genotypewriter This is one of the most insightful comments I have read on YT. Great thinking and exactly how I feel about so many performers. No spontaneity and a feeling that they are straightjacketed lest they get fired for "not doing their job". Or something like that.

He was a very great actor in Opera and his phrasing and diction was also of the Highest Standard this is in 1930 I believe there is another Pagliacci Vesti 1927 and a Non Pagliaccio from 1930 as well. The Samson arretez mes freres from 1928 is still around and also the Otello scenes from London done by the BBC in 1937 are not able to be showed because of Copyright including Two Esultate's First and Fifth performances Dio mi Potevi 2nd performance and Eide Norena with him Gia nella notte densa, also scenes from Tosca and Aida which cannot be taken from the BBC archives, it is madness that Ricordi has still such power over copyright. Yet allowed Gigli and Lauri Volpi to do the same in Berlin in front of Hitler and Mussolini !

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Would be very interesting to get to know what makes you so sure that this comment comes indeed from Martinelli? The fact of the matter is that many of such "quotes", not only from Martinelli the more so about Caruso, are buzzing around with none of them being really verified.. as long as a valid verification isn't at hand that is to me more a kind of legend building........ something people love to do....

@@ilecier It seems to have come from the tenor himself - see www.giovannimartinelli.net/martinelli-racconta.html . I included this quote in my article "Leoncavallo's Singers" published in the March 2016 edition of "The Record Collector".

I heard him in five opera's at Covent Garden in 1937, he is regarded as one of the Greatest of all tenors to have graced that stage, in America he was generally taken for granted, I am now 99 years old, I still remember him vividly, I met after a absolute amazing performance of Aida for an autograph, I got it and still have it, I met him again in 1962, he was an incredible lecturer and a man of great wisdom and intelligence, I was writing a page for a opera Magazine and I got a very great response from this great artist. My father was a Robust Welsh tenor who could sing a high D in his Seventies, he had given up singing in small theatres in England and Ireland by 1909 and he had joined the Chorus at Covent Garden he sang in performances with Caruso Zenatello Franz Martinelli Gigli Pertile Merli Minghetti Sobinov or Smirnov the Russian tenors Bonci Thill Annseau Bjorling Melchior and many many other famous Tenors, he kept a diary and notebook of every performance, some facts Caruso had a High C and he used it a lot at Covent Garden and it was solid Manly very strong and the squillo would echo in the house, Martinelli was and still his regarded a great artist Singer and human being, also he was a fine actor. My father said after Caruso Martinelli was the most accomplished Tenor in his opinion because he said he was totally individual and his timbre was more Russian like than italian, he said he was a very intelligent likeable and handsome man who never said a bad word, he also wrote that in 1912 and 13 he thought he was going to be a future Spinto/dramatic Tenor he had a range to High D, and a beautiful legato and phrasing, some on hear say he is off pitch, I do not hear that, his diction was also very understandable and his voice easily carried at Covent Garden his Esultate I heard twice in 37 Otello 's he was at the back of the theatre and he definitely could be heard and his ending was tremendous. I heard Gigli beautiful voice, but to me when you saw a Martinelli performance you knew you had seen an opera you never felt cheated as to say. I did not like Lauri Volpi's voice and my father said that he could be quite arrogant and he had a bad temper, Pertile was a very quiet and likeable Tenor who I know was a great friend of Martinelli and I believe that Toscanini was a friend of both men from Montagnana both born in 1885 I questioned this many times, I have it on good order that Martinelli was actually born in 1880 or 1881, I think that is correct. I never heard his Pagliacci , I gather it was a night to remember when he was singing, in later years his voice had become more dramatic and his declamatory style was in essence a great spectacle, conductors were also very approving of his attitude and I heard this from Soprano's as well, Eva Turner had sung with him before 1937, I believe in Italy she knew his style, they were well matched,. I talked with Maria Caniglia in an interview in the 50's and I know that Stella Roman had said virtually the same that when he sang Otello he was Otello, I believe if you do not like his voice or style, you should read closely the text he is singing, still today, I find new ways of understanding his technique, I think he could teach a few singers around today, how to SING a role and not whisper it. You say Martinelli was singer of the common man, I would not put it that way, he was so much greater than that, his intelligence is enough to make people listen to his way of singing a phrase or in declamatory words, he was liked by the musicians the Conductors and even aristocracy he was friendly with everybody a great man and human being.

Well said.

+Nathan Granner Under the Radar A great piece of observation, Nathan. I recently bought Pagliacci with Martineilli & Tibbet complete on Immortal Performances ( 1934 off air ). Poor sound,but what great singing.Henry Webb

You have to understand he had watched the greatest Canio of all Caruso in the role and had learned the role with Caruso and Leoncavallo , his interpretation was by all regards electrifying and only Del Monaco has come close since, he also studied the role with Martinelli in New York and they were very good friends.

I think the most incredible thing about this is that Martinelli may not even have planned that. For such an artist it comes somewhat sub-consciously, naturally, because true emotion and such perfect delivery of the meaning of the text and music cannot be planned. It is instinctive. The link between the higher-intellect conscious analytic and instinctive driven emotion is fascinating, and when the combine in harmony with inhuman technique we get this incredible performance.

@@williamlewis4318 it’s what we call a good day at the office! Not every performance is going to be like this, BUT this “being in the moment” performance is exactly why the long hours of solo practice and rehearsal remain a constant, even in today’s opera.

@@NGUnderground I couldn’t have said it better!

I knew Andy very well, he was a good long time friend of mine, and I was a frequent guest at his Chicago home, (also my home town) his radio show and collection of great singers will never be replaced on WFMT or anywhere else, and hasn't even come close since he passed away in 2011. RIP. Andy Karzas.

This is a bit disingenuous. Lol You may not like modern singers, but you can tell plenty of them apart. I can hear Quinn, Dmitri, Artur Ruckinski as soon as they start singing. And can definitely distinguish them from the other.

Heath Rosenzweig 1926 was the year this was made, he made a bunch of other operatic Vitaphone shorts I think until about 1930 😉.

By '41, the voice was not quite as fresh. Listen to his Amor ti vieta, or the legato in his Flower Song, O muto asil etc.

In December I will be 100 years old hopefully, I have actually heard Martinelli in the opera house, my father was a tenor who sang in the Covent garden chorus from 1909 till 1940, in 1937 the Coronation Season many of the greatest singers in the world were there to perform, I saw him in Otello twice, Aida Turandot and Tosca, I was a young man of sixteen, my father was on the stage and for me it was wonderful. I had been to the Opera first in 1931, by this time I was 10 years old and I actually enjoyed the performance, it was Tristan and Isolde with Melchior and Leider I was amazed at the size of their voices, I was hooked, my father had a very good Tenor voice, he was Welsh and had been singing leading roles in smaller theatres in the UK and Ireland, by 1908 he had three Children with a further two to come, I was the last in 1921. My mother was a teacher of music at a well known Girls school, she was also Welsh. My father wanted to be at home closer to the family. he was invited to Covent Garden to become a member of the Chorus, he said that he jumped at the opportunity, they were living in Buckinghamshire and he was happy,, he kept a diary and notes on all the performances he was involved with in those years. After his death, I was given an enormous amount of documents to go through, I read them steadily, now one of my Grandson's will start to collate everything together, I will obviously hope to live a little bit longer, but I kept my fathers wish, I will do the same. I have only come interested in the Computer age in the last few years, I am now not mobile enough to go to the opera, so I watched you tube and saw many singers who I have heard live over the last nearly 90 years. I find it difficult to understand some people's hostility to some singers of the past, especially in the case of Martinelli, even Caruso, I did not hear him but my father saw his debut at the Garden and later was in the Chorus when he was singing, he had heard him along with Ruffo Stracciari Bonci Slezak Melba and scores of others in his lifetime. Martinelli, he is controversial, mostly in Italy I may say, in London not so, he was always successful and critics on the whole were very much in his favour, In America, he was also idolised by many italians and the public, this was so even at the time when Caruso was alive, I had heard him in 37 he was given the honour by the critics has being the Hero of the season, I was quite shocked at what I heard, I heard him on records but this was very different, my father said to me, when you see him, it was to be Aida watch and learn you will here something different, he was right. This was a real operatic performance, his voice was virile, strong, clear with diction I was able to understand, I had been taught Italian and German, he was heard with no problem even in the loudest parts of the opera and I noticed how he stood on the stage, he was a very good actor and he was Radames, I later after the performance got a signed autograph and I can say he was a very kind man with a very strong voice. I did learn from this performance, I talked to my father later , he told me, in 1912 he came to London with a big reputation, he was a very good looking man quite tall as Italian tenors go he said, but he had a remarkable success, same again in 13 and 14, Caruso was there and he watched his performances, he applauded wildly and when Martinelli was singing La Gioconda Cielo E Mar the Chorus had come off stage a bit earlier and in the wings he saw Caruso and Amato watching him singing at the end there were many curtain calls and Caruso and Amato were clapping wildly, Caruso was pleased and my father said it was obvious they were friends. In 1919 Caruso did not come, but Martinelli was there, notes again, Martinelli's singing in Ballo with Destinn incredibly beautiful and his voice is certainly becoming more dramatic it has matured, he noted that he and Destinn sang the High D flat at the end of their duet, which was superb and trumpet like,. In his notes he says that Martinelli sings more like the Great Russian Tenors Smirnov and Sobinov, their timbres are very similar it is not like the Italians Bonci or Marconi, it was definitely a beautiful tenor voice, not the heavier like Zenatello or Caruso, but he has got very good vocal strength and he has intelligence in the use of it. I can say that, I became a opera critic, I wrote for a now long forgotten magazine on opera, I served right through the War, I was used as an interpreter on the battlefront , In France, I was at Dunkirk, later in North Africa, Italy and then with the British army crossing the Rhine. I had become a Major in the Intelligence co, I was with the Liberating forces at Bergen-Belsen, I was used to gather information from Guards and Prisoners, I witnessed the Horrors and heard some of the most chilling stories of Brutality, I was also later used at Nuremburg where I had to talk to Prisoners, I will not say who, but they were hanged, I left the army in 1947, I never set foot in Germany again until 1964 and I still cannot forgive them. What has this to do with Martinelli, he was intelligent enough to see that the Opera House was Politics in Germany and Italy, he became an American Citizen and many singers who had left Nazi Germany and Italy appreciated this man, he was an Honourable Great Singer with Humanity and a great sense of humour and I had the honour to interview him personally in 1962 in London , he never uttered a bad word about any singers or colleagues, he would never have anything said against Caruso, he was incredible, Toscanini he said , like Caruso, you will not see their like again. I say Giovanni Martinelli was after Caruso the greatest Italian Tenor for many reasons.

Super tempo, slow enough to show his legato and breath, both being excellent, by the time he was in his Mid 50's his voice wasn't as fresh and lost some of his Vibrato, but still solid and he was a great Otello, yes he had an excellent Spinto voice and managed some more lyric roles as well as the more Verismo ones. So many people haven't listened to him in his prime years and make snap judgements, most often age does matter, and in his best years Martinelli was one of the greatest tenors of them all, he ranks up there with the greats of his type both before and after him .I don't hear him coping anybody, Caruso or anyone else but then I didn't see him in the opera house, that is the best way to know a great singer like Martinelli but we can surely hear greatness here.

Nathon Granner under the radar makes a very good complete comment here about GM and his singing, plus Granner on a live Video, it's on you tube sings the (Ah Mes aria with the 9 high C's and a high D flat) very well with a well produced spinto tenor, I just saw and ehard his version, impressive! Yes, we all agree about Martinelli, so under rated today!

Stupendo che si, però per quanto è lento mi viene l'ansia. Ci vogliono le bombole d'ossigeno invece dei polmoni.

EJ R Hai ragione,è un tempo impossibile ...

Non ti voleva tanto per prendere il posto di Caruso. Paoli e Zenatello erano superiore, e mai hanno cantato nel metropolitan, interessante no.

Antonio Marrone non si discute su Zanatello e compani ma Caruso è Caruso se lo ricordi...non smarrite la retta via..Caruso è stato un iniziatore di uno stile che prese vita in Masini.DEL Monaco e altri pochi.

Martinelli lo accusavano di una durezza vocale ma anche questa aveva un suo perché.Un cantante a mio avviso da riscoprire e capire...Non in superficie.