Mario del Monaco was a leading tenore di forza in the 1950s, before the breed became extinct. Some dismissed him as a stentorian blaster unable to sing quietly; others, myself included, thrill to his big, colorful voice. Either you like trumpets or you don’t. If you do, there’s lots to like here, beginning with the verismo arias that open the disc. You won’t hear much tenderness in “Che gelida manina” from Bohème, nor will you get more than an inkling, if that, of the Bellini style in the Norma scene. But you will get the kind of exciting singing that has you on the edge of your seat. You’ll also get some admirable legato in “Rachel, quand du Seigneur” from Halévy’s La Juive, along with an equally admirable sense of phrasing and rubato. There are even four Wagner tracks, three from Act 1 of Die Walküre. You won’t want to throw out your Melchior records, but with the exception of a painfully strained Lohengrin “In fernem Land” they’re interesting, even rewarding listening, del Monaco’s Italianate vowels and odd German pronunciation notwithstanding.
As with other selections from the late 1960s, after the tenor slid into vocal decline, “La rivedrá nell’estasi” from Un Ballo is marred by loss of tone at climaxes and the use of broad vowel sounds as vocal crutches to move from phrase to phrase. The sole example offered of his signature role, Verdi’s Otello, is a terrific “Niun mi tema”. The last five tracks are garbage time, including a pair of sentimental religious items by Bizet and Franck, muscle-bound singing with wheezy organ accompaniment, and some pop stuff. So unless you have a hankering to hear del Monaco with Mantovani (!) in “Tonight” from Bernstein’s West Side Story or his Mario Lanza imitation in “Be My Love”, you’ll skip it. Want text and translations while listening? You’ll have to put the disc into your computer, thanks to Decca’s disregard of common sense.
