Mario del Monaco

The understanding of the artistic value of a figure as significant as Mario del Monaco also involves knowing about his life. The exceptional natural talents alone -without the personality that sealed his charm- might not have been sufficient to make him a leading figure in an entire chapter of the history of Opera. As a cornerstone of a new vision of tenor vocality, he re-evaluates the temperament of the characters inside and outside the score, raising the figure of the male protagonists to an even more heroic dimension. He shapes them with his impetuosity, exalts them without subduing them, always servants of his Voice that makes them victorious even when they are defeated. The rest is history. Mario del Monaco is history. And a legend.

AN INDISSOLUBLE PACT WITH IMMORTALITY

The night before, causing a great deal of noise, the painting of him in Otello was inexplicably detached from the wall to which it had been firmly fixed for twenty-five years. Today, it can be admired in all its fascination (also linked to this mysterious event) in the Superintendent’s Corridor of the Metropolitan (a gift from Giancarlo del Monaco on the occasion of the debut of ‘La fanciulla del West’) next to a medallion of Enrico Caruso and a portrait of Maria Callas. As if to define something divine in its extraordinary nature, that premonitory sign anticipated the unexpected news of Mario del Monaco’s passing. On the organ remained open the score of the last piece he played, Albinoni’s Adagio, while the devoted and beloved friend Renata Tebaldi rushed to his side, incredulous and shocked, unable to find peace with the terrible event that had occurred so prematurely. Franco Corelli, who had spoken with him on the phone not long before, couldn’t hold back a cry of pain when he heard the news, and he too immediately went to his colleague and friend. The Man who had thrown countless people into dismay in the blink of an eye, had been composed in the coffin in the costume of Otello, the character whose incomparable personality and supreme artistry had made him unrepeatable to all tenors to come. To their eyes, he appeared beautiful; this was everyone’s sentiment, made even more so by the irreversibility of the tragic end of the drama that allowed no repeats. This time, “the comedy” was truly over for the superb Canio of historic vocal feats. In his long career, he had won thousands of hearts and in a moment had broken them all. The theatre world had suffered a seismic shake-up. Gabriella Tucci, who had heard the news on television, confessed that although she was not the type to cry easily, she shed many tears for Mario. Gastone Limarilli received the news in one of the least opportune circumstances for a singer: during a performance of ‘Norma’ in Reggio Calabria. The following evening, overcome with anguish, he couldn’t continue and left, abandoning singing forever. He did not have the courage to attend the funeral, but wept for him in the intimacy of his home and his grief: he loved him dearly. As Giangiacomo Guelfi gazed at Mario lying in the coffin, he realized that this was the first and only time Mario had ever caused him grief. In Parma, Boris Christoff, stunned by the news, slumped down on a chair hiding his face in his hands and closing himself in a silence that seemed interminable, only to recover whispering in a bewildered voice: ‘The greatest tenor of all time is dead’. His dear Giulietta Simionato was in Siena for the competition named after Ettore Bastianini when that bolt from the blue struck her. She cried so much that tears soaked her evening dress. The funeral chamber was set up at Villa Luisa, the destination of a pilgrimage that never seemed to end. Newspapers all over the world ran with headlines: the king of tenors, the tenor of tenors, had passed away. The television networks everywhere commemorated, with extensive reports, “the silence of the Voice protagonist and enchantress par excellence’. The funeral, postponed by a day to allow all the delegations from various Countries to attend, saw the presence of Renata Tebaldi, Franco Corelli with his wife, Laura Carol, Magda Olivero, Pier Miranda Ferraro, Cesare Valletti who had come specifically from America, Gianna Galli, Aldo Bottion, Daniele Barioni, Arnaldo Pertile (son of Aureliano), many choristers, friends, and admirers. A wreath had arrived from La Scala in homage. The French daily France Soir came out with lapidary words: ‘L’empereur est mort’. The German magazine Bunte headlined: ‘Otello fu’. The Vienna Opera displayed the flag with the black drape on the flagpole and, in the evening, suspended the performance of “Tannhäuser” for three minutes to commemorate him. All the theatres of the world
observed minutes of open-stage silence “in memory of a man and an artist who will never be repeated”. The coffin was carried on the shoulders of his sons, his brother Alberto, Léon Sayane, impresario and personal friend, Pier Miranda Ferraro and Franco Corelli, who read President Pertini’s telegram in the church in a voice broken with emotion. During the liturgy, Mario’s voice resounded in Stradella’s “Pietà Signore” in the concert recording at the Salle Pleyel. At communion, his voice came alive again in Franck’s “Panis Angelicus”, and Perosi’s “Benedictus,” recorded with organ accompaniment in 1965 as a devotion and ex-voto after his recovery from the well-known car accident. The body, initially buried in Lancenigo, was later transferred to Pesaro. Present at the ceremony, among an oceanic crowd, were Renata Tebaldi, Giulietta Simionato, Marcella Pobbe, Gianni Raimondi, Aldo Protti, Maestro Ottavio Ziino and, representing the government, Hon. Arnaldo Forlani. In September 1991, his beloved wife Rina also flew to his side. Ten years after his death, the Municipality of Pesaro had a funeral monument erected on his tomb by the famous sculptor Giò Pomodoro. Under the “sole deposto” (the title of the sculpture, in English “the deposed sun”) the Voice of one of the greatest tenors of all time is forever silent, and in Franco Corelli’s words: “The master of us all, the best of all.”
(episodes narrated in Elisabetta Romagnolo’s book “MARIO DEL MONACO Monumentum aere perennius,” the official biography)

WHO HAS BEEN A MONUMENT, IT IS THEN DIFFICULT TO BE EVEN A MODEL

(S. Jerzy Lec)

We wanted to open this page with the most touching memory related to Mario del Monaco because, in the description of the almost palpable pain of those who loved him, more than in their admiration and esteem, one glimpses the seed of that immortality that opened at the very moment when the world became aware that it would never see him again in flesh after he had entered the homes of so many people. He thrilled Opera lovers, ignited the passion of melomaniacs of all ages, and made both women and men dream. In his vocal and dramatic impetuosity, they relive the romanticism and virile passions. Among Mario del Monaco’s numbers are the numerous tenors who saw in his vocal calibre the coveted goal. But the uniqueness of Mario del Monaco lies in having subjugated his own instrument to a creativity and genius unreachable by anyone without the extraordinary intuition and perception he had to build and preserve a voice that, thanks to this, remained unaltered until his death. The true power of Mario del Monaco is not his vocal strength, which, of course, is not exclusive, but rather his majestic and inevitably overwhelming nature.

THE MEASURE OF MARIO DEL MONACO’S VALUE IS GIVEN BY THE CONTRIBUTION HE MADE TO THE HISTORY OF OPERA

“Mario del Monaco was one of the most famous tenors of the 20th century, achieving resounding success. He debuted before World War II, but his consecration coincided with the post-war period. A triumphant performer on all the world’s most prestigious stages, Mario del Monaco benefited from the advent and diffusion of the microgroove. The record, in fact, made him one of the best known voices on the entire planet. Paired with Renata Tebaldi, he became, for more than a decade, one of Decca’s most illustrious phonographic labels. Furthermore, Del Monaco can be considered one of the first and most important Opera singers who understood the importance of audiovisual media as an indispensable complement to the fortune of a modern artist. His strong appeal -a true charisma- confirmed by unanimous testimonies, combined with the phenomenal relevance of his voice, established Del Monaco as a prominent figure in that great group of artists who, in the 1950s, once again upheld the prestige of the Italian singing school worldwide. [..] We learn, then, of his diurnal and indefatigable reflection on the mysteries of the voice, his lifelong meditation on the secrets of technique and the eternal problem of adapting theory to practise, that is, the transition from notion to the vocal organ of each individual artist, in this case his own. We learn the strength of a performer who always approached each title only after a careful examination of his abilities and the possibilities of producing a good and convincing performance. He would remove pieces from his repertoire when he believed he could no longer give his best. We learn of Del Monaco’s uninterrupted study of his interpretations, so much so that a volume would be needed just to show the continuous evolution of his reading of Verdi’s Moro, where every effect sought and every change made from one edition to the next responds to dramaturgical choices conceived and suggested to the singer by both his instinct and his intelligence, and by others’ experiences observed with acumen and made his own with originality and talent. Del Monaco, a true artist, created a new type of opera singer, claiming for himself and for the Opera house a modern dimension that it is simplistic to define as cinematic. A singer-actor of consummate skill, Del Monaco always focused on the voice, and shaped it with musical rigour, documented by many official and live recordings, that allow us to reconstruct his career with precision. […] Like all artists endowed with talent and good sense, educated by excellent singing teachers and conductors, Del Monaco believed that, while respecting tradition, he should immerse opera within a modern conception, whose sole measure of evaluation was the credibility and coherence of the interpretation. Not to forget that the seismic power of his vocal means required precise strategies, inevitably affecting the approach to each character. Del Monaco achieved the credibility of his performances (all those who saw him act on stage speak of a catalytic force capable of capturing and nailing the spectators; witnesses often repeat that there was no one else on stage but him) thanks to one of the most impressive practical realisations of Kostantin Sergeevich Stanislavkij’s theories. One example will suffice. His silence in the days leading up to the performance, that quietness around himself, which the media then sold as the image of the capricious star in the mood for exhibitionism, should instead be read as the search for the tvorceskoe samocuvstvie, that is, the condition of detachment from habitual interests that the performer, according to Stanislavkij’s theories, must pursue in order to begin the process of fusion with the character. It is the opposite of the akterskoe samocuvstvie, that is, the adoption of theatrical expedients that allow the actor to achieve effects by solely relying on their craft. Before going on stage, Del Monaco prepared for the task of identifying with the character. Hence his meticulous research into make-up, costumes, the psychological and human motivations for each role, embodied in respect for the rules of singing and the nature of his voice. His voice pushed him, in fact, towards a heroic interpretation of melodrama, in an epic dimension that he knew how to discern both in the character of Pollione and, as has been rightly and authoritatively suggested, also in that of Canio. […] In the 1950s, he anticipated what has now become a common interpretative approach to Verismo, starting from the literary works of Giovanni Verga: the realist document of an increasingly distant world is transformed into the epic of the oppressed who oppose their cry, in this case their singing, to the harrowing reality they must face daily. The heroism of Del Monaco’s interpretations brings to light the burning issue (a recurring theme in musical criticism) of Del Monaco’s mezza voce, true or alleged, affirmed or denied. Let’s clear the field of any misunderstanding. If mezza voce is the sweet sigh of a tenor of grace, then there can be no doubt: Del Monaco has never sung in mezza voce. If mezza voce means adapting one’s singing to an intimate recollection, proportional to the virility of the character, of his portrayal, to the gigantic size of the singer’s voice, then Del Monaco has often been able to alternate the fiery and bright colours, the dark tones of the more dramatic passages, with the sweet yet virile vibration fitting for a hero. Indeed, one can agree with Franco Fussi (one of the most authoritative phoniatrists who has spoken about Del Monaco on several occasions) when, while giving prominence to interpretations of the veristic repertoire, pointing out the exceptional results of Andrea Chénier, whose reading of the “Improvviso” remains memorable, he recognises in the famous tenor a constant control of sound with the search for gradations and nuances and does not hesitate to use the term mezza voce. To prove that it would be wrong to pin Mario del Monaco down exclusively to the most agitated performances of Otello, we are helped by a document that is easily accessible today. It is the RAI television recording, where Del Monaco sings partnered with Rosanna Carteri’s Desdemona. The playback trap, which technical reasons made indispensable, is avoided by Del Monaco with the construction of a monolithic, statuesque, meditated Otello, where love and fury pass through a facial mimicry that can be considered an impressive piece of modern musical theatre. The result achieved is anything but a gruesome display of Verismo. Given that this Otello has guts and flesh, blood in his veins, it goes without saying that the vocal interpretation is accordingly. Monolithic in the superb beauty of a sculpture where the force of the vocal nature is harnessed and intelligently guarded, the voice now cracks like thunder, now gathers in the most intimate vibrations. To be heroic, Del Monaco has everything, starting with the ringing […] There should be no doubt that the high notes must be ringing, but the entire range of a hero must have flashes, must be ringing. And the timbre of all the notes, which must possess the luminescence of noble metals. [..] Del Monaco, therefore, is a tenor who built up a stentorian vocality, based on a method that he adapted to the singularity of his instrument […] obtaining excellent results where the powerful modelling of his electrifying declamation and, more generally, the monolithic grandeur of his singing could find fertile ground. […] Historians of musical theatre and those of vocality should also find an additional and no less important reason to study without prejudice the voice and art of Del Monaco […] Rodolfo Celletti has already mentioned it [… His voice, first-rate in terms of timbre and volume, has a baritone-like colour and vigour in the lower registers, and a sharpness and capacity for expansion in the upper registers that, combined with an incisive and generous phrasing, harks back to the tradition of Verdi’s tenors of the second half of the 19th century, no longer skilled in florid singing but still able to tackle the tessituras of Meyerbeer or Guglielmo Tell. Indeed, certain interpretations of Del Monaco allow us to approach some aspects of the singing style of Verdi’s tenors of the second half of the 19th century better than any recent approximation.. […] Moreover, having distinguished himself as one of the most remarkable Pollione of the 20th century, Del Monaco seems to be the heir of one of the most representative tenors of the second half of the 19th century, a contemporary of Enrico Tamberlick, wedged between Gaetano Fraschini and the legendary Francesco Tamagno, namely the Piedmontese Geremia Bettini. Sculpted voice, splendid Pollione, capable of singing Otello (Rossini’s) which Del Monaco would certainly perform if he were alive now, being his voice, and not those lamentable ones of the so-called specialists, the true voice of the baritone Rossini tenor. It is no coincidence that Del Monaco, a modern representative of many aspects of nineteenth-century stentorianism, was a celebrated interpreter of the bandit Ernani, among other things in the memorable performances conducted by Dimitri Mitropoulos in New York and Florence. The merits of this interpretation go far beyond a few moments of formidable excitement. One only has to listen to the finale where Del Monaco, contrary to what has been written by Italian record critics in the vein of justicialism, is not at all uncomfortable. […] in the Andante, “Ve’ come gli astri”, Del Monaco softens the G of “sembrano”, following the composer’s indication, and well disengages the little group that acts as a cadenza to the phrase. The execution of the Lento, “Tutto ora tace”, is admirable, with a beautiful F in pianissimo in correspondence of “beato”. Let’s set aside the passion (expressly requested by Verdi) of “Solingo, errante, misero” and the emotional force of “Quel pianto, Elvira, ascondimi…”. We can also discuss the sonorities sought for ‘Vivi d’amarmi e vivere’. Nonetheless, there is no doubt that here we have one of the happiest icons of the 19th-century dramatic tenor, grappling with a role that tradition assigned him. Moreover, in this performance, one can appreciate that musical precision that Celletti recognised in Del Monaco […] Namely, the modernity of taste that should be measured not against today’s stylisation but against the national-verismo debacle of certain tenors from the 1940s, which Del Monaco swept away, heralding new times. Let us also consider the formidable performance in San Francisco of Eleazar’s Aria, ‘Rachel, quand du Seigneur’, from La Juive, all sculpted in bronze (one of the most beautiful readings after that recorded by Caruso), a true essay of singing style in the manner of the ancient heroic tenors, such as Leon Escalaïs and Giovan Battista De Negri. However, Del Monaco also possessed that incisiveness of accent that pre-Caruso tenors did not have, delayed as they were by a blasé phrasing that today might sound sluggish. Let us ignore an old recording of the finale of “Lucia di Lammermoor” that I mention here provocatively. I am not so naive as to place Del Monaco among the Edgardos of reference, but listening to him reminds us (at least in some sections) that the character was written for Gilbert-Louis Duprez, who was a dramatic tenor, one of the first and greatest, who sang with the voix sombrée, in the manner of Del Monaco, and not for the lyric-light tenors [..] if you want to rediscover the ring that was of the ancient tenors, the sound of a silver disc struck by a silver hammer […] you must listen to him: the old lion. Vilified by the critics, […] derided by the reviewers of the last season, some of whom even compared him to a screamer. He: the tenor of rank, the exemplary professional courted by the theatres of the world! Here is my preface, which does not unconditionally sing Del Monaco’s merits, which in seeing his limits does not denigrate him, as some obtuse fans believe, but makes its own small contribution to the necessary work of historicization (it is time to begin it) and appreciates him even more; appreciates him for what he is worth (very much), for his greatness (enormous), without dreaming of what he never was and could never have been. Was it worth reopening the Del Monaco issue? Of course it was. We have no doubt. […]

(from the preface by G. Landini taken from the biographical book ‘MARIO DEL MONACO Monumentum aere perennius’ by E. Romagnolo)

For those who wish to read about the life of Mario del Monaco, the book by Elisabetta Romagnolo “Mario del Monaco Monumentum aere perennius” is the official biography, authorised by Giancarlo del Monaco

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Mario del monaco

AN INDISSOLUBLE PACT WITH IMMORTALITY

WHO HAS BEEN A MONUMENT, IT IS THEN DIFFICULT TO BE EVEN A MODEL

THE MEASURE OF MARIO DEL MONACO’S VALUE IS GIVEN BY THE CONTRIBUTION HE MADE TO THE HISTORY OF OPERA

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