Seventy-five minutes of Italian and Neapolitan songs are not easy to sit through in one listening session, even if the singer is Beniamino Gigli or Enrico Caruso (or Giuseppe di Stefano, for that matter). That having been said, taken a few at a time, Ronald Naldi does very well with these songs, which have been schmaltzily (which is how they should be) arranged, accordion and all, by John Colaiacovo. Naldi’s voice is a fine lyric tenor, filled with warmth, and he sings off the text. It does not have the appealing juice of the Italian tenors mentioned above, but he also lacks some of their bad habits: he never sobs, his musicianship is exemplary, and there’s never a hint of strain.
In a way, that’s the good news and the bad news. Although Naldi approaches the songs with respect, in so doing he understates some of their innate passion. He’s a little cool and he never goes for a big (interpolated) high note, and these notes are the exciting bonuses we normally expect. (He does, however, let loose a swell big trill, à la Pavarotti, on the reprise in “O sole mio”; it makes you wish he’d let go more often.) In other words, Naldi’s sins are sins of omission, and I feel a bit guilty admonishing a tenor for having too much taste. In all, however, there’s a big chunk of nice listening here, and hearing these songs unsullied and unadorned certainly has its benefits.
