# Tito Gobbi



## Diminuendo (May 5, 2015)

So what comes to your mind when you think about Tito Gobbi. To me he is a consummate professional and a great singing actor. Listening to recordings by Gobbi is always a pleasure, because he always said that on recordings you have to do all your acting by your voice because you can't bee seen like in the theater. In his voice you could hear it all: anger, sadness, love...

In youtube you can find many videos from Gobbi. The tosca second act with Callas, full filmed Falstaff and more. The video which I chose is where he discusses some roles with young artists. He thought the process being more as an exchange of ideas than just telling people what to do.


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## Cesare Impalatore (Apr 16, 2015)

Gobbi was another immensely charismatic italian opera protagonist, the perfectly worthy vocal villain of Callas' and Di Stefano's era. De Sabata's 1953 Tosca with that splendid trio during their prime is one of the best operatic recordings of all time, Gobbi maybe the greatest Scarpia.






Just like Di Stefano, he was be quite the charmer in neapolitan song:


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## Diminuendo (May 5, 2015)

Gobbi could do anything. He could be a villain. He could do drama and comedy. Some singer's need to be seen live to be appreciated, but with Gobbi you get all of it with just sound. Of course it is great to be able to see him act from the material that we have. Callas, Gobbi and Di Stefano really where the dream team of the 50's. Well for me anyway.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Diminuendo said:


> So what comes to your mind when you think about Tito Gobbi.


Rigoletto comes to mind, not so much his recording (which is fine enough) but the films in which we can see his art in all its brilliance. Scarpia too, of course, where we can watch him in action with his worthiest opponent, Callas. Gobbi's was never my favorite voice to listen to, with its tough, straight tone, so perfect for the villains he played better than anyone. But every time I watch him and Callas spurring each other to heights of intensity in _Tosca_ I feel privileged to be alive to witness such a brilliant amalgam of intelligence and feeling. A giant of opera, and of the stage in general.

A bit of Rigoletto, from 1946:


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

Scarpia comes immediately to mind. As for Gobbi in general, I feel about him sort of like what I feel about Callas: I think his voice was basically a beautiful one, I just don't always care for the way he used it (the dry sound he made in his upper register, for instance) -- and he was one of the all-time great actors with the voice. In short, I'm not the Gobbi fan that others here and elsewhere seem to be, but I respect him.


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## Diminuendo (May 5, 2015)

Here is Gobbi as Barber of Seville






Rigoletto






Iago


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## Diminuendo (May 5, 2015)

There is a funny story connected to a one Un ballo in maschera performance in England. I don't remember the year, but Gobbi was in a concert tour in England and one day he got a call from David Webster. Webster said that one of their baritones got sick and could Gobbi substitute him this evening. Gobbi said he could only make it if he drives over the speed limit. Webster said that the police would understand. Gobbi got pulled over twice times. Once he explained the reason for speeding he got a police escort out of Manchester, where he was at the time. Finally Gobbi got to the opera house with only minutes to put on his costume and makeup. He hadn't seen the production before and didn't know it was the Swedish version. Anyway when came the time to kill the tenor, Gobbi pulled his knife. But before he got to the tenor he was stopped and somebody put a gun in his hand and said "We shoot in here". Gobbi said "Ok" and fired.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Of course the first thing that crosses my mind is the spectacular once-in-a-lifetime scene in the second act of _Tosca_ with Callas. Just brilliant singing and acting all around.
Close behind is his wonderful _Rigoletto_.
The man was a oner.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

There are many characters, many faces that come to mind when I think of Gobbi. His cruelly cultivated Scarpia, his tragic Rigoletto; the warmth and generosity of his Simon Boccanegra, the nobilty of his Rodrigo, his tortured Michele, his wickedly scheming Gianni Schicchi and his genial Falstaff, his implacable Enrico and his steadfast, but ultimately vengeful Renato. But I wonder how many know his touchingly faithful Michonnet from *Adrianna Lecouvreur*, wonderful in its restraint and inner pain.






Video preview doesn't seem to be working for me.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

Gobbi and Callas were two sides of the same coin. Neither had the most beautiful of voices compared with some other singers (eg Merrill, Tebaldi) but they acted with the voice better than almost anyone else. Gobbi's Rigoletto and Falstaff are great examples of this. And of course many other roles too.


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## Azol (Jan 25, 2015)

Gobbi could do anything!


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## Diminuendo (May 5, 2015)

A nice interview from 1963 in which Gobbi talks about Scarpia and his recordings. The only one that he is satisfied with is the 1953 Tosca. That tells something when an artist that always thinks he could do better and improve is satisfied with something.






And here is Gobbi in the BBC Desert Island Discs program from 1979 interviewed by Roy Plomley. He was also interviewed in 1959, but unfortunately that is not available.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p009y87p

You can also find other operatic artists from the archives. And here are another two program's on Gobbi.

http://www.onandofftherecord.com/tito-gobbi/

http://hampsongfoundation.org/singers-on-singing-tito-gobbi/

I have listened them all, but you don't have to. They are all good though!


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

There are less than a handful of baritones whose presence in a recording will make me look and listen more carefully and right at the top of the list is Tito Gobbi. I love his Figaro, Schicchi, Scarpia and, of course, Falstaff.

The others? Herman Prey and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (in appropriate repertoire). Please don't make me choose between Prey and Gobbi in Rossini's Barber!


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## silentio (Nov 10, 2014)

He is a thrilling Wozzeck too





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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

​Tito Gobbi & Elena Souliotis "Deh, perdona" Nabucco

Breathtaking , after all those years :tiphat:


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

I once saw him give a masterclass at the Wigmore Hall. He was a wonderful teacher, who could, with the right encouraging words, completely transform a student's performance. Though gently critical when needed, he could be generous with praise. The last student to sing was soprano Janice Cairns, who gave a marvelous rendition of Amelia's _Ecco l'orrido campo_. She sang the whole scene through without interruption, getting a well-deserved ovation at the end, and afterwards Gobbi just beamed, "I have nothing to say. I think we will finish there for tonight."

His collaborations with Callas were more a product of the gramophone than the stage, for they appeared rarely on stage together, not even appearing together in a complete performance of *Tosca* until 1964 at Covent Garden. The producer John Copley, who was Zeffirelli's assistant on the Covent Garden production, once told me that Zeffirelli directed them like actors. They would improvise the scenes at rehearsal, and then discuss what worked and what didn't, incorporating any new ideas into the next run through. In all his years, he said, he had never come across such complete actor musicians. Gobbi later said that his performances of Scarpia only came out 100% when he appeared opposite Callas.

All their studio collaborations are part of the permanent library of the gramophone. Aside from the De Sabata *Tosca*, which has now achieved legendary status, they recorded together *Lucia di Lammermoor*, *Rigoletto*, *Aida*, *Un Ballo in Maschera*, *Il Barbiere di Siviglia*, *I Pagliacci* (the Tonio/Nedda confrontation bristling with drama), and it is cause for regret that Callas's contract with Cetra prevented her from appearing on the La Scala recording of *La Traviata* with Stella. Had Callas sung Violetta alongside Di Stefano and Gobbi then EMI might have had another classic to set beside those above. As it is the Stella recording was soon forgotten and never even reissued by EMI, though Testament did eventually reissue it on CD. It is also perhaps even greater cause for regret that they didn't record a complete *Macbeth* when both where in their prime. I'd have persuaded Karajan to conduct (his 1956 *Il Trovatore* is, after all, one of the best conducted Verdi opera sets out there) and cast Di Stefano as Macduff and Zaccaria as Banquo. If only...

Other memorable Gobbi studio performances include of course his incomparable Simon Boccanegra in a set that would be much more recommendable if it had a stronger conductor than Santini, as both Christoff and De Los Angeles are superb, his superbly evil Iago on the Serafin *Otello*, and his Posa in a set which is only really recommendable for him and Christoff. His Nabucco was recorded a little late in his career, but still displays his unparalleled sense of identification with the character. Has anyone else sung so movingly his pleas of _Deh perdona_ in the duet with Abigaille. His Michele and Schicchi (a role he recorded twice with equal success) are superbly contrasted (they could almost be different singers).

Then there is his Falstaff on the first Karajan recording. Some have complained that the voice is not "fat" enough, whatever that means, but his characterisation is wonderfully detailed, shot through with a bonhomie that makes it easy to love this likable rogue.

However the studio didn't really encompass the breadth of his repertoire, which included Wozzeck, Don Giovanni, and the Count (rather than Figaro) in *Le Nozze di Figaro*.

Maybe not the most beautiful baritone voice in the world, Gobbi's was better than beautiful; it was beautifully expressive, instantly recognisable, with a range of colour outside the range of more conventionally beautiful voices. I would rather hear him in any of the above roles than any other singer I can think of in the LP age.


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## Marschallin Blair (Jan 23, 2014)

GregMitchell said:


> I once saw him give a masterclass at the Wigmore Hall. He was a wonderful teacher, who could, with the right encouraging words, completely transform a student's performance. Though gently critical when needed, he could be generous with praise. The last student to sing was soprano Janice Cairns, who gave a marvelous rendition of Amelia's _Ecco l'orrido campo_. She sang the whole scene through without interruption, getting a well-deserved ovation at the end, and afterwards Gobbi just beamed, "I have nothing to say. I think we will finish there for tonight."
> 
> His collaborations with Callas were more a product of the gramophone than the stage, for they appeared rarely on stage together, not even appearing together in a complete performance of *Tosca* until 1964 at Covent Garden. The producer John Copley, who was Zeffirelli's assistant on the Covent Garden production, once told me that Zeffirelli directed them like actors.* They would improvise the scenes at rehearsal, and then discuss what worked and what didn't, incorporating any new ideas into the next run through. In all his years, he said, he had never come across such complete actor musicians. Gobbi later said that his performances of Scarpia only came out 100% when he appeared opposite Callas.*
> All their studio collaborations are part of the permanent library of the gramophone. Aside from the De Sabata *Tosca*, which has now achieved legendary status, they recorded together *Lucia di Lammermoor*, *Rigoletto*, *Aida*, *Un Ballo in Maschera*, *Il Barbiere di Siviglia*, *I Pagliacci* (the Tonio/Nedda confrontation bristling with drama), and it is cause for regret that Callas's contract with Cetra prevented her from appearing on the La Scala recording of *La Traviata* with Stella. Had Callas sung Violetta alongside Di Stefano and Gobbi then EMI might have had another classic to set beside those above. As it is the Stella recording was soon forgotten and never even reissued by EMI, though Testament did eventually reissue it on CD. It is also perhaps even greater cause for regret that they didn't record a complete *Macbeth* when both where in their prime. I'd have persuaded Karajan to conduct (his 1956 *Il Trovatore* is, after all, one of the best conducted Verdi opera sets out there) and cast Di Stefano as Macduff and Zaccaria as Banquo. If only...
> ...












Callas and Gobbi, so unlike Suliotis- and as thrilling as her singing undoubtedly 'is' on the Gardelli _Nabucco_- were artists of a completely different stamp.

They were enterprising, adventurous, and eager for novelty in everything they did.

Living drama was as inevitable as breathing to them- or so they made it seem.

Suliotis merely copies all of Callas' mannerisms to the best of her ability.

Her singing is fierce- and I love it- but its still 'second rate Callas.'


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

OP: What comes to mind is he was the greatest Scarpia ever. Nobody sang this role with such malevolence....he could curdle your blood. Hide the kids!


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