Giovanni
Martinelli
Giovanni Martinelli was certainly one of the best known and
most admired Italian tenors of the 20th Century. He was very popular in
America, and was a mainstay at the Metropolitan Opera for a remarkable 32
years, never easing off on his hard-core, bread and butter repertoire, which
among other operas, included Aida, Trovatore, Otello, Turandot, La Juive,
and Pagliacci. I would call his voice
unique among great tenors. He sang with an open, white phonation that was very
rare in the verismo world of dark-voiced, low-larynx singing so characteristic
of post bel canto opera. That he did so successfully—especially considering the
repertoire—is little short of miraculous. He never screamed, he never shouted.
He sang the big dramatic roles with the same voice with which he sang lyric
roles, and for him it worked. In a word, he always sounded like a tenor, no
matter what he sang.
But if a picture tells a thousand words, a few Martinelli
recordings tell the entire story of the Martinelli voice. I have tried to
choose as many filmed excerpts as I could find, because he was a statuesque man
of striking features, and one needs the entire impression: First, a famous
Neapolitan song known to everyone:
It is fascinating to reflect upon the fact that he uses
exactly the same voice—his voice, always recognizable—to sing two such
different kinds of music. And it works! It works even though it is
counter-intuitive, considering the different repertoire. Caruso, ever
associated with this role, has become imprinted on the mind as the essential
Canio, but that need not be the case. The tenors who have sung Canio are
countless, and Martinelli's works perfectly well. The essential thing about
Martinelli's voice, always to be remembered, is that it is essentially sui
generis: Always the same sound, always the same color, always Martinelli. That
is one of the characteristics of "open" singing: The characteristics
of the speaking voice are always more present than they are in the heavily
covered voices of the big dramatic tenors. It is not always easy—at least
initially—to distinguish the voices of, let us say, Vinay, Del Monaco,
Giacomini, Corelli, or Domingo. Certainly there are differences, but one has to
stop and listen for a moment. That never happens with Martinelli. He is always
immediately recognizable, because the personal characteristics of his voice, of
Giovanni Martinelli's voice, are always
up-front and eternally his. This can be a big advantage in opera, because the
audience recognizes the voice of the artist, as well as the character, and it
is somehow more intimate. The voices of some singers are like instruments, and
often have only that much "personality" about them. Some prefer that,
especially in grander, more archetypal operas, such as those of Wagner.
Wagner's characters are often aspects of the unconscious, and
"personality" is already determined by archetype. Not so, as a rule,
in Latin opera.
Finally, here is a recording of his "Questa o
Quella," from Rigoletto, which is very interesting, for several reasons:
Finally, here is another old Vitaphone clip showing
Martinelli is a piece from Marta, one we might more readily associate with a
lyric tenor like John McCormack:
To reiterate, it is always Martinelli; same voice, same
tenor. Always brilliant, always
believable, be it the tragic Otello or the sentimental and heart-broken Lionel.
One of the great tenors of all time!
