Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Operatic baritone, renowned as one of the greats of the 20th century.
On the island
Eight records
La MontanaraFavourite
It's a a song of the Alpine, of the soldier of my country... and with your permission I will take a little bit of my voice with me too, uh and so the record is sung by me.
Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23
Vladimir Horowitz, NBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Arturo Toscanini
I like this piano momentos, which is beautiful, exciting.
For Christmas time and also because it is a is a lovely little area that uh bring me back many, many years ago when my mother was used to sing this to us when we were children.
French National Opera Orchestra conducted by Georges Prêtre
I am in in love with this piece of music, and I did a lot of exercise listening to this and co playing as a conductor, jumping here and there. It was a marvel for all the muscles.
Ambrosian Opera Chorus conducted by Riccardo Muti
Everybody will have this record in a desert island to dream, to follow the clouds in the sky, and maybe also to have little tears in their eyes.
Willi Boskovsky conducting the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
when I I play this Strauss I will dance with this blonde [bar of gold] in my arm and dance around the s the sand and the beach.
Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra
William Tell for me, as you know, as I told you, is a... fountain, like a Roman fountain, of a source in which everybody, a lot of musicians, have been drinking a little bit of uh music, of idea.
Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra
because there is the Saint Peter big bells.
In conversation
Presenter asks
2:44When you were small, was there a lot of music in your home?
There was a a good atmosphere, a good love of music, amateurish, naturally. My sister was playing piano, rather well, rather good. My brother was trying to play violin, and then he he he broke the vi the instrument in the in the head of the teacher, and so he stopped the lessons. My father was used to sing when we went up in the mountain for a excursion in the in a holiday in summer. He was used to sing Umbeldivedremo. And when I told him, But Papa, this is an area for a soprano, it doesn't matter, I love it.
Presenter asks
3:29Is it true that at your first school, you were told not to sing in the choir?
Yes, yes. That's true, because uh maybe uh still very young, but my voice was changing, developing, I don't know what happened, and I was out of tune, uh, w I was shouting and the poor maestro, teacher, uh, walking around the the class, he stopped in front of me, say, You just have to mime and not produce any sound. So that was my big debut in the chorus, the school.
Presenter asks
4:02Was your voice discovered on a tennis court?
Yes. Yes, we were playing tennis and I was singing a very famous song at this time, Ama Mi Basio Mi Gompazione, and the owner of the villa where we used to go all the young boys called me. He was a musician and a and a composer himself himself and um the Baron Zanqueta and a great uh musicologist also. And he listened to my voice, he decided I was buried. And then he suggested my father to make me study singing, and my father said yes, but first he must be a lawyer because I want him to be sure, to be safe.
The keepsakes
The book
Leslie Greenwood
is beautifully painted, hand painted the reproduction of all the flowers of the world. I don't know if they are all in there. Maybe in the desert island I will find one that is not there and I can add this to the book. But it's a book that I will never be tired of looking.
The luxury
when I I play this Strauss I will dance with this blonde in my arm and dance around the s the sand and the beach. It's useless. It has no value there. But it's beautiful polish, and I can put down in the sand and look this. The reflection of the sun on this. I can play a lot. It would be a nice companion.
Presenter asks
5:02What happened at that audition [with Giulio Crimi]?
This audition was good, and the master said, Okay, said to my father, I can't promise anything. The sound is good, still very young, uh the boy looks nice, but uh I don't know him, I want to study him a little more closely, and in three months I will tell you if it is good to go on with a singing lesson or better to have a lawyer in your house.
Presenter asks
7:39What was your first appearance on the operatic stage?
My first appearance was a a rather funny one, and my my debut in La Scala, which was a... disasters. They asked me to replace a man who was singing few words, to sing only a few phrases, but nobody told me when. So I enter on stage and I start singing when the basso Tancredi Passero was a at the half away of Ick's big cadenza. I interrupted his area, it destroyed everything. That was my my real first debut.
Presenter asks
12:05What was it like performing [Tosca] during the German occupation?
We have done very little during the German occupation, but because everybody tried to run away. In effect, I I had a terrific experience, frightening, because we decided not to perform Tosca for the German the army and so on. And they said, Okay, if you don't come, we come and we pick you up. Don't try to run away. So we have have been obliged to perform... And we had... machine gun... touching our shoulder... All the way... And when we walk inside the stage to perform... We had nine... machine gun all over the winds, pointed against us.
“We had a nine month in Rome which was really hunger. My wife and myself, we have been eating lawn grass that I cut. I went out and without hiding myself, I cut with a little knife that I still c carry. I have this at home. Little knife cutting grass, put in the pocket, and we boil this, and that was our food.”
“It will be a gold bar... a big piece of polished gold... when I I play this Strauss I will dance with this blonde in my arm and dance around the s the sand and the beach. It's useless. It has no value there... But it's beautiful polish, and I can put down in the sand and look this... The reflection of the sun on this. I can play a lot. It would be a nice companion.”
“I'm born and I've been living surrounded by humanity and certainly I will miss this. Uh maybe one day I will come back.”