Fernando De Lucia
Fernando De Lucia (11 October 1860[1] or 1 September 1861 – 21 February 1925) was an Italian operatic tenor and singing teacher who enjoyed an internationally successful career.
De Lucia was admired in his lifetime as a striking exponent of
Early career
De Lucia was born in
Mascagni, Rome and Florence
On 31 October 1891, De Lucia took part in the world premiere of L'amico Fritz, singing the role of Fritz Kobus opposite the French diva Emma Calvé. The opera had been composed by the up-and-coming musician Pietro Mascagni and its debut occurred in Rome at the Costanzi Theatre.[5] For a singer later upheld (by some) as the rarified model of bel canto style[6] the situation was originally quite otherwise; De Lucia was, in fact, famous during his career not as a bel canto stylist, but as a performer of Mascagni and Ruggero Leoncavallo's earthy, melodramatic verismo characters. De Lucia capitalized on Europe's Mascagni craze of the early 1890s. Accordingly, in November 1892, he was engaged by the Florence opera house to create the tenor lead in Mascagni's third opera, I Rantzau.[7] Appearing with him in the work was the virtuoso baritone Mattia Battistini.
Verismo firsts in London, 1893
De Lucia's verismo-opera career continued apace with the first English performance (on 19 May 1893, with
London and Milan
In 1893-94, De Lucia sang in New York City at the Metropolitan Opera. He repeated his Canio with Melba and Ancona, and this was esteemed, but he was disliked as Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni and as the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto. He did not repeat the experience.[2] In London in 1894, he performed both Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci (together on one night) at Covent Garden, with Ancona in the lead baritone parts. Shaw admired the "'altogether exceptional dramatic force" which their performances gave to the pair of works.[12] That season he was also in a bilingual (French-Italian) Faust, with Melba, Ancona and Bauermeister. Shaw thought the role of Faust too heavy for De Lucia: his "dramatic instinct helped him well through a part in which he seemed likely to be overweighted. Several times in the garden scene he found the right musical treatment with exceptional success."[13] That was also his verdict of his Duke in a Rigoletto with Melba, Ancona and Giulia Ravogli, though he got through the music 'adroitly and pluckily'.[14]
De Lucia sang at
In 1897, he sang in a state concert at London's Buckingham Palace to mark Queen Victoria's Royal Jubilee.[17] At the Costanzi Theatre, Rome, on 22 November 1898, he created the role of Osaka in Mascagni's Iris,[18] and at Covent Garden on 12 July 1900 he played Cavaradossi in the first performance of Tosca in England, supporting the Floria Tosca of Milka Ternina, with Antonio Scotti as Scarpia and Luigi Mancinelli conducting.[19] The "Musical Times" found that his performance was highly effective and that his character exactly suited that of Cavaradossi.[20]
De Lucia was also admired in London as Don Jose in
In 1916, De Lucia delivered his farewell performance at La Scala as Rodolfo. He said goodbye to his loyal Neapolitan supporters the following year at the Teatro di San Carlo. De Lucia's final appearance before the public occurred at the funeral of the incomparable Enrico Caruso in Naples in 1921.[22] In his later years, De Lucia dwelt in Naples and taught at the conservatory there, in which he himself had been trained.[23] His most famous pupil was the French tenor Georges Thill. He died in his native city of Naples.
His vocal technique
Although De Lucia's stage career was closely tied to works by his contemporaries Mascagni and Leoncavallo, the vocal method that he exhibited in their operas was not the strenuous, declamatory mode of singing normally associated by modern listeners with the verismo movement. Because his voice was not overly powerful or extensive in range, he needed to rely on his histrionic skills to project the drama fully. When it came to his actual singing, he delivered the music at hand in a flowery and fluttery way that has no modern equivalent.
De Lucia's recordings of arias and duets from Rossini's Barber of Seville ('Ecco ridente', 'Se il mio nome' and 'Numero quindici', for example) show off his vocal characteristics to an even greater extent than do his records of verismo pieces (or even lyrical Verdian parts, such as Alfredo in
George Bernard Shaw wrote tellingly of De Lucia in June 1892. Having seen his
By referring to De Lucia as an artificial tenor, Shaw is associating him with other tenors who employed a similar vocal technique, and were inclined to colour and phrase in the same sort of way as De Lucia. They include
Many other famous Mediterranean tenors active in De Lucia's day, such as
Recording career
Gramophone Company Recordings. De Lucia had a 20-year relationship (1902–1922) with the gramophone, producing discs that have acquired an almost legendary status among collectors. He recorded, often hauntingly, the following titles for the Gramophone Company between 1902 and 1908.[28] The dates are the issue dates: more than one date indicates two separate recordings. All are 10-inch records unless otherwise shown. The partners in duets are Antonio Pini-Corsi (baritone), Maria Galvany (soprano), Giuseppina Huguet (sop), Celestina Boninsegna (soprano) and Ernesto Badini (baritone).
- 'Stradella': Aria di chiesa (Pietà, Signore!) 1907.
- Mozart, Don Giovanni: Il mio tesoro, 1908. Dalla sua pace, 1908.
- Rossini, Il barbiere di Siviglia: Ecco ridente, 1902; 1904 (12"); 1908 (12"). Se il mio nome, 1908. Numero quindici (w. Pini-Corsi), 1906. Ah, qual colpo inaspettato (w. Galvany), 1908; (w. Huguet and A. Pini-Corsi), 1906 (12"). All'idea di quel metallo (w. Pini-Corsi), 1906 (12").
- Bellini, La sonnambula: Ah! perché non posso odiarti?, 1908. Son geloso del zeffiro (w. Galvany), 1908 (12"). Prendi, l'anel ti dono (w. Galvany), 1908 (12").
- Donizetti, La favorita: Una vergine, un'angiol di dio, 1904. L'elisir d'amore: Obbligato obbligato (w. Badini), 1907.
- Verdi, Luisa Miller: Quando le sere al placido, 1908 (12"). Rigoletto: La donna e mobile, 1902. La traviata: Un dì, felice, 1904. Dei miei bollenti spiriti, 1906 (12"). Parigi, o cara, noi lasceremo (w. Huguet), 1906 (12").
- Wagner, Lohengrin: Cigno gentil, 1902. Deh, non t'incantan, 1906. S'ei torna alfin, 1906. Cigno fedel, 1907 (12"). Cessarono i canti alfin (w. Huguet), 1907 (12"). Mai deve domandarmi (w. Huguet), 1907 (12").
- Bizet, Carmen: Il fior che avevi 1902; 1907 (12"). La tua madre (w. Huguet), 1907 (12"). Pearl fishers: Della mia vita, 1906. Mi par d'udir ancora, 1906. Non hai compreso (w. Huguet), 1906 (12").
- Gounod, Faust: Salve dimora, 1906. Tardi si fa (w. Boninsegna), 1904 (12"); (w. Huguet), 1907 (12"). Romeo e Giulietta, Deh sorgi, o luce, 1908.
- Thomas, Mignon: La tua bell'alma, 1906. Ah non credevi tu, 1906. Addio, Mignon, 1905 (12").
- Massenet, Manon: Il sogno, 1902; 1907. Werther: Ah! non mi ridestar, 1902.
- Mascagni, Cavalleria rusticana: Siciliana, 'O Lola', 1902.
- Giordano, Fedora: Amor ti vieta, 1902. Mia madre, 1904. Vedi, io piango, 1904.
- Puccini, Tosca: Recondita armonia, 1902.
- Cilea, Adriana Lecouvreur: L'anima ho stanca, 1904.(With the composer, Cilea, at the piano)
- Neapolitan and Italian Songs: Anon: Fenesta che lucive, 1902. Baldelli: A suon di baci, 1902. Luntananza, 1904 (with the composer Cilea at the piano), Barthelemy, Sulla bocca amorosa, 1908. Triste ritorno, 1908. Serenamente, 1909. Cannio: Carmela sua, 1909. di Capua: O sole mio! 1908. Costa: Napulitanata, 1902. Tu sei morta nella vita mia, 1902. Era di maggio, 1908. Oilì, oilà, 1909. de Curtis: A Surrentina, 1909.Denza: Occhi di fata, 1904. Gambardella: Nun me guardate, 1909. Ricciardi: Luna lù, 1909. Tosti: Serenata, 1904. Ideale, 1902. Marechiare, 1902.
Fonotipia Records. De Lucia also recorded 30 Neapolitan songs for the
Phonotype Records.
Note: By the time that De Lucia came to make his first recordings, his upper register had contracted to such an extent that he was forced to transpose downwards some of the pieces that he committed to disc by a semi-tone, a full tone, or even three semi-tones.
References
- ^ Arthur Eaglefield Hull (Ed.), A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians (Dent, London 1924)
- ^ a b c d e Scott 1977, 124.
- ^ M. Scott, The Record of Singing to 1914 (Duckworth, London 1977), 124.
- ^ H. Klein, Thirty Years of Musical Life in London, 1870-1900 (Century, New York 1903), 219, 223.
- ^ Rosenthal and Warrack 1974 printing, 10.
- ^ B. Semeonoff, Record Collecting (Oakwood Press, Chislehurst 1949), 65: 'Fernando de Lucia, leading exponent of a vanished bel canto tradition'; H. Rosenthal and J. Warrack, Concise Oxford Dictionary of Opera (London, 1974 printing), 'a master of bel canto.'
- ^ M. Girardi: Mascagni, Pietro (Grove Music Online).
- ^ Rosenthal and Warrack 1974, 297.
- ^ Klein 1903, 378.
- ^ Klein 1903, 384.
- ^ Klein 1903, 385-386.
- ^ G.B. Shaw, Music in London 1890-1894 (Constable, London 1932), iii, 222.
- ^ Shaw 1932, iii, 233.
- ^ Shaw 1932, iii, 245.
- ^ Klein 1903, 413.
- ^ D. Bispham, A Quaker Singer's Recollections (New York, 1920), 165-166.
- ^ Bispham 1920, 265.
- ^ Scott 1977, 125; Rosenthal and Warrack 1977, 190 for date.
- ^ Rosenthal and Warrack 1974, 404-405.
- ^ Musical Times, Aug 1, 1900, p 537
- ^ Rosenthal and Warrack 1974, 98.
- ^ a b Scott 1977, 125.
- ^ Eaglefield-Hull 1924, 117.
- ^ Scott 1977, 125-126.
- ^ Shaw 1932, ii, 104.
- ^ Shaw 1932, ii, 222.
- ^ Scott 1977, 123-124.
- ^ Source: J.R. Bennett, Voices of the Past Volume II: The Italian Vocal Catalogues of the Gramophone Company, etc' (Oakwood Press, 1967).
- ^ Source: J.R. Bennett, Dischi Fonotipia - A Golden Treasury (Ipswich, 1953).
- ^ Source:Scott 1977, 123.
Other reading
- M. Henstock, Fernando de Lucia: Son of Naples (Duckworth 1990).
- G. Kobbé, The Complete Opera Book (English Edition) (London 1922).
- J. Steane, Singers of the Century (Duckworth 1996), 41-45.