Dramatic tenor Giuseppe Borgatti as Mario Cavaradossi; La Scala, 1900.
From The record of singing by Scott, Michael, 1935-:
Italy's greatest Wagnerian tenor, GIUSEPPE BORGATTI (1871-1950), was chipping stones in a mason's yard when a local Marchese, an aficionado of the opera, chanced by and heard the young man singing away at the top of his voice. He offered to pay for him to have some formal instruction. After a period of study with Alessandro Busi and Elena Cuccoli, whom he later married, Borgatt made his debut in 1893 in Faust, at Castelfranco Veneto. There followed performances of Fra Diavolo and Ernesto in Don Pasquale. It was not, however, until after he went to Milan and took some lessons from Carlo d'Ormeville that he was engaged at an important theatre for the first time; at the Dal Verme, Milan, in 1894, in the title-role of Lohengrin. During the next couple of years he went to St Petersburg and Seville, singing in Falstaff, Lucia and Manon Lescaut. In Milan, at the eleventh hour, he was called in to replace Alfonso Garulli and create the title-role in Giordano's Andrea Chenier. At the dress rehearsal, when he finished the 'Improvviso', the librettist Luigi Illica jumped to his feet shouting 'Finally, here is Andrea Chenier'. The performance was a great event for the cast and the composer. As soon as it was over, Giordano cabled his publisher, Sonzogno: 'Chenier triumphant. Last act aroused fanatical enthusiasm. Boom! Boom! Boom!" Borgatt consolidated his success with appearances in most of the principal Italian theatres and in South America. There he was specially admired as Faust in Boito's Mefistofele, but from this time it was the challenge of Wagner that was to preoccupy him. In 1896, at a concert given in La Scala under Toscanini, he sang in the Prologue of Crepuscolo degli Dei. Three years later, in 1899, he Trista took the title-role in the first performances of Sigfrido at La Scala, the following year came Tristan, and in 1903 Loge in Oro del Reno; all of them conducted by Toscanini. He did not relinquish his Italian repertory, for he sang Cavaradossi, Enzo and Radames at La Scala, Alfredo, Canio, Loris, and Vassili in Giordano's Siberia in other Italian opera houses; but most of his activities during the next thirteen years, from St Petersburg to Santiago, Chile, were directed towards Wagner. In Naples he was the first Tristan and the first Siegfried in Crepuscolo degli Dei. The high-water mark of his career came with some performances of Parsifal in 1913, at La Scala. 'The Wagnerians have found their St Paul, '10 declared D'Annunzio, but it was an unfortunate analogy; Parsifal had been staged in spite of dire threats from Cosima-till then it had been the prerogative of Bayreuth. Whether her fulminations had anything to do with it or not, Borgatti's sight, which had been deteriorating for some while, became so bad that he was eventually obliged to give up his career.
Borgatti's Wagner recordings, though all of them are in Italian, are among the finest ever made. Toscanini's assistance in promoting his career at La Scala helps us overlook the famous conductor's latter day aberrations in taste where singers were concerned. It does not seem to have been an instrument of heroic proportions, and demonstrates once and for all that a good-sized voice, well-produced and properly modulated will still sound out effectively over a Wagnerian orchestra. His singing exemplifies those older Italian virtues that Wagner so much admired and wanted to hear in his music. Each word is clearly articulated and placed in a poised and limpid legato (what Dr Burney would have called portamento): each vowel and consonant to use the composer's own words-takes place 'in the Musical Tone', 11 and not separate from it, as we are accustomed to hearing. In Siegmund's 'Spring song' and Lohengrin's 'Atmest du nicht' ('Deh! non t'incantan', in Salvatore Marchesi's translation), there is beauty of tone, a wide variety of vocal colour and sensitive phrasing, achieved without imposing the manners of the verismo school, or compromising the style of the music.
When La Scala staged Crepuscolo degli Dei, in 1907, it was not with Borgatti the role of Siegfried was taken by FIORELLO GIRAUD (1868-1928).
"Borgatti’s voice was large, robust and of beautiful timbre; he could also, especially in his early years, sing with delicacy and sweetness. Driven, perhaps, by his intensely dramatic temperament, he was the first tenor to introduce into the performance of verismo operas a forcefully emphatic delivery and an incisive, vehement declamatory manner. This was in contrast to the lyrical approach and virtuosity still frequently shown by the tenors of the preceding generation, such as Stagno and De Lucia. These qualities, together with a strong physique, vigorous acting and remarkable insight into the character of his roles, made him an exceptional Heldentenor who did much to further the cause of Wagner’s operas in Italy." (Rodolfo Celletti, Grove Online)
Tosca: E lucevan le stelle · Giuseppe Borgatti · Giacomo Puccini
