MARIO
DEL
MONACO
(b.
July 1915 Firenze d. October 1982 Mestre)
Tenore
drammatico squillante !
Del
Monaco in 1960
His
father was a State official of Naples. His mother was from
an aristocratic family of Florence. Little Mario spent some
time in Libya, where his father had been sent by the Italian
State. Later, the family settled in Pesaro, the native city
of Rossini. As a young boy of 13, Mario started learning to
play the violin but his real passion was singing. He attended
classes under Maestro Raffaelli, who realized that the boy
had a very strong voice with a baritone tinge, so unusual
and different from that of other pupils.
After
Raffaelli, Mario got a new teacher, the controversial Arturo
Melocchi, who tutored him for an audition to gain a scholarship
conferred by the Teatro Reale of Rome. Among 180 hopeful contenders,
there was a beautiful soprano, Rina Filippini. She met Mario
and soon after they became engaged. For a time, everything
was going well except for Mario's voice. He parted from Melocchi
and tried to sing in small theatres to gain some experience
but the approach was wrong, the strain overbearing and the
voice suffered.
Thanks
to Rina, he made peace with Melocchi, who took him on again.
It took Melocchi more than six months to put the voice back
on track. The twenty-four years old Mario Del Monaco debuted
in 1939 at Pesaro as Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana. Melocchi
was right. Mario's voice was very different. It had a perfect
trumpet-like sound and a resounding squillo. Stationed at
a Milanese battalion during military service, his powerful
singing for the recruits' enjoyment did not bring out the
music loving colonel in charge.
When
auditioned for the Teatro Puccini, Milan, the full account
of what he said is: I and my fiancée went to the
Teatro, where I had to wait until dusk for my turn. Unfortunately,
the order of appearance had already been made in the afternoon
and when the panel of judges nodded at me, I moved onto the
stage without being given even a glance by them. I chose to
sing the aria E lucevan le stelle and sang it with my heart
on my lips and my soul in my voice. I was great. So happy
I was that I glanced at the judges and realised that they
had not listened to me at all. I had a fit. I then chose to
sing the arioso Addio fiorito asil from Madama Butterfly and,
at the final B flat, my voice was surely heard even outside
the theatre. It turned the judges spellbound with starry eyes
and erected ears at that wonder. I was immediately engaged
by the Teatro for the forthcoming Madama Butterfly and La
Traviata.
His
very career started in late 1940. In 1941 he married Rina.
In 1942 he sang at the world premiere of Nino Rota's opera
“Ariodante” at the Teatro Regio of Parma. After
the war, his career flourished. The use of diminuendo by lowering
of the larynx added stylistic refinement to the voice. Yet,
because of his natural vocal power, he was sometimes dubbed
the ‘Brazen bull of Milan’ and ‘The singing
volcano’. Mario had become the role model of the dramatic
‘tenore squillante’ or ‘tenore di forza’,
which last up until the 1960s.
In
the 1950s, he took part in five movies, providing an operatic
voice for the film on the life of composer Giuseppe Verdi.
In successive years, he sang in all the major theatres of
Italy, La Scala, San Carlo, Teatro Massimo…and all over
Europe. The Metropolitan Opera and San Francisco followed.
In the early 1960s, Mario Del Monaco was at the height of
his career. However, 1963 ended fatally. The car accident
in Rome almost killed him. It took him 8 months to recover.
It is claimed that the voice never went back to its original
state.but had
magnficent alternate phases.
Attending
to fan mail
|
At
the farm in a joking mood
|
As
Otello -
His greatest role
|
As
Ernani with Rossi-Lemeni
|
Before
a performance, Mario would remain silent for long periods
of time, communicating through written notes, to preserve
the voice. Something funny was always recounted about his
teeth. Before he went on the stage, one could notice his brilliant
white teeth. He was very proud of them. Once on the stage,
Mario was a fearless performer and always gave a ten fold
performance. He was one of few Italian tenors to sing in more
than three languages.
He
had a very rich operatic repertoire. To mention the most significant
operas he sang: Andrea Chénier, I Pagliacci, La fanciulla
del West, Tosca, Il tabarro, Fedora, Aida, La forza del destino,
Un ballo in maschera, Il trovatore, Ernani and Otello. A great
success was singing the role of Aeneas in Les Troyens. But,
when one says Mario Del Monaco one means Otello He sang the
Moor of Venice for the first time in 1950 at Buenos Aires.
He sang Otello, by far his greatest role, for more than 420
times. He sang his last Otello in Brussels.
During
an interview, Mario revealed: Singing Otello on the stage
is one hundred fold heavier than in the room or studio. In
fact, many great tenors, Caruso, Bjorling, Corelli, etc. never
sang Otello on the stage, those who did refrained themselves
to a few appearances and frequently at the end of their careers.
I took on the role when I was thirty-five years old and persevered
with it to the end of my days on the stage. The reason for
a stage fright must be looked for in the orchestration. Indeed,
Otello always sings the part mostly with the orchestra at
full swing, which, in the theatre, is heavy on the voice.
It has to rise above an enormous orchestral sound, which is
not as powerful in other operas.
In
1973, at 58 years of age, he sang Canio at the Staatsoper
Vienna, where he had been absent for 17 years. In 1974, eleven
performances over twenty days at the Teatro San Carlo, Naples
and Teatro Massimo, Palermo were his last on the stage. The
Met and the San Francisco Opera wanted to engage him for one
more performance of Canio but he refused. A brilliant career
had come to an end. He retired in 1975.
Struck
by a severe kidney disease, he spent several years in and
out of a dialysis machine. Some of his well known pupils were
Peter Lindroos, Silvano Carroli and Miguel Andoor. Mario Del
Monaco died on 16 October 1982 in Mestre, at the age of 67.
To respect his wish, he was buried in a costume of Otello.
Considered to this day to have been the greatest and most
extraordinary dramatic tenor of all times, Del Monaco's timbre
has gone down in history, defined as golden, powerful and
brilliant.
Signora
Rina had this to say candidly about her husband: By nature,
he was very aggressive and indeed, his pushy personality did
come through vividly on stage. He did not want to sing in
heavy costumes so he designed his own. He used to describe
heated quarrels with Maria Callas over the holding of high
notes. He refused to act in Hollywood films because they would
have taken him away from the theatre. For the theatre he sacrificed
everything, youth, sex, pleasures, everything. When he gave
up the theatre, he began to die.
(l.s.
and j.f.)
Audio
files
Part
1
Audio
1 Recitar…
the aria sung by Canio (tenor Mario Del Monaco) – I
Pagliacci
Audio
2 Vedete
io son fedele…the duet sung by Manon
(soprano Renata Tebaldi) and Des
Grieux (tenor
Mario Del Monaco) – Manon
Lescaut act I
Audio
3 Donna
non vidi mai…the aria sung by Des Grieux (tenor
Mario Del Monaco) – Manon
Lescaut act I
Audio
4 Mamma
quel vino è generoso…the aria sung by Turiddu
(tenor Mario Del Monaco) – Cavalleria Rusticana finale
Part
2
Audio
5 Esultate…the
aria sung by Otello (tenor
Mario Del Monaco) –
Otello act I
Audio 6 Ciò m'accora…the duet sung by Otello (tenor
Mario Del Monaco) and Jago
(baritone Aldo Protti) –
Otello act II
Audio 7 O
mostruosa colpa …the duet sung by Otello (tenor
Mario Del Monaco) and Jago
(baritone Aldo Protti) –
Otello act II
Audio
8 Chi
è là …the
duet and quintet sung by Desdemona
(soprano Gabriella Tucci), Otello
(tenor
Mario Del Monaco), Jago
(baritone Tito Gobbi),
Emilia, Lodovico and Cassio –
Otello act IV
Part
3
Audio
9 Mercè diletti amici…the aria sung by Ernani (tenor
Mario Del Monaco) –
Ernani act I
Audio
10 La
dolcissima effigie…the duet sung by Maurizio (tenor
Mario Del Monaco) and Adriana (soprano Renata Tebaldi) –
Adriana Lecouvreur act I
Audio
11 L'anima
ho stanca…the aria sung by Maurizio (tenor Mario
Del Monaco) – Adriana Lecouvreur act II
Audio
12 Ove
dunque son io…the trio sung by Adriana (soprano
Renata Tebaldi), Maurizio (tenor Mario Del Monaco) and Michonnet
(baritone Giulio Fioravanti) – Adriana Lecouvreur act
IV finale
Acknowledgments
(ed.)
I
am indebted to Alberto and Giancarlo Del Monaco, Esqs., for
permission to publish some of Mario's photos from the family
album.
I
am grateful to Roberto Scandurra, Esq., who found time to
discuss the tenor's vocality by private correspondence.
Link
(ed.)
Mario
Del Monaco's
official web site in four languages, managed by my very friend
Roberto Scandurra, Esq., is www.mariodelmonaco.net.
Comment
Analysing
audios 1 and 8, Del Monaco approaches the
clown Canio in Pagliacci
and
the
famous Shakesperean character Othello with such dramatic accents
that stupefy. He was a singing acting tenor of the highest
order.
The
feelings of Canio and Otello are rightly expressed by Del
Monaco and of great relevance: basic ardor rather than spiritual
fervor. There are
ironic laughter, desperate sobbing (Canio) and
unlashed fury (Otello) in a musicality which is ready, heated,
well rehearsed and refined. The tenor's top notes are heroic
and overflowing.
In
all audios, the vocal interpretation is glorious.
Roam
with the mind to the night of 17 May 1890 at the Teatro Costanzi,
Rome. The audience have just heard the end of Cavalleria Rusticana
for the very first time (audio 4). As the curtain falls, huge
and fireball applauses. Frenetic shouts for Mascagni, a young
and unknown composer, to appear on the stage. On insistence
by the audience, the cast and composer are called back sixty
times !
In audio 8, as Otello, the voice is nuanced and supported
by a a middle register which is rich and flexible. In confronting
Desdemona before killing her, Del Monaco utters a
recitativo which
is in evidence with declamatory and expressive sonority. The
dialogue dynamics of the duet and quintet is extraordinary
and has Shakesperean quality.
Audios
10 to 12 are from the elegant opera Adriana Lecouvreur (1902),
which is Cilea's masterpiece in my view and that of many.
Its dramatic authenticity reveals a vocation to the fin
de siècle European decadent movement and traces
of Verismo softened by the score expansive lyricism, melodic
continuity and exquisite floral colours.
Del
Monaco takes on the role of Maurizio di Sassonia, which the
historic tenors Caruso and Anselmi glorified at the turn of
XX century. Del
Monaco sings Maurizio in a lirico drammatico exhilarating
vein: the powerful and sure emission, the infallible pronunciation
and exemplary professionalism are all there.
However,
one is almost moon struck by his extremely lyrical and fascinating
timbre (audio 10), languid abandon (audio 11) and heart wrenching
dramatic tones ‘Adriana…morta’ in the final
scene of the opera, when Adriana dies in his arms (audio 12).
(j.f.)
Reflections
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”There
is one thing to be said for glory - you can take glory with
you, when it is your time to go”