TRACKLISTING
CD 1
Puccini: La Bohème
Che gelida manina
O soave fanciulla (with Renata Tebaldi)
Mimì è tanto malata
Dunque è proprio finita!
In un coupé? … O Mimì, tu più non torni
Puccini: Madama Butterfly
Dovunque al mondo
Vogliatemi bene (love duet with Tebaldi)
Io so che alle sue pene
Addio fiorito asil
Mascagni: Cavalleria rusticana
Ah! lo vedi
Leoncavallo: Pagliacci
Recitar! … Vesti la giubba
Verdi: Don Carlo
Dio, che nell’alma infondere (with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau)
Verdi: Rigoletto
Questa o quella
Ella mi fu rapita!
Parmi veder le lagrime
Possente amor mi chiama
La donna è mobile
Bella figlia dell'amore (with Fischer-Dieskau, Scotto, Cossotto)
Verdi: Otello
Dio! mi potevi scagliar

CD 2
Verdi: Un ballo in maschera
La rivedrà nell’estasi
Di’ tu se fedele
E’ scherzo od è follia
Teco io sto (love duet with Birgit Nilsson)
Forse la soglia attinse
Ma se m'è forza perderti
Puccini: Tosca
E lucevan le stelle
Puccini: Manon Lescaut
Donna non vidi mai
Verdi: Aida
Se quel guerrier io fossi! … Celeste Aida
Pur ti riveggo, mia dolce Aida (with Tebaldi)
Ponchielli: La Gioconda
Cielo e mar!
Verdi: La traviata
Un dì felice, eterea
Lunge da lei
De' miei bollenti spiriti
O mio rimorso!
Parigi, o cara (with Joan Sutherland)
Verdi: Il trovatore
Deserto sulla terra
Ah sì, ben mio
Di quella pira
Cilea: Adriana Lecouvreur
La dolcissima effigie
L’anima ho stanca

RECORDING INFORMATION
Carlo Bergonzi ranks among the very greatest singers of the twentieth century and is admired by other celebrated tenors as the model to which they aspire.With an essentially lyric voice, Bergonzi also made many of Verdi’s more dramatic tenor roles his own by approaching them with his innate musical intelligence and aristocratic phrasing. He made his debut as a baritone, singing Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia at Lecce in 1948. After retraining as a tenor he sang the title role of Giordano’s Andrea Chénier in Bari in 1951.

Bergonzi’s greatest operatic roles are all represented on this 2-disc collection (which has already been an enormous success in the UK); Rodolfo ( La Bohème ), Pinkerton ( Madama Butterfly ), Manrico ( Il trovatore ), Radamès ( Aida ), Cavaradossi ( Tosca ) and Alfredo ( La traviata ). After a distinguished career lasting some 40 years Carlo Bergonzi now lives in Busseto near the birthplace of his beloved Verdi. He is often to be seen greeting guests at his restaurant, I due Foscari, named after one of Verdi's early operas!

The climax of the Gramophone Awards ceremony (2000) in London was a performance of the Brindisi from La traviata sung by Carlo Bergonzi and Angela Gheorghiu, on the occasion of his receiving a Gramophone Lifetime Achievement award.


The distinguished Gramophone critic John Steane described Carlo Bergonzi as “an artist combining strength, beauty, intensity and radiance” while the italian critic Rodolfo Celletti praised Bergonzi’s “superb technique, attack, phrasing and sense of style”.