(b. near Verona 1899 d. Milan 1980)

 

Giuseppe Lugo c.1940

 

Life

 

Giuseppe Lugo was born in Rosolotti di Sona (14 kilometres from Verona), the son of a farmers' family. As a little boy, he moved with his family to Milan after his mother's death. Because of financial hardship, they later immigrated to Belgium, where he started to work in a number of different jobs, to make a living. He worked as a train driver, an employee of the Post Office and also in a coal mine.

 

Between 1915 and 1918, he did military service and then continued on with odd jobs. In his free time, he sang in a local cafe of Charleroi. One night, by sheer chance, Giuseppe was heard by the leader of the local church and asked whether he was interested in contributing to the church as a choir singer. Giuseppe discovered he had a voice not too many people were blessed with and so he started practising.

 

In 1924 he returned to Italy to study singing seriously but, being over the age limit, entry

to the Milan Conservatory was denied. Luck assisted him when someone from the House of Ricordi heard him sing and referred him to Maestro Tenaglia, who agreed to give him singing lessons for free. On his return to Belgium, he studied under Maestro Gaudier, who later became his father-in-law.

 

In early 1931, Giuseppe Lugo entered the Roubaix competition and won it. In October 1931, he made his debut at the Opera Comique, sang Cavaradossi and signed for a three

year contract. From 1931 to 1935 he sang in Tosca, Les Pêcheurs de Perles, La Bohème, Rigoletto, Madama Butterfly and Werther in France and Belgium. Between 1936 and 1938, he sang Cavaradossi at Covent Garden with great success and went back to Italy as a fully fledged opera star. In Italy, he made his debut at the Teatro alla Scala as Cavaradossi in January 1937.

 

He sang in all major opera houses of Italy and extended his repertoire with new roles.

He was Calaf, Johnson and Faust (Boito's Mefistofele). In 1939 he was contracted by the Opera Comique to sing the title role of Werther at a sumptuous gala celebration of the opera's one thousandth performance. He was still in good voice in 1950 but suddenly he stopped singing on the stage. Even his wife, who bore him six children, never knew the reason(s) why, overnight, he stopped singing .

 

During World War II, he took on a film career but sang on the stage and profusely throughout Italy.*  The film ‘La mia canzone al vento’ earned him great popularity in his native country. Between 1946 and 1949 he made a few wrong financial investments so he decided to return to Belgium to make a fresh start there, with the hope of becoming successful again.

 

He appeared in small theatres and with little success. He went back to Italy but never made it to the big theatres. In 1949 he made an appearance as Cavaradossi in Tosca at the Teatro Manzoni of Pistoia and in 1950 at Asti, which marked the end of his career. He went back to his native Rosolotti, where he devoted himself to farming for a few years. He died in Milan on 18 September 1980.

 

  Lugo as Cavaradossi in Tosca

 

Voice

 

He was over forty years of age when the Italian impresarios discovered him. Commenting on his performance as Cavaradossi, the critic of a major Italian newspaper wrote: “Unusual is the freshness of his voice but even more unusual is the great ease with which he draws the treasures of timbre and pastosità, detected in the execution of the two romanze in act I and III.”

 

In August 1937, he sang Cavaradossi at the Arena di Verona in front of 18 000 spectators. The Italians were over excited. A raving review of the night said: “Bepi Lugo (as he was called) was a prophet in his own country. He gave an encore of Recondita armonia and raised an endless ovation after emitting Vittoria in act II. For the andante E lucevan le stelle in act III, the encores were not enough to placate the enthusiastically vociferous public.” It should be remembered that encores were forbidden in Italy at the time.

 

Lugo had the most beautiful tenor voice that Italy heard between the two World Wars. In 1937, he was most sought after by the Italian impresarios, the most celebrated and applauded tenor. His renditions of arias from Tosca and Boheme brought the theatres down with applauses. His Italian career last only a few years but they were all inflamed and strewn with huge ovations. In Verona, many of 20 000 spectators still remember his Duke of Mantua (Rigoletto). A review of that performance filled two whole pages of the newspaper Arena .

 

The great soprano Magda Olivero says in her memories: “Lugo had a stupendous voice. I sang La Boheme with him at the San Carlo. He was a handsome man with a beautiful voice. His voice was easily recognisable because of its fresh quality. He has recently been re-evaluated and his records re-issued. Unfortunately, he is no longer with us. The beauty of that voice! He was a singer whose brain was not on a par with his voice. Imagine that he suddenly stopped singing at the peak of his career.”

 

Audio files **

 

Audio 1 Les Pêcheurs de Perles – Je crois entendre sung by Giuseppe Lugo in 1933

 

Audio 2 Werther – Pourquoi me reveiller sung by Giuseppe Lugo in 1933

Audio 3 Luisa Miller – Quando le sere al placido sung by Giuseppe Lugo in 1939

Audio 4 Tosca – Recondita armonia sung by Giuseppe Lugo in 1939

 

Audio 5 Tosca – E lucevan le stelle sung by Giuseppe Lugo in 1939

 

 

** Audio files are expensive items to publish and maintain. Our monthly expenses have become unsustainable unless audio files are left out or their publication made conditional upon receiving donations. Currently, we believe in adopting the second option.

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(l.s. and j.f.)

 

 

 

A critical analysis – Audio 5

In audio 5, E lucevan le stelle sung by tenor Lugo is a rendition which is artistic, interesting, arresting and deviates from those of Italian tenor icons such as Corelli, Lauri-Volpi, Di Stefano and Masini, to name a few.

 

The celebrated aria, both the recitativo and andante sostenuto of E lucevan le stelle, deserves special mention. It illustrates the use by Puccini of a monologue as a function of the exit aria: A tragic or languidly pathetic epilogue, which the composer called a lament of "desperate death". The aria stands as a point of convergence between themes of dream and reality, of reminiscence and actuality.

 

The lyrics:

 

Recitativo

E lucevan le stelle       

ed olezzava la terra,     

stridea l'uscio dell'orto,     

e un passo sfiorava la rena...     

Entrava ella, fragrante,     

Mi cadea fra le braccia...       

Andante sostenuto

O dolci baci, o languide carezze,   

Mentr'io fremente       

Le belle forme disciogliea dai veli! 

Svanì per sempre il sogno mio d'amore..                                                                                                      

L'ora è fuggita…

E muoio disperato!

E non ho mai amato tanto la vita!                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

                                                           

Lugo's recitativo is noticeably uniform but coloured with a languid and barely perceptible elongation of the last vowel in stelle, orto, rena, fragrante and braccia.

 

In the andante, there is an audible languid elongation, the “o” in baci, o. The smorzatura is in disciogliea almost to extinguishment and the recovery is in dai veli, which conveys a sense of eroticism. It is the typical Lugo's art, a classic messa di voce (used also in the other renditions) and vintage Miguel Fleta. In the second terzina, the vocal interpretation for a despaired Mario is heated: fuggita is a quick, powerful and rich climb to e muoio disperato, “e muoio” is sculptured and, in the repeated e muoio disperato, “e muoio” are lacerated splendidly.

 

The messa di voce for the top note amato needs explaining. Lugo finds a way of attacking the top note forte (not mezzo forte as Pertile used to) and surprisingly reinforces it. The result is an intense, brilliant and hammered squillo with added acceleration, in the dramatic sense, and held at length (similarly in Recondita armonia, audio 4). Cadenze were used frequently by tenor Gigli, baritone Battistini, bass Chaliapine and soprano Olivero. I should add that attacking a top note forte is a risk of forcing the note and perhaps emitting an ‘open’ sound. Not so in the case of Lugo.

In the second tanto la vita “vita” is sculptured, which accentuates the feeling of despair with great effect. The diction is matchless. The recitativo and andante are both enhanced by an excellent rhythm and a pulpy timbre.

On listening attentively to the audio, I can say with confidence and conviction that, vocally and artistically, Lugo's rendition of E lucevan le stelle is on a par with if not better than that of the great Corelli.

 

 (j.f.)

 

* I am deeply indebted to Francois Nouvion, Esq., for providing details of where he appeared on stage during the WW II years and beyond, as follows:

1940 Venezia, Modena, Roma, Trieste, Napoli, Catania, San Remo, Torino, La Spezia, Pisa, Palermo, Milano at La Scala, Ferrara, Rovigo, Mirandola, Alessandria, Udine, Bologna, Rapallo, Reggio Emilia, Terni.
1941 Novara, Genova, Como, Livorno, Berlino, Torino, Trieste, Napoli, Fiume, Montecatini, Senigallia, Cervia, Varese, Rivarolo, Lucca, Bagnacavallo, Rovigo, Rovito, Salerno, Bergamo.
1942 Roma, Cesena, Torino, Piacenza, Roma, Novi Ligure, La Spezia, Genova, Cremona, Perugia, Bologna, Faenza, Pieve Ligure, Ravenna.
As from early 1943 he started singing less and less:
1943 Roma, Rovigo.
1944 nowhere apparently
1945 Verona, Adria.
1946 Torino, Sanguinetto, Parigi.
1947 Liegi.
1949 Pistoia.
1950 Asti.

 

(j.f.)

 

With the start of the Great War, Reizen was drafted into the Tsarist army. By then, he had already grown to an impressive height of over 1.90 m, which worried his mother a lot. “You would make such a clear target”, she shouted. At the front, Mark was twice wounded and twice decorated with St George's Cross 4 th class for bravery, the highest decoration for an ordinary soldier.

 

 

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Opera is a spectacular art form combining music, action and words, where the comedy or drama is enhanced by the words, sung in the original or other language. Instrumental works draw great attention and delight from the sound of the music alone but opera has a triple edge advantage: Music, action and words sung by the human voice, the supreme instrument.