# Mario Del Monaco......like him or not?



## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

He seems to divide opinion.
I'm listening to his Otello under Erede on Decca
and he sounds really good.
What's your opinion?


----------



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I like him in the right part. He was so handsome and charismatic and had a glorious voice, though he could be a one volume performer=loud. His Di Quella Pira rocks.


----------



## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

I love him and I had no idea, the opinions are divided on him !


----------



## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

I'm equivocal. I do think of him as something of a bawler, though the voice was evidently magnificent. He's not someone I'd turn to for subtlety.

I remember my parents had a recording of *Cavalleria Rusticana *with him, Gobbi and the young Souliotis. I didn't know much back about singing back then, but even so I thought that he just shouted. I later borrowed the Callas recording from a friend and I much preferred Di Stefano in the role. Of course, it was still quite early for Di Stefano and my parents' recording was late for Del Monaco, but it did rather put me off him. Later, I got the Karajan *Otello *and I quite liked him in that, but I've come to prefer both Vickers and Domingo in the role now and haven't heard it for a long time. I think Tebaldi is the best thing in it. Protti is a bit uninteresting as Iago.


----------



## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

Excellent as Otello, Alvaro, Chenier, Pollione, Canio, Radames etc. A true dramatic tenor and very successful in those roles but without the subtlety for more poetic, lyric roles.


----------



## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

Not so much bel canto, more can belto!😆


----------



## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

I have him on a CD of La Gioconda with Anita Cerquetti and Ettore Bastianini, never did comparison shopping but I was always happy with his "Cielo e mar".

I also like him as Pollione. I realize he cannot sing quietly. Somebody on youtube wrote, that he lost this ability after a bad car accident. It was weird to notice, that he doesn't sing some things in the Norma finale at the Callas performance ("Si, commosso e gia" is left out), but I understand he would just kill the ensemble if he did. They probably should have told him to not sing his last romantic words either (Norma, il tuo rogo e il mio etc), he makes the last bars a mess. But after all this complaining, at the end of the day, he is simply a sexi Pollione !


----------



## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

BBSVK said:


> I have him on a CD of La Gioconda with Anita Cerquetti and Ettore Bastianini, never did comparison shopping but I was always happy with his "Cielo e mar".
> 
> I also like him as Pollione. I realize he cannot sing quietly. Somebody on youtube wrote, that he lost this ability after a bad car accident. It was weird to notice, that he doesn't sing some things in the Norma finale at the Callas performance ("Si, commosso e gia" is left out), but I understand he would just kill the ensemble if he did. They probably should have told him to not sing his last romantic words either (Norma, il tuo rogo e il mio etc), he makes the last bars a mess. But after all this complaining, at the end of the day, he is simply a sexi Pollione !


He was capable, he just didn't do it much but there is some lovely paino singing here -


----------



## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

Op.123 said:


> He was capable, he just didn't do it much but there is some lovely paino singing here -


Was it before or after his car accident ?


----------



## ScottK (Dec 23, 2021)

Like him alot!!! Great voice! Only occasionally a very good singer. Don't care that much about the power although of course, in a passage that needs it, it's not something to be dismissed. I always thought the voice had a truly sexy and charismatic sheen on it...not gloomy like Franco, not velvet like Carlo. It always sounded like a movie star voice! And what I've gleaned of his personality I find appealing. Yeah, I like Mari-ooch!


----------



## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

BBSVK said:


> Was it before or after his car accident ?


Care accident was later in his career, early 60s. Most of what he was known for was recorded during the 50s.


----------



## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

I have Del Monaco only “accidentally” because he is in recordings with singers I admire (Callas, for instance) or favorite recordings, such as the Serafin *Mefistofele *(Tebaldi, Siepi).


----------



## Dogville (Dec 28, 2021)

I'm very ambivalent towards him. Like just last week I was listening to the 1951 Aida and thinking it had the greatest Aida, Amneris, and Amonasro ever. My thoughts on MDM was that he just so happened to be there.


----------



## damianjb1 (Jan 1, 2016)

I think he bawls less in live performance than in his studio recordings. His live Pollione and Andrea Chenier (both with Callas) are much better than his studio recordings (IMHO).


----------



## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

damianjb1 said:


> I think he bawls less in live performance than in his studio recordings. His live Pollione and Andrea Chenier (both with Callas) are much better than his studio recordings (IMHO).


I’m grateful to Del Monaco because, if it weren’t for him, we wouldn’t have had Callas’s Magdalena. He had La Scala change the opera because he didn’t want to sing Manrico and substituted *Andrea Chenier*.


----------



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

ScottK said:


> Like him alot!!! Great voice! Only occasionally a very good singer. Don't care that much about the power although of course, in a passage that needs it, it's not something to be dismissed. I always thought the voice had a truly sexy and charismatic sheen on it...not gloomy like Franco, not velvet like Carlo. It always sounded like a movie star voice! And what I've gleaned of his personality I find appealing. Yeah, I like Mari-ooch!


Missed you.


Dogville said:


> I'm very ambivalent towards him. Like just last week I was listening to the 1951 Aida and thinking it had the greatest Aida, Amneris, and Amonasro ever. My thoughts on MDM was that he just so happened to be there.


You are a better man that me but if I saw him live his short but impressive physical presence could make up for some of his stylistic qualities and one could always hear him at the back of the house. He was soooo handsome, charismatic, and virile. For a Callas fan like you looking for subtlety in him would result in disappointment.


----------



## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Tsaraslondon said:


> I'm equivocal. I do think of him as something of a bawler, though the voice was evidently magnificent. He's not someone I'd turn to for subtlety.
> 
> I remember my parents had a recording of *Cavalleria Rusticana *with him, Gobbi and the young Souliotis. I didn't know much back about singing back then, but even so I thought that he just shouted. I later borrowed the Callas recording from a friend and I much preferred Di Stefano in the role. Of course, it was still quite early for Di Stefano and my parents' recording was late for Del Monaco, but it did rather put me off him. Later, I got the Karajan *Otello *and I quite liked him in that, but I've come to prefer both Vickers and Domingo in the role now and haven't heard it for a long time. I think Tebaldi is the best thing in it. Protti is a bit uninteresting as Iago.


My thoughts are pretty much similar. I like Del Monaco, but there are usually others I prefer in a role. I don’t go out of my way to collect his recordings solely because he is in them, but he doesn’t put me off a recording either. I really don’t like his performance of Otello in the Karajan recording and I find the whole thing ‘uninteresting’ (if that is possible with Otello). However, he was much better live in the role and I like his performance with De Los Angeles and Warren from the Met and the filmed performance from Tokyo with Gobbi and Tucci I remember being good too. 

Someone on here said that his Gioconda (with the other Decca regulars, namely Simionato, Siepi and Bastianini and Cerquetti as it may have been too early in Tebaldi’s career for the role) is one of his best recordings and the cast is very good overall. To be honest I don’t have many of his recordings as I much preferred the casts on EMI rather than Decca of his era (see the EMI vs Decca thread). 

N.


----------



## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

MAS said:


> I have Del Monaco only “accidentally” because he is in recordings with singers I admire (Callas, for instance) or favorite recordings, such as the Serafin *Mefistofele *(Tebaldi, Siepi).


Yes, us Callas fans got his Chenier, Radames and Pollione 'by accident' - could have gone worse!

Incidentally, I don't have the complete Serafin Mefistofele, but only the excerpts and that's partly because I preferred to have it with Di Stefano.

N.


----------



## Dogville (Dec 28, 2021)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Missed you.
> 
> You are a better man that me but if I saw him live his short but impressive physical presence could make up for some of his stylistic qualities and one could always hear him at the back of the house. He was soooo handsome, charismatic, and virile. For a Callas fan like you looking for subtlety in him would result in disappointment.


I mean I unabashedly adore Corelli, who admittedly shares some of the affectations/histrionics I don’t like in MDM. It’s just matter of somehow clicking with particular singers I guess.


----------



## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Oh you mean "The Shouter?"
Actually, although he's not in my top 10 I do respect his Otello and Chenier.
Others not so much so.


----------



## OffPitchNeb (Jun 6, 2016)

I avoid him when he was too shouty, but in the "correct" roles, he was almost unbeatable.

My favorite of him are his Dick Johnson (La fanciulla), Don Carlo (La Forza) and Ernani, coincidentally all under Mitropoulos. I think he is the type of singer who needs a good conductor to bring the best out of him.


----------

