Lawrence Tibbett, Ezio Pinza: A Calendar of Song: the Ninth Day of Christmas
The Ninth Day of Christmas
Here are some top-notch Italian-opera histrionics for you, with two low voices, bass and baritone. This is a live performance of Verdi'sSimon Boccanegra from the Metropolitan Opera House in 1939: the baritone is Lawrence Tibbett (1896-1960), perhaps the greatest in a long line of superb American baritones; the bass is Ezio Pinza (1892-1957), an illustrious Italian who was a fixture at the Met from 1926 to 1948. I’ve loved Boccanegra in many productions since 1973, but this account always electrifies me.
Pinza (who sings Fiesco here) starred in many opera houses, but, thanks to the Met’s Saturday matinee broadcasts, we have an unusually large number of live recordings of him. (I have him in live recordings of fourteen different operas). To this day, the water fountains in the Met’s foyers are named in his honour; I’ve often drunk from them. In his later years he became even more famous in the original South Pacific. Tibbett acted and sang in a number of movies; he also played in musicals, succeeding Pinza in the Broadway original run of Fanny.
There's a fair bit of plot to explain: I hope I do so fairly.
Simon Boccanegra, doge of Genoa, alone in view of the sea he loves, has unknowingly drunk poison. His old adversary, the aristocrat Fiesco, approaches, knowing of the poison though wishing it had not been given. The two men have not met for many years.
Part of the history between these two men is that Boccanegra enraged Fiesco by seducing his daughter, who then died. Their daughter, whom Fiesco wanted to raise as his, was lost. Fiesco himself then disappeared from Boccanegra’s knowledge, though we've seen him conspiring with Boccanegra’s aristocratic enemies.
During the opera, Boccanegra has found that daughter again (now adult and in love), has lovingly embraced her, and has hoped to find Fiesco to tell him. (Fiesco knows her, but does not know she’s his granddaughter.)
I wish YouTube had Boccanegra’s preceding soliloquy, where Tibbett’s beautiful voice has wonderful pathos (his head is on fire, though he does not know that poison is the cause) and line. Now Fiesco enters: Boccanegra has just now wished aloud he had died on the sea he loves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgo2_DTvEfc
FIESCO: Era meglio per te!
FIESCO: That would have been better for you!
DOGE: Chi osò inoltrarsi?...
DOGE: Who dares intrude?...
FIESCO: Chi te non teme...
FIESCO: One who’s unafraid of you…
DOGE:Guardie?
DOGE (calling): Guards!
FIESCO: Invan le appelli... Non son qui i sgherri tuoi –
m'ucciderai, ma pria m'odi...
FIESCO: You can them in vain… Your hired assassins aren’t here.
You’ll kill me, but first you’ll hear me.
DOGE: Che vuoi?
DOGE: What do you want?
FIESCO: Delle faci festanti al barlume
cifre arcane, funebri vedrai –
tua sentenza la mano del nume
sopra queste pareti vergò.
FIESCO: By the gleam of the festive torches
you’ll see strange, deads, portents-
God’s hand has written your sentence
on these walls.
Di tua stella s'eclissano i rai;
la tua porpora in brani già cade;
vincitor fra le larve morrai
cui la tomba tua scure negò.
Your star’s light is eclipsed;
your ducal purple is already falling in tatters;
you, the conqueror, shall die amid the ghosts
of those to whom your headsmen denied a grave.
DOGE: Quale accento?
DOGE: Whose voice is this?
FIESCO: Lo udisti un'altra volta.
FIESCO: You heard it in another time.
DOGE: Fia ver? - Risorgon dalle tombe i morti?
DOGE: Can it be true? Are the dead rising from their tombs?
FIESCO: Non mi ravvisi tu?
FIESCO: Don’t you recognise me?
DOGE: Fiesco!...
DOGE: Fiesco!...
FIESCO: Simone, i morti ti salutano!
FIESCO: Simone, the dead hail you!
DOGE: Gran Dio!... Compiuto alfin di quest'alma è il desio!
DOGE: Great God!... My soul’s desire is at last fulfilled.
FIESCO: Come fantasima
Fiesco t'appar,
antico oltraggio
a vendicar.
FIESCO: Like a phantom
Fiesco appears before you,
to avenge
an ancient wrong.
DOGE: Di pace nunzio
Fiesco sarà,
suggella un angelo
nostra amistà.
DOGE: Fiesco will be
a herald of peace,
an angel to seal
our friendship.
FIESCO: Che dici?
FIESCO: What are you saying?
DOGE: Un tempo il tuo perdon m'offristi...
DOGE: Once you offered me your forgiveness…
FIESCO: Io?
FIESCO: I did?
DOGE: - se a te l'orfanella concedea
che perduta per sempre allor piangea,
in Amelia Grimaldi a me fu resa,
e il nome porta della madre estinta.
DOGE: If I gave up to you the orphan daughter
whom I then mourned as dead forever.
In Amelia Grimaldi she was restored to me,
and she bears her dead mother’s name.
FIESCO: Cielo!... perché mi splende il ver sì tardi?
FIESCO: Heavens!... why does the truth shine on me so late?
DOGE: Piangi?... Perché da me volgi gli sguardi?...
DOGE: You’re weeping? Why are you turning your face away from me?
FIESCO: Piango, perché mi parla
in te del ciel la voce;
sento rampogna atroce
fin nella tua pietà.
FIESCO: I weep, because in you
heaven’s voice speaks to me;
I feel a terrible rebuke
now in your pity,
DOGE: Vien, ch'io ti stringa al petto,
O padre di Maria;
Balsamo all'alma mia
Il tuo perdon sarà.
DOGE: Come, let me clasp you to my heart,
Maria’s father;
your forgiveness will be
balm to my soul
FIESCO: Ahimè! morte sovrasta... un traditore
il velen t'apprestò.
FIESCO: Alas! Death claims you… a traitor
has given you poison.
DOGE: Tutto favella, il sento, a me d'eternità...
DOGE: Everything speaks to me of eternity, I feel it.
FIESCO: Crudele Fato!
FIESCO: Cruel fate!
DOGE: Ella vien...
DOGE: Here she comes.
FIESCO: Maria...
FIESCO: Maria…
DOGE: Taci, non dirle... Anco una volta benedirla voglio.
DOGE: Hush, don’t tell her… I wish to give her my blessing one more time.
Both men have sensational vocal presence. We’ve been speaking of vibrato; I love how both these men exemplify and use it. Pinza here has darkened and harshened his voice for this role (he was also a very famous seductive Don Giovanni at this time, and a vivid Mozart Figaro). But when he starts here to melt at “Piango”, his voice has more pathos than any other Fiesco.
Tibbett’s voice sounds more Italian than any other American baritone’s here: it’s not just the vibrancy, it’s the wonderfully forward placement of the voice, so that we see the face that sings. “Nobility” can be irksome if affected; he apparently has it by nature.
Sunday 3 January
