TRACKLISTING

CD 1
1 Ciel, che feci (Oberto, Conte di San Bonifacio)
2 Pietoso al lungo pianto (Un Giorno di regno)
3 La mia letizia ... Come poteva un angelo (I Lombardi)
4 Mercè, diletti amici ... Come rugiada (Ernani)
5 Notte, perpetua notte ... Non maledirmi (I due Foscari)
6 Nel suo bel volto ... Sotto una guercia (Giovanna d'Arco)
7 Miserandi avanzi ... Irne lungi (Alzira)
8 Qual notte ... Qui, qui sostiamo*
9 Qui del convengo ... Che non avrebbe* (Attila)
1O figli ... Ah, la paterna mano (Macbeth)

CD 2
1 Quando io leggo ... O mio castel paterno*
2 Come splendido ... Di ladroni attorniato (I masnadieri)
3 Eccomi prigioniero (Il corsaro)
4 O magnanima ... La pia materna mano (La battaglia di Legnano)
5 Oh! fede negar potessi ... Quando le sere al placido (Luisa Miller)
6 Questa o quella
7 Ella mi fu rapita
8 La donna è mobile (Rigoletto)
9 Il presagio funesto ... Ah sì, ben mio ... Di quella pira (Il trovatore)
10 Lunge da lei ... De' miei bollenti spiriti (La traviata)
11 E' di Monforte il cenno! ... Giorno di pianto (I vespri siciliani)

CD 3
1 O inferno ... Sento avvampar (Simon Boccanegra)
2 Sotto il sol di Siria ardente (Aroldo)
3 Di' tu se fedele
4 Forse la soglia attinse ... Ma se m'è forza perderti (Un ballo in maschera)
5 La vita è inferno ... Oh tu che in seno agli angeli (La forza del destino)
6 Fontainebleau! ... Io la vidi (Don Carlo)
7 Se quel guerrier io fossi! ... Celeste Aida (Aida)
8 Dio! mi potevi scagliar
9 Niun mi tema (Otello)
10 Dal labbro il canto estasiato vola (Falstaff)

RECORDING INFORMATION

The great Italian tenor Carlo Bergonzi celebrates his 80th birthday in July 2004. He was born near Cremona on 13 July 1924 and first appeared as a baritone when he sang Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia at Lecce in 1948. Three years later, in 1951, and the year that marked the 50th anniversary of the death of Verdi, the young Bergonzi made his first appearances as a tenor when he participated in Italian Radio broadcasts in honour of Verdi, and in the title role of Giordano’s Andrea Chénier. Bergonzi appeared at La Scala for the first time in 1953 and continued to sing there regularly; that same year he first appeared in London at the Stoll Theatre. In 1962 he first sang at Covent Garden and would appear regularly in that house for the next thirty years, a record only beaten by his own achievement of appearing at New York’s Met for thirty-two years (1956-1988).

Bergonzi’s repertory included over forty tenor roles and many of these were in Verdi operas, a composer he was closely associated with from the outset of his career. The reissue of this set of the Verdi Tenor Arias restores an anthology of truly great singing to the catalogue. This collection of Verdi arias was the first of its kind and it is only recently that an alternative has been released by Plácido Domingo on DG. The reissue of the Bergonzi set is timely and long overdue, and clearly demonstrates those qualities which characterised Bergonzi’s art in all of his performances and recordings: a superb sense of style, refinement and elegance of line.

Carlo Bergonzi is also included in the initial set of releases in Decca’s CLASSIC RECITALS series (475 392-2).

"... Bergonzi's three-disc set ... makes an admirable offering ... few tenors of his generation could have undertaken this exacting project with such consistently and satisfying musicianship."
(Penguin Stereo Record Guide, Second Edition)