a great success.)
. He repeated his Canio with Melba and Ancona, and this was esteemed; but he was disliked as Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni
and as the Duke of Mantua
in Rigoletto. He did not repeat the experience. In London in 1894, he performed both Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci (together on the one night) at Covent Garden, with Ancona in the lead baritone parts. Shaw
admired the "'altogether exceptional dramatic force" which their performances gave to the pair of works. That season he was also in a bilingual (French-Italian) Faust, with Melba, Ancona and Bauermeister. Shaw thought the role of Faust too heavy for De Lucia: his "dramatic instinct helped him well through a part in which he seemed likely to be overweighted. Several times in the garden scene he found the right musical treatment with exceptional success." That was also his verdict of his Duke in a Rigoletto with Melba, Ancona and Giulia Ravogli, though he got through the music 'adroitly and pluckily'.
De Lucia sang at La Scala
in 1895 in the world premiere of Mascagni's Silvano
, and also appeared in the first Milan performances of Puccini's La bohème
and Massenet's La Navarraise
. At Covent Garden in that same year, he shared the principal tenor work with the heavier-voiced Francesco Tamagno
and Albert Alvarez in the absence of Jean de Reszke. The American baritone David Bispham
thought De Lucia admirable in Fra Diavolo that year. The cast of Auber
's light-hearted opera featured Bispham and Mme Amadi (as Lord and Lady Allcash) and Marie Engle (as Zerlina), as well as the bass
Vittorio Arimondi and the buffo baritone Antonio Pini-Corsi
(as brigands).
In 1896, in Milan, De Lucia appeared as Cavaradossi in Tosca
, and again as Almaviva. The next year, he sang in a state concert at London's Buckingham Palace
to mark Queen Victoria's Royal Jubilee. At the Costanzi Theatre, Rome, on 22 November 1898, he created the role of Osaka in Mascagni's Iris
, and at Covent Garden on 12 July 1900 he played Cavaradossi in the first performance of Tosca in England, supporting the Floria Tosca of Milka Ternina
, with Antonio Scotti
as Scarpia and Luigi Mancinelli
conducting. The "Musical Times" found that his performance was highly effective and that his character exactly suited that of Cavaradossi.
De Lucia was also admired in London as Don Jose in Bizet's Carmen
. He appeared, too, in the same composer's I pescatori di perle
and in various works by Rossini, Bellini
and Verdi. His last London season would be in 1905, in an outstanding operatic company assembled by Henry Russell
for the Waldorf Theatre (now the Novello Theatre
). De Lucia's colleagues on this occasion were the tenor Alessandro Bonci
, Ancona and Pini-Corsi.
In 1916, De Lucia delivered his farewell performance at La Scala as Rodolfo
. He said goodbye to his loyal Neapolitan supporters the following year at the Teatro di San Carlo
. De Lucia's final appearance before the public occurred at the funeral of the incomparable Enrico Caruso in Naples in 1921. In his later years, De Lucia dwelt in Naples and taught at the conservatory there, in which he himself had been trained. His most famous pupil was the French tenor Georges Thill
. He died in his native city of Naples.
De Lucia's recordings of arias and duets from Rossini's Barber of Seville ('Ecco ridente', 'Se il mio nome' and 'Numero quindici', for example) show off his vocal characteristics to an even greater extent than do his records of verismo pieces (or even lyrical Verdian parts, such as Alfredo in La traviata
). They contain a studied display of fioritura
, rubato, limpid phrasing and portamento
which appears to be a deliberate re-statement of the so-called bel canto
style practised by previous generations of Italian tenors; or perhaps more accurately, a re-statement of that style's surviving mannerisms. These mannerisms were already dying out in the early 1900s when audiences came to prefer their tenor idols to sing in a more full-blooded, robust and straight forward way.
George Bernard Shaw wrote tellingly of De Lucia in June 1892. Having seen his L'amico Fritz
, he stated that: "Signor De Lucia succeeds [Fernando] Valero ... as artificial tenor in ordinary to the establishment. His thin strident forte is in tune and does not tremble beyond endurance; and his mezza voce, though monotonous and inexpressive, is pretty as prettiness goes in the artificial school." In 1894 Shaw speaks of De Lucia as a tenor of the Julian Gayarre
school, without the "goat-bleat" of its extreme disciples. This comment of Shaw's provides a clue. Like Valero, Gayarre was taught by Melchiorre Vidal in Madrid. Another of Vidal's pupils, soprano Rosina Storchio
, was closely associated with verismo premieres. De Lucia, who sang in Spain in the 1880s, may have imbibed the example set by those who studied with Vidal.
By referring to De Lucia as an artificial tenor, Shaw is associating him with other pre-World War I Italian tenors who employed a similar vocal technique and were inclined to phrase their arias in the same sort of lingering, self-conscious way as De Lucia. They include Alessandro Bonci
, Giuseppe Anselmi
and Fiorello Giraud. The voices of these three tenors had a fast, fluttery, De Lucia-like vibrato
which is only too apparent on their gramophone record
s. This excessive vibrato seems to be an integral part of the breathing technique that they used to negotiate vocal ornaments and perform portamenti. Musicologists debate whether this is a genuine stylistic hand-me-down from the "bel canto" singing tradition founded by the virtuoso tenor Giovanni Rubini (1794–1854) or merely a flaw, attributable to inadequate breath support, in the vocal method adopted subsequent to Rubini by some Mediterranean tenors.
It should be noted that many famous Mediterranean tenors active in De Lucia's day, such as Francesco Tamagno
, Francesco Marconi
, Francesco Signorini, Emilio De Marchi
, Francesco Vignas (a Vidal pupil, paradoxically), Giuseppe Borgatti
, Giovanni Zenatello
and, of course, Enrico Caruso, did not 'tremble' like De Lucia and his ilk when they sang. This fact is borne out by their recordings. (Unlike the other tenors mentioned above, De Marchi did not make commercial discs; but he can be heard singing part of the role of Cavaradossi on brief cylinder recordings made live at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1903.)
, producing discs that has acquired an almost legendary status among collectors. He recorded, often hauntingly, the following titles for the Gramophone Company
between 1902 and 1908. The dates are the issue dates: more than one date indicates two separate recordings. All are 10-inch records unless otherwise shown. The partners in duets are Antonio Pini-Corsi
(baritone), Maria Galvany
(soprano), Giuseppina Huguet
(sop), Celestina Boninsegna
(soprano) and Ernesto Badini
(baritone).
Fonotipia Records. De Lucia also recorded 30 Neapolitan songs for the Fonotipia label (later subsumed by Odeon Records
). This company began recording celebrity singers in October 1904, having been founded for that purpose by Baron d'Erlanger as the Società Italiana di Fonotipia
, Milan
o. The De Lucia titles had the catalogue numbers 92695 to 92724. The 92000 sequence was cut between 1907 and 1914 on the characteristic ten-and three-quarter-inch Fonotipia record format, and De Lucia's were made in 1911 after the cessation of his work for the Gramophone Company. Some of these duplicate the HMV and Phonotype recordings.
Phonotype Records. Not to be confused with Fonotipia, De Lucia later became closely associated with the Phonotype Company. It has often been written that De Lucia founded and ran the company himself; but Henstock (below) has determined that this was not so. That said, De Lucia a clear sense of preserving his artistry for future generations and had a passionate interest in recording. The Phonotype issues include many operatic titles, including a near-complete Barber of Seville and Rigoletto
. De Lucia also recorded much from operas he did not (and could never have hoped to) sing on the stage, including Niun mi tema from Verdi's Otello and from operas in which he created the tenor role (Mascagni's Iris and L'Amico Fritz). The repertoire is very wide and include Tate's song Broken/baby doll (in Italian) and many duets with the "palpably mediocre" (Henstock) soprano De Angelis and the young baritone Benvenuto Franchi, then at the start of his long and celebrated career. The Phonotype Records were made during the First World War through to 1922. De Lucia's ornaments and general interpretations became even more audacious; one notorious example being the change in the melody of Che gelida manina from Puccini's La Boheme. (see Discography and comment in Henstock)
Note: By the time that De Lucia came to make his first recordings, his upper register had contracted to such an extent that he was forced to transpose downwards some of the pieces that he committed to disc by a semi-tone or even a full tone.
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
and singing teacher who enjoyed an international career.
De Lucia was admired in his lifetime as a striking exponent of verismo
Verismo
Verismo was an Italian literary movement which peaked between approximately 1875 and the early 1900s....
parts — particularly Canio in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci
Pagliacci
Pagliacci , sometimes incorrectly rendered with a definite article as I Pagliacci, is an opera consisting of a prologue and two acts written and composed by Ruggero Leoncavallo. It recounts the tragedy of a jealous husband in a commedia dell'arte troupe...
— and of certain roles written by Verdi and Puccini. Since then, however, he has acquired a great posthumous reputation among record-collectors for something different. They hail him as the exemplar of a type of graceful, ornamental tenor singing which originated prior to verismo and is now extinct. Especially valued are the recordings that De Lucia made of Almaviva's arias and duets from Rossini's bel canto
Bel canto
Bel canto , along with a number of similar constructions , is an Italian opera term...
comic opera Il barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville).
Early career
De Lucia was born in NaplesNaples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
, where he studied at the Naples Music Conservatory
Music Conservatories of Naples
The Music Conservatory of Naples is a music institution in Naples, southern Italy. It is currently located in the complex of San Pietro a Majella.-San Pietro a Majella:...
with Vincenzo Lombardi and Beniamino Carelli
Beniamino Carelli
Beniamino Carelli was a celebrated Italian singing teacher and composer.Carelli was born and died in Naples, where he spent many years teaching at the Conservatory of San Pietro a Majella...
. He made his debut at the Teatro di San Carlo
Teatro di San Carlo
The Real Teatro di San Carlo is an opera house in Naples, Italy. It is the oldest continuously active such venue in Europe.Founded by the Bourbon Charles VII of Naples of the Spanish branch of the dynasty, the theatre was inaugurated on 4 November 1737 — the king's name day — with a performance...
, Naples, as Gounod's Faust
Faust (opera)
Faust is a drame lyrique in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré from Carré's play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1...
in 1885. Over the next two or three years he sang in Spain, South America and in the smaller Italian opera houses, in Linda di Chamounix
Linda di Chamounix
Linda di Chamounix is an operatic melodramma semiserio in three acts by Gaetano Donizetti. The Italian libretto was written by Gaetano Rossi. It premiered in Vienna, at the Kärntnertortheater, on May 19, 1842.-Performance history:...
, Dinorah
Dinorah
Dinorah, originally Le pardon de Ploërmel , is an 1859 French opéra comique in three acts with music by Giacomo Meyerbeer and a libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré...
, L'elisir d'amore
L'elisir d'amore
L'elisir d'amore is an opera by the Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. It is a melodramma giocoso in two acts...
, Fra Diavolo
Fra Diavolo (opera)
Fra Diavolo, ou L'hôtellerie de Terracine is an opéra comique in three acts by the French composer Daniel Auber, from a libretto by Auber's regular collaborator Eugène Scribe...
and La sonnambula
La sonnambula
La sonnambula is an opera semiseria in two acts, with music in the bel canto tradition by Vincenzo Bellini to an Italian libretto by Felice Romani, based on a scenario for a ballet-pantomime by Eugène Scribe and Jean-Pierre Aumer called La somnambule, ou L'arrivée d'un nouveau seigneur.The first...
. While in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
he was hired by Augustus Harris
Augustus Harris
Sir Augustus Henry Glossop Harris , was a British actor, impresario, and dramatist.-Early life:Harris was born in Paris, France, the son of Augustus Glossop Harris , who was also a dramatist, and his wife, née Maria Ann Bone, a theatrical costumier...
and Herman Klein
Herman Klein
Herman Klein was an English music critic, author and teacher of singing. Klein's famous brothers included Charles and Manuel Klein...
for his first London appearances in the Drury Lane
Drury Lane
Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster....
season of 1887; but although Klein liked his Alfredo
La traviata
La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
, he went comparatively unnoticed due to the British debut of the charismatic tenor Jean de Reszke
Jean de Reszke
Jean de Reszke, born Jan Mieczyslaw, , was a Polish tenor. Renowned internationally for the high quality of his singing and the elegance of his bearing, he became the biggest male opera star of the late 19th century....
. His Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia (a role later closely associated with him) was described as "truly detestable" by The Times newspaper.
Mascagni, Rome and Florence
On October 31, 1891, De Lucia took part in the world premiere of L'amico FritzL'amico Fritz
L'amico Fritz is an opera in three acts by Pietro Mascagni, premiered in 1891 from a libretto by P. Suardon , based on the French novel L'ami Fritz by Émile Erckmann and Pierre-Alexandre Chatrian.While the opera enjoyed some success in its day and is probably Mascagni's most famous work after...
, singing the role of Fritz Kobus opposite the French diva Emma Calvé
Emma Calvé
Emma Calvé, born Rosa Emma Calvet , was a French operatic soprano.Calvé was probably the most famous French female opera singer of the Belle Époque. Hers was an international career, and she sang regularly and to considerable acclaim at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York, and the Royal Opera...
. The opera had been composed by the up-and-coming musician Pietro Mascagni
Pietro Mascagni
Pietro Antonio Stefano Mascagni was an Italian composer most noted for his operas. His 1890 masterpiece Cavalleria rusticana caused one of the greatest sensations in opera history and single-handedly ushered in the Verismo movement in Italian dramatic music...
and its debut occurred in Rome at the Costanzi Theatre
Teatro dell'Opera di Roma
The Teatro dell'Opera di Roma is an opera house in Rome, Italy. Originally opened in November 1880 as the 2,212 seat Costanzi Theatre, it has undergone several changes of name as well modifications and improvements...
. For a singer later upheld (by some) as the rarified model of bel canto
Bel canto
Bel canto , along with a number of similar constructions , is an Italian opera term...
style the situation was originally quite otherwise; De Lucia was, in fact, famous during his career not as a bel canto stylist, but as a performer of Mascagni and Ruggero Leoncavallo
Ruggero Leoncavallo
Ruggero Leoncavallo was an Italian opera composer. His two-act work Pagliacci remains one of the most popular works in the repertory, appearing as number 20 on the Operabase list of the most-performed operas worldwide.-Biography:...
's earthy, melodramatic verismo characters. De Lucia capitalized on Europe's Mascagni craze of the early 1890s. Accordingly, in November 1892, he was engaged by the Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
opera house to create the tenor lead in Mascagni's third opera, I Rantzau
I Rantzau
I Rantzau is an opera in four acts by Pietro Mascagni , based on a libretto by Guido Menasci and Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti, based on the play Les Rantzau by French writers Erckmann and Chatrian, after their novel Les Deux Frères .It was first performed at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence,...
. Appearing with him in the work was the virtuoso
Virtuoso
A virtuoso is an individual who possesses outstanding technical ability in the fine arts, at singing or playing a musical instrument. The plural form is either virtuosi or the Anglicisation, virtuosos, and the feminine form sometimes used is virtuosa...
baritone Mattia Battistini
Mattia Battistini
Mattia Battistini was an Italian operatic baritone. He became internationally famous due to the beauty of his voice and the virtuosity of his singing technique, and he earned the sobriquet "King of Baritones".-Early life:...
.
Verismo firsts in London, 1893
De Lucia's verismo-opera career continued apace with the first English performance (on 19 May 1893, with Enrico BevignaniEnrico Bevignani
Enrico Modesto Bevignani was an Italian conductor, harpsichordist, composer, and impresario. He studied in his native city with Giuseppe Albanese, Salvatore Lavigna, Giuseppe Lillo and Giuseppe Staffa...
conducting), of Leoncavallo's Pagliacci
Pagliacci
Pagliacci , sometimes incorrectly rendered with a definite article as I Pagliacci, is an opera consisting of a prologue and two acts written and composed by Ruggero Leoncavallo. It recounts the tragedy of a jealous husband in a commedia dell'arte troupe...
, opposite Nellie Melba
Nellie Melba
Dame Nellie Melba GBE , born Helen "Nellie" Porter Mitchell, was an Australian operatic soprano. She became one of the most famous singers of the late Victorian Era and the early 20th century...
and Mario Ancona
Mario Ancona
Mario Ancona , was a leading Italian baritone and master of bel canto singing. He appeared at some of the most important opera houses in Europe and America during what is commonly referred to as the "Golden Age of Opera".-Career:Ancona was born into a middle-class Jewish family at Livorno, Tuscany,...
. De Lucia sang the part of Canio, which had been created a year earlier in Milan by Fiorello Giraud. Klein describes an audience breathless with excitement, and De Lucia's burning intensity in the role as a triumph of realism. Mascagni made his own London debut at Covent Garden
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
, conducting L'amico Fritz on June 19, 1893 with Calvé and, of course, De Lucia in the cast. Soon afterwards, again with Calvé, and accompanied by the song composer Paolo Tosti
Francesco Paolo Tosti
Sir Paolo Tosti was an Italian, later British, composer and music teacher.-Life:Francesco Paolo Tosti received most of his music education in his native Ortona, Italy, as well as the conservatory in Naples. Tosti began his music education at the Royal College of San Pietro a Majella at the age of...
, De Lucia sang excerpts from Cavalleria rusticana for Queen Victoria at Windsor
Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle is a medieval castle and royal residence in Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, notable for its long association with the British royal family and its architecture. The original castle was built after the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror. Since the time of Henry I it...
. On July 7 of that year, appearing in a cast which included soprano
Soprano
A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...
Nellie Melba
Nellie Melba
Dame Nellie Melba GBE , born Helen "Nellie" Porter Mitchell, was an Australian operatic soprano. She became one of the most famous singers of the late Victorian Era and the early 20th century...
and the baritone
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
s Mario Ancona
Mario Ancona
Mario Ancona , was a leading Italian baritone and master of bel canto singing. He appeared at some of the most important opera houses in Europe and America during what is commonly referred to as the "Golden Age of Opera".-Career:Ancona was born into a middle-class Jewish family at Livorno, Tuscany,...
and David Bispham
David Bispham
David Scull Bispham was the first American–born operatic baritone to win an international reputation.- Early life and family:...
, he gave the first British performance of I Rantzau at Covent Garden. (The opera was not a great success.)
London and Milan
In 1893-94, De Lucia sang in New York City at the Metropolitan OperaMetropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
. He repeated his Canio with Melba and Ancona, and this was esteemed; but he was disliked as Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
and as the Duke of Mantua
Rigoletto
Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851...
in Rigoletto. He did not repeat the experience. In London in 1894, he performed both Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci (together on the one night) at Covent Garden, with Ancona in the lead baritone parts. Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
admired the "'altogether exceptional dramatic force" which their performances gave to the pair of works. That season he was also in a bilingual (French-Italian) Faust, with Melba, Ancona and Bauermeister. Shaw thought the role of Faust too heavy for De Lucia: his "dramatic instinct helped him well through a part in which he seemed likely to be overweighted. Several times in the garden scene he found the right musical treatment with exceptional success." That was also his verdict of his Duke in a Rigoletto with Melba, Ancona and Giulia Ravogli, though he got through the music 'adroitly and pluckily'.
De Lucia sang at La Scala
La Scala
La Scala , is a world renowned opera house in Milan, Italy. The theatre was inaugurated on 3 August 1778 and was originally known as the New Royal-Ducal Theatre at La Scala...
in 1895 in the world premiere of Mascagni's Silvano
Silvano
Silvano is a dramma marinaresco or opera in two acts by Pietro Mascagni, 1895, from a libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti, based on a novel by Alphonse Karr....
, and also appeared in the first Milan performances of Puccini's La bohème
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
and Massenet's La Navarraise
La Navarraise
La Navarraise is an opera in one act by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Jules Claretie and Henri Cain, based on Claretie's novel La Cigarette...
. At Covent Garden in that same year, he shared the principal tenor work with the heavier-voiced Francesco Tamagno
Francesco Tamagno
Francesco Tamagno was an operatic tenor from Italy who sang with enormous success throughout Europe and America. On 5 February 1887, he cemented his place in musical history by creating the role of Otello in Giuseppe Verdi's masterpiece of the same name...
and Albert Alvarez in the absence of Jean de Reszke. The American baritone David Bispham
David Bispham
David Scull Bispham was the first American–born operatic baritone to win an international reputation.- Early life and family:...
thought De Lucia admirable in Fra Diavolo that year. The cast of Auber
Daniel Auber
Daniel François Esprit Auber was a French composer.-Biography:The son of a Paris print-seller, Auber was born in Caen in Normandy. Though his father expected him to continue in the print-selling business, he also allowed his son to learn how to play several musical instruments...
's light-hearted opera featured Bispham and Mme Amadi (as Lord and Lady Allcash) and Marie Engle (as Zerlina), as well as the bass
Bass (voice type)
A bass is a type of male singing voice and possesses the lowest vocal range of all voice types. According to The New Grove Dictionary of Opera, a bass is typically classified as having a range extending from around the second E below middle C to the E above middle C...
Vittorio Arimondi and the buffo baritone Antonio Pini-Corsi
Antonio Pini-Corsi
Antonio Pini-Corsi was an Italian operatic baritone of international renown. He possessed a ripe-toned voice of great flexibility and displayed tremendous skill at patter singing...
(as brigands).
In 1896, in Milan, De Lucia appeared as Cavaradossi in Tosca
Tosca
Tosca is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. It premiered at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 14 January 1900...
, and again as Almaviva. The next year, he sang in a state concert at London's Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace, in London, is the principal residence and office of the British monarch. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is a setting for state occasions and royal hospitality...
to mark Queen Victoria's Royal Jubilee. At the Costanzi Theatre, Rome, on 22 November 1898, he created the role of Osaka in Mascagni's Iris
Iris (opera)
Iris is an opera in three acts by Pietro Mascagni to an original Italian libretto by Luigi Illica. Its first performance was at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome on 22 November 1898.The opera is through-composed and set in Japan during legendary times...
, and at Covent Garden on 12 July 1900 he played Cavaradossi in the first performance of Tosca in England, supporting the Floria Tosca of Milka Ternina
Milka Ternina
Milka Ternina was a Croatian dramatic soprano who enjoyed a high reputation in major American and European opera houses...
, with Antonio Scotti
Antonio Scotti
Antonio Scotti was an Italian baritone. He was a principal artist of the New York Metropolitan Opera for more than 33 seasons, but also sang with great success at London's Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and Milan's La Scala.-Life:Antonio Scotti was born in Naples, Italy...
as Scarpia and Luigi Mancinelli
Luigi Mancinelli
Luigi Mancinelli was a leading Italian orchestral conductor. He also composed music for the stage and concert hall and played the cello....
conducting. The "Musical Times" found that his performance was highly effective and that his character exactly suited that of Cavaradossi.
De Lucia was also admired in London as Don Jose in Bizet's Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
. He appeared, too, in the same composer's I pescatori di perle
Les pêcheurs de perles
Les pêcheurs de perles is an opera in three acts by the French composer Georges Bizet, to a libretto by Eugène Cormon and Michel Carré. It was first performed on 30 September 1863 at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris, and was given 18 performances in its initial run...
and in various works by Rossini, Bellini
Vincenzo Bellini
Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was an Italian opera composer. His greatest works are I Capuleti ed i Montecchi , La sonnambula , Norma , Beatrice di Tenda , and I puritani...
and Verdi. His last London season would be in 1905, in an outstanding operatic company assembled by Henry Russell
Henry Russell (impresario)
Henry Russell was an English impresario, conductor, opera director, and singing teacher.-Biography:Henry Ronald Russell was born in London. He was the son of Henry Russell, a composer, pianist, and baritone, and his wife Hannah...
for the Waldorf Theatre (now the Novello Theatre
Novello Theatre
The Novello Theatre is a West End theatre on Aldwych, in the City of Westminster.-History:The theatre was built as one of a pair with the Aldwych Theatre on either side of the Waldorf Hotel, both being designed by W. G. R. Sprague. The theatre opened as the Waldorf Theatre on 22 May 1905, and was...
). De Lucia's colleagues on this occasion were the tenor Alessandro Bonci
Alessandro Bonci
Alessandro Bonci was an Italian lyric tenor known internationally for his association with the bel canto repertoire. He sang at many famous theatres, including New York's Metropolitan Opera, Milan's La Scala and London's Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.-Career:A native of Cesena, Romagna, Bonci...
, Ancona and Pini-Corsi.
In 1916, De Lucia delivered his farewell performance at La Scala as Rodolfo
La bohème
La bohème is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions quadro, a tableau or "image", rather than atto . by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa, based on Scènes de la vie de bohème by Henri Murger...
. He said goodbye to his loyal Neapolitan supporters the following year at the Teatro di San Carlo
Teatro di San Carlo
The Real Teatro di San Carlo is an opera house in Naples, Italy. It is the oldest continuously active such venue in Europe.Founded by the Bourbon Charles VII of Naples of the Spanish branch of the dynasty, the theatre was inaugurated on 4 November 1737 — the king's name day — with a performance...
. De Lucia's final appearance before the public occurred at the funeral of the incomparable Enrico Caruso in Naples in 1921. In his later years, De Lucia dwelt in Naples and taught at the conservatory there, in which he himself had been trained. His most famous pupil was the French tenor Georges Thill
Georges Thill
Georges Thill was a French opera singer, often considered to be his country's greatest lyric-dramatic tenor...
. He died in his native city of Naples.
His vocal technique
Although De Lucia's stage career was closely tied to works by his contemporaries Mascagni and Leoncavallo, the vocal method that he exhibited in their operas was not the strenuous, declamatory mode of singing normally associated by modern listeners with the verismo movement. Because his voice was not overly powerful or extensive in range, he needed to rely on his histrionic skills to project the drama fully. When it came to his actual singing, he delivered the music at hand in a flowery and fluttery way that has no modern equivalent.De Lucia's recordings of arias and duets from Rossini's Barber of Seville ('Ecco ridente', 'Se il mio nome' and 'Numero quindici', for example) show off his vocal characteristics to an even greater extent than do his records of verismo pieces (or even lyrical Verdian parts, such as Alfredo in La traviata
La traviata
La traviata is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi set to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave. It is based on La dame aux Camélias , a play adapted from the novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils. The title La traviata means literally The Fallen Woman, or perhaps more figuratively, The Woman...
). They contain a studied display of fioritura
Fioritura
"Fioritura" is the name given to the flowery, embellished vocal line found in many arias from nineteenth-century opera. It is derived from the Italian fiore, meaning "flower".- External links :*...
, rubato, limpid phrasing and portamento
Portamento
Portamento is a musical term originated from the Italian expression "portamento della voce" , denoting from the beginning of the 17th century a vocal slide between two pitches and its emulation by members of the violin family and certain wind instruments, and is sometimes used...
which appears to be a deliberate re-statement of the so-called bel canto
Bel canto
Bel canto , along with a number of similar constructions , is an Italian opera term...
style practised by previous generations of Italian tenors; or perhaps more accurately, a re-statement of that style's surviving mannerisms. These mannerisms were already dying out in the early 1900s when audiences came to prefer their tenor idols to sing in a more full-blooded, robust and straight forward way.
George Bernard Shaw wrote tellingly of De Lucia in June 1892. Having seen his L'amico Fritz
L'amico Fritz
L'amico Fritz is an opera in three acts by Pietro Mascagni, premiered in 1891 from a libretto by P. Suardon , based on the French novel L'ami Fritz by Émile Erckmann and Pierre-Alexandre Chatrian.While the opera enjoyed some success in its day and is probably Mascagni's most famous work after...
, he stated that: "Signor De Lucia succeeds [Fernando] Valero ... as artificial tenor in ordinary to the establishment. His thin strident forte is in tune and does not tremble beyond endurance; and his mezza voce, though monotonous and inexpressive, is pretty as prettiness goes in the artificial school." In 1894 Shaw speaks of De Lucia as a tenor of the Julian Gayarre
Julián Gayarre
Sebastián Julián Gayarre Garjón , better known as Julián Gayarre, was a Spanish opera singer who created the role of Marcello in Donizetti's Il Duca d'Alba and Enzo in Ponchielli's La Gioconda.Although he faced strong competition for this title from the likes of Roberto Stagno, Italo Campanini,...
school, without the "goat-bleat" of its extreme disciples. This comment of Shaw's provides a clue. Like Valero, Gayarre was taught by Melchiorre Vidal in Madrid. Another of Vidal's pupils, soprano Rosina Storchio
Rosina Storchio
Rosina Storchio was an important Italian lyric soprano who starred in the world premieres of operas by Puccini, Leoncavallo, Mascagni and Giordano...
, was closely associated with verismo premieres. De Lucia, who sang in Spain in the 1880s, may have imbibed the example set by those who studied with Vidal.
By referring to De Lucia as an artificial tenor, Shaw is associating him with other pre-World War I Italian tenors who employed a similar vocal technique and were inclined to phrase their arias in the same sort of lingering, self-conscious way as De Lucia. They include Alessandro Bonci
Alessandro Bonci
Alessandro Bonci was an Italian lyric tenor known internationally for his association with the bel canto repertoire. He sang at many famous theatres, including New York's Metropolitan Opera, Milan's La Scala and London's Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.-Career:A native of Cesena, Romagna, Bonci...
, Giuseppe Anselmi
Giuseppe Anselmi
Giuseppe Anselmi was an Italian operatic tenor. He became famous throughout Europe during the first decade of the 20th century for his stylish performances of lyric roles. He never sang in the United States....
and Fiorello Giraud. The voices of these three tenors had a fast, fluttery, De Lucia-like vibrato
Vibrato
Vibrato is a musical effect consisting of a regular, pulsating change of pitch. It is used to add expression to vocal and instrumental music. Vibrato is typically characterised in terms of two factors: the amount of pitch variation and the speed with which the pitch is varied .-Vibrato and...
which is only too apparent on their gramophone record
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
s. This excessive vibrato seems to be an integral part of the breathing technique that they used to negotiate vocal ornaments and perform portamenti. Musicologists debate whether this is a genuine stylistic hand-me-down from the "bel canto" singing tradition founded by the virtuoso tenor Giovanni Rubini (1794–1854) or merely a flaw, attributable to inadequate breath support, in the vocal method adopted subsequent to Rubini by some Mediterranean tenors.
It should be noted that many famous Mediterranean tenors active in De Lucia's day, such as Francesco Tamagno
Francesco Tamagno
Francesco Tamagno was an operatic tenor from Italy who sang with enormous success throughout Europe and America. On 5 February 1887, he cemented his place in musical history by creating the role of Otello in Giuseppe Verdi's masterpiece of the same name...
, Francesco Marconi
Francesco Marconi
Francesco Marconi was an operatic tenor from Rome who enjoyed an important international career. In 1924, a reputable biographical dictionary of musicians called him 'one of the most renowned and esteemed singers of the last 50 years'...
, Francesco Signorini, Emilio De Marchi
Emilio de Marchi
Emilio De Marchi was an Italian operatic tenor. He had a significant career during the late 19th century and early 20th century, appearing at major theatres on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1900, he entered the annals of musical history as the creator of the role of Cavaradossi in Giacomo...
, Francesco Vignas (a Vidal pupil, paradoxically), Giuseppe Borgatti
Giuseppe Borgatti
Giuseppe Borgatti was an Italian dramatic tenor with an outstanding voice...
, Giovanni Zenatello
Giovanni Zenatello
Giovanni Zenatello was an Italian opera singer. Born in Verona, he enjoyed an international career as a dramatic tenor of the first rank. Otello became his most famous operatic role but he sang a wide repertoire. In 1904, he created the part of Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly.-Career:Zenatello...
and, of course, Enrico Caruso, did not 'tremble' like De Lucia and his ilk when they sang. This fact is borne out by their recordings. (Unlike the other tenors mentioned above, De Marchi did not make commercial discs; but he can be heard singing part of the role of Cavaradossi on brief cylinder recordings made live at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1903.)
Recording career
Gramophone Company Recordings. De Lucia had a 20-year relationship (1902–1922) with the gramophonePhonograph
The phonograph record player, or gramophone is a device introduced in 1877 that has had continued common use for reproducing sound recordings, although when first developed, the phonograph was used to both record and reproduce sounds...
, producing discs that has acquired an almost legendary status among collectors. He recorded, often hauntingly, the following titles for the Gramophone Company
Gramophone Company
The Gramophone Company, based in the United Kingdom, was one of the early recording companies, and was the parent organization for the famous "His Master's Voice" label...
between 1902 and 1908. The dates are the issue dates: more than one date indicates two separate recordings. All are 10-inch records unless otherwise shown. The partners in duets are Antonio Pini-Corsi
Antonio Pini-Corsi
Antonio Pini-Corsi was an Italian operatic baritone of international renown. He possessed a ripe-toned voice of great flexibility and displayed tremendous skill at patter singing...
(baritone), Maria Galvany
Maria Galvany
Maria Galvany or María Galvany was a Spanish coloratura soprano notable for her showy, virtuoso singing technique. Her career, however, ended in obscurity.-Her biography and operatic engagements:...
(soprano), Giuseppina Huguet
Giuseppina Huguet
Giuseppina Huguet was a Spanish operatic soprano with a lyrical voice who sang throughout Europe prior to World War I.Huguet was born in 1871 and registered on official documents as "Josefina" Huguet. Her first music teacher was Francisco Bonet in Barcelona, where she soon made her operatic debut...
(sop), Celestina Boninsegna
Celestina Boninsegna
Celestina Boninsegna was an Italian operatic soprano, known for her interpretations of the heroines in Verdi's operas. Although particularly eminent in Verdi's works, she sang a wide repertoire during her 25-year career, including Rosaura in the world premiere of Mascagni's Le maschere...
(soprano) and Ernesto Badini
Ernesto Badini
Ernesto Badini was an Italian opera singer that sang in the baritone range . He was trained at Milan Conservatory and made his debut as Figaro in San Colombano al Lambro...
(baritone).
- 'Stradella': Aria di chiesa (Pietà, Signore!) 1907.
- Mozart, Don Giovanni: Il mio tesoro, 1908. Dalla sua pace, 1908.
- Rossini, Il barbiere di Siviglia: Ecco ridente, 1902; 1904 (12"); 1908 (12"). Se il mio nome, 1908. Numero quindici (w. Pini-Corsi), 1906. Ah, qual colpo inaspettato (w. Galvany), 1908; (w. Huguet and A. Pini-Corsi), 1906 (12"). All'idea di quel metallo (w. Pini-Corsi), 1906 (12").
- Bellini, La sonnambula: Ah! perchè non posso odiarti?, 1908. Son geloso del zeffiro (w. Galvany), 1908 (12"). Prendi, l'anel ti dono (w. Galvany), 1908 (12").
- Donizetti, La favorita: Una vergine, un'angiol di dio, 1904. L'elisir d'amore: Obbligato obbligato (w. Badini), 1907.
- Verdi, Luisa Miller: Quando le sere al placido, 1908 (12"). Rigoletto: La donna e mobile, 1902. La traviata: Un dì, felice, 1904. Dei miei bollenti spiriti, 1906 (12"). Parigi, o cara, noi lasceremo (w. Huguet), 1906 (12").
- Wagner, Lohengrin: Cigno gentil, 1902. Deh, non t'incantan, 1906. S'ei torna alfin, 1906. Cigno fedel, 1907 (12"). Cessarono i canti alfin (w. Huguet), 1907 (12"). Mai deve domandarmi (w. Huguet), 1907 (12").
- Bizet, Carmen: Il fior che avevi 1902; 1907 (12"). La tua madre (w. Huguet), 1907 (12"). Pearl fishers: Della mia vita, 1906. Mi par d'udir ancora, 1906. Non hai compreso (w. Huguet), 1906 (12").
- Gounod, Faust: Salve dimora, 1906. Tardi si fa (w. Boninsegna), 1904 (12"); (w. Huguet), 1907 (12"). Romeo e Giulietta, Deh sorgi, o luce, 1908.
- Thomas, Mignon: La tua bell'alma, 1906. Ah non credevi tu, 1906. Addio, Mignon, 1905 (12").
- Massenet, Manon: Il sogno, 1902; 1907. Werther: Ah! non mi ridestar, 1902.
- Mascagni, Cavalleria rusticana: Siciliana, 'O Lola', 1902.
- Giordano, Fedora: Amor ti vieta, 1902. Mia madre, 1904. Vedi, io piango, 1904.
- Puccini, Tosca: Recondita armonia, 1902.
- Cilea, Adriana Lecouvreur: L'anima ho stanca, 1904.(With the composer, Cilea, at the piano)
- Neapolitan and Italian Songs: Anon: Fenesta che lucive, 1902. Baldelli: A suon di baci, 1902. Luntananza, 1904 (with the composer Cilea at the piano), Barthelemy, Sulla bocca amorosa, 1908. Triste ritorno, 1908. Serenamente, 1909. Cannio: Carmela sua, 1909. di Capua: O sole mio! 1908. Costa: Napulitanata, 1902. Tu sei morta nella vita mia, 1902. Era di maggio, 1908. Oilì, oilà, 1909. de Curtis: A Surrentina, 1909.Denza: Occhi di fata, 1904. Gambardella: Nun me guardate, 1909. Ricciardi: Luna lù, 1909. Tosti: Serenata, 1904. Ideale, 1902. Marechiare, 1902.
Fonotipia Records. De Lucia also recorded 30 Neapolitan songs for the Fonotipia label (later subsumed by Odeon Records
Odeon Records
Odeon Records was a record label founded in 1903 by Max Straus and Heinrich Zuntz of the International Talking Machine Company in Berlin, Germany. It was named after a famous theatre in Paris, whose classical dome appears on the Odeon record label....
). This company began recording celebrity singers in October 1904, having been founded for that purpose by Baron d'Erlanger as the Società Italiana di Fonotipia
Fonotipia Records
Fonotipia Records, or Dischi Fonotipia, was an Italian gramophone record label established in 1904 with a charter to record the art of leading opera singers and some other celebrity musicians, chiefly violinists. Fonotipia continued to operate into the electrical recording era, which commenced in...
, Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
o. The De Lucia titles had the catalogue numbers 92695 to 92724. The 92000 sequence was cut between 1907 and 1914 on the characteristic ten-and three-quarter-inch Fonotipia record format, and De Lucia's were made in 1911 after the cessation of his work for the Gramophone Company. Some of these duplicate the HMV and Phonotype recordings.
Phonotype Records. Not to be confused with Fonotipia, De Lucia later became closely associated with the Phonotype Company. It has often been written that De Lucia founded and ran the company himself; but Henstock (below) has determined that this was not so. That said, De Lucia a clear sense of preserving his artistry for future generations and had a passionate interest in recording. The Phonotype issues include many operatic titles, including a near-complete Barber of Seville and Rigoletto
Rigoletto
Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851...
. De Lucia also recorded much from operas he did not (and could never have hoped to) sing on the stage, including Niun mi tema from Verdi's Otello and from operas in which he created the tenor role (Mascagni's Iris and L'Amico Fritz). The repertoire is very wide and include Tate's song Broken/baby doll (in Italian) and many duets with the "palpably mediocre" (Henstock) soprano De Angelis and the young baritone Benvenuto Franchi, then at the start of his long and celebrated career. The Phonotype Records were made during the First World War through to 1922. De Lucia's ornaments and general interpretations became even more audacious; one notorious example being the change in the melody of Che gelida manina from Puccini's La Boheme. (see Discography and comment in Henstock)
Note: By the time that De Lucia came to make his first recordings, his upper register had contracted to such an extent that he was forced to transpose downwards some of the pieces that he committed to disc by a semi-tone or even a full tone.
Other reading
- M. Henstock, Fernando de Lucia: Son of Naples (Duckworth 1990).
- G. KobbéGustav KobbéGustav Kobbé M.A. was an American music critic and author, best known for his guide to the operas, The Complete Opera Book, first published in the United States in 1919 and the United Kingdom in 1922.- Biography :Kobbé was born in March 1857 in New York City to William...
, The Complete Opera BookThe Complete Opera BookThe Complete Opera Book is a guide to operas by American music critic and author Gustav Kobbé first published in the United States in 1919 and the United Kingdom in 1922...
(English Edition) (London 1922). - J. Steane, Singers of the Century (Duckworth 1996), 41-45.