Franco Corelli - Songs and Arias

George Frideric Handel (Artist), Gioachino Rossini (Artist), Giuseppe Verdi (Artist), Tortorella (Artist), Wilder (Artist), Louis Niedermeyer (Artist), Anonymous (Artist), Charles Gounod (Artist), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Artist), Franz Schubert (Artist), Georges [composer] Bizet (Artist), Cesar Franck (Artist), Agustin Lara (Artist), Stefano Donaudy (Artist), Ernesto de Curtis (Artist), Ciarone (Artist), Giovanni Baptista Pedrazuolli (Artist), Edvard Grieg (Artist), Guy d' Hardelot (Artist), Mingardo (Artist), Ferrafo (Artist), Jose Serrano (Artist), Manuel Cardoso (Artist), Bareri (Artist), Vincenzo d' Annibale (Artist), Gaetano Errico Pennino (Artist), Vincenzo Bellini (Artist), Ernesto Tagliaferri (Artist), Eduardo di Capua (Artist), Rodolfo Falvo (Artist), Gaetano Lama (Artist), Salvatore Gambardella (Artist), Enrico Cannino (Artist), Francesco Paolo Tosti (Artist), Nicola Valente (Artist), Raffaele Mingardo (Artist), Franco Corelli (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 26, 1996)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: EMI Classics
• ASIN: B000002SF0
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #119,492 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #20 in Music > Classical > Opera & Vocal > Voices > Tenors

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. Pieta, Signore (Aria Di Chiesa)

2. Ave Maria, D.839 (Inno Alla Vergine)

3. Serse - Ombra Mai Fu (Largo)

4. Ave Maria

5. (OrchMottl): L'Ange

6. Requiem - Ingemisco

7. Adeste Fideles

8. Ave Maria

9. Ave Verum Corpus, KV 618

10. Petite Masse Solennelle - Domine Deus

See all 22 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. Mammina Mia

2. Te Quiero

3. Core 'ngrato

4. Senza Nisciuno

5. Adda Turna

6. 'O Paese d' 'o Sole

7. Pecche?

8. Fenesta Che Lucive

9. Piscatore 'e Pusilleco

10. Tu, Ca nun chiagne!!

See all 23 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Unequalled Neopolitan Songs, May 15, 2001

By 

David A. Kemp (Plano, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Franco Corelli - Songs and Arias (Audio CD)

Franco Corelli, who sang from 1951 to 1975, was the greatest tenore di forza of the postwar era. A powerful and exciting singer, never a subtle, elegant, or refined one, he had his detractors (who called him crude, vulgar, self-indulgent, and who lambasted his execrable French), but there can be no argument about the quality of his voice, a big, vibrant tenor with a thrilling timbre (often described as rich, dark, or baritonal) and a brilliant, secure top that must have been the envy and despair of other tenors. A nervous performer repeatedly subject to pre-performance jitters and anxiety attacks (a wag once said of him that Corelli could always think of more reasons not to sing than to sing), once onstage he was a generous singer who gave fully of himself and, like Caruso, poured out his magnificent voice unstintingly, never holding back.

The voice itself was one of the glories of the generously-endowed operatic scene of the Fifties and Sixties, and one of greatest tenor voices of the century. Herbert von Karajan said of Corelli, "A voice of heroic power, yet with great beauty of tone; darkly sensuous, mysteriously melancholic . . . but above all, a voice of thunder and lightning, fire and blood." Harold C. Schonberg, senior music of the New York Times, reviewing Corelli's Metropolitan debut in 1961, noted that his voice "has something of an exciting animal drive about it, and when Mr. Corelli lets loose, he can dominate an ensemble," and later described his voice as "a force of nature, an act of God, the vocal equivalent of an earthquake, volcano or hurricane." The distinguished musicologist Paul Henry Lang writing in the New York Herald-Tribune called Corelli "a latter-day Caruso." Alan Rich of the New York Herald-Tribune wrote of him, "There is no tenor in modern times, Italian or otherwise, whose voice rings out with greater vibrancy, whose every tone carries with it emotion at white heat. The sounds he makes, seemingly without effort, are dazzlingly bright, urgent, and communicative." Since Corelli's retirement we haven't heard anything remotely like him, and those of us who know his voice (and Bjorling's) can perhaps be pardoned for finding the "three tenors" so popular today somewhat anemic in comparison.

I have been an admirer of Corelli, a collector of his recordings, and a follower of his career since the late 1950s (when he had not yet sung in America, and his only recordings were Italian Cetra imports). I have just about everything he recorded. There is no tenor voice before the public today equal to this one, and I urge you not to miss it.

But the two-CD set under review here is not the place to start. If you are new to Corelli, I recommend the EMI single CD "Heroes" or the EMI two-CD set "Franco Corelli," with their heavy doses of his typical operatic fare, as ideal introductions to this rewarding singer. Corelli was above all a creature of the opera house, in his element singing Puccini, Verdi, and verismo Italian opera. The set under review here, misleadingly entitled "Songs and Arias," contains in fact only one aria, a very atypical one: Handel's "Ombra mai fu" from "Serse" (made famous by a Caruso recording). Indeed, some of the composers represented here-Handel, Schubert, Bach, Mozart, Rossini-are in fact stylistically very far from the kind of singing one associates with Corelli. A couple of the songs, "Because" and Grieg's "I Love Thee," are mildly comical in Corelli's overpoweringly Italianate and operatic renditions. But this is a set well worth owning for anyone who knows and likes Corelli. There is a first-rate Ingemisco from the Verdi Requiem, the traditional religious songs are all sung with seriousness and devotion, and most important, the bulk of the set comprises Neopolitan songs, which Corelli sings superbly. (I think he sings them better than anyone.) Of these my own favorite is "Core n'grato," a powerful song, and Corelli's recording of it is unequalled: there is a prodigious outpouring of bronzen tone here that must be heard to be believed. It's true that some of the orchestral arrangements are corny and dated, but with gloriously gutsy, full-blooded singing like this, from one of the greatest tenor voices of the century in its prime (all the recordings here are from 1961 to 1965), I can overlook the arrangements. These two CDs are very generously filled (22 songs,77 minutes for one and 23 songs, 78 minutes for the other), and include, I believe, everything Corelli recorded for EMI that wasn't opera.

If you like Corelli, if you like Neopolitan songs, you'll want this. But it's not the place to start in appreciating Franco Corelli.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars breathless, March 3, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Franco Corelli - Songs and Arias (Audio CD)

Every song that you wished Franco Corelli would sing is on these two CD's. My husband and I are in heaven when we listen. The sweetness of his voice takes your breath away!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Franco Corelli...we need more tenors like him, February 2, 2000

By 

Kipum Michael Lee (University of Penn, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Franco Corelli - Songs and Arias (Audio CD)

His voice is amazing...and the ease he has in singing... He speaks through music...his words and innerself flow out through his lips. A true master of music...of life...of the human soul... This CD will kindle and sparkle one's soul over and over again.