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Italian Songs and Ballads Popolari Abruzzesi, His Birth-Place Ortona Itself Being Flowers

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Italian Songs and Ballads Popolari Abruzzesi, His Birth-Place Ortona Itself Being Flowers 572471 bk Tosti 21/10/10 08:55 Page 4 Stefano Secco ITALIAN SONGS Stefano Secco began his piano and vocal studies under the guidance of Alberto Soresina and subsequently received a diploma in percussion with Tullio De Piscopo. He studied privately with masters including Franco Corelli and Franca Mattiucci, and attended master-classes led by Leyla Gençer and Renata Scotto, among others. After AND BALLADS his first professional experiences and various tours in Italy and abroad, he sang the rôle of Fenton in Falstaff at the Teatro Verdi in Sassari and was immediately engaged at the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome as a solo tenor for Puccini’s Messa di Gloria and the TOSTI • MASCAGNI • DONAUDY Te Deum of Berlioz. In the same theatre, he sang the rôle of Rodolfo in La Bohème. There followed appearances, in a career that has taken him to major opera houses throughout the world, with rôles including the Duke (Rigoletto), Rodolfo (La Bohème), Alfredo (La traviata), Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly), Edgardo (Lucia di Stefano Secco, Tenor • David Abramovitz, Piano Lammermoor), Arturo (I puritani), Gualtiero (Il pirata), Nemorino (L’elisir d’amore), Des Grieux (Manon), Gabriele Adorno (Simone Boccanegra) and Osiride (Mosè in Egitto). Photo: Marco Montanari David Abramovitz Born in New York in 1949, David Abramovitz began piano studies at the age of five. He took a bachelor’s degree in musicology at Princeton and a master’s degree in piano at the Manhattan School of Music, studying with Robert Helps. In 1970 a Fulbright scholarship took him to Rome to work with Bruno Canino. Settling in Europe in 1976, first in Zürich as coach at the Opera Studio and soloist with the orchestra, then in 1977 recipient of two successive scholarships (American and French) in Paris to work with Nadia Boulanger, he gave his first concerts in Europe with Cathy Berberian in Germany, then in Bulgaria, Poland, France and Switzerland. He has accompanied many renowned instrumentalists, singers and master-classes, collaborated on productions at the Paris and Montpellier Operas, and taught at the Paris Opera School, the CNIPAL in Marseille and the Conservatory in Poitiers. His recordings include Fauré songs with Laurent Naouri and Claire Brua, songs by Henri Sauguet, French cabaret songs of the Belle Epoque with Denise Bahous, and Poulenc songs with Laurent Naouri. With thanks to Cecilia Chailly for the inspiration for this project and help in finalising it, to David Abramovitz for his passion, and to David Greco for his help. This recording is dedicated to my father Giancarlo, who listened to these melodies when I was a child, and to my daughter Isabel. 8.572471 4 572471 bk Tosti 21/10/10 08:55 Page 2 Italian Songs and Ballads popolari abruzzesi, his birth-place Ortona itself being flowers. As the lover dreams, the torments of life fade Paolo Tosti (1846-1916) • Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945) • Stefano Donaudy (1879-1925) located in the region of Abruzzo. away. The beloved’s beautiful face represents a new The emotions covered in the songs of Tosti and of dawn. Serenata (Serenade) 9 is a little more full The late nineteenth century represented the heyday of his other songs. So impressed was the Princess with his contemporary composers, such as Pietro Mascagni blooded. The lovers sleep like amorous doves. As the the drawing-room ballad. As a result of rising prosperity musicianship that she immediately appointed him her (1863-1945) and Stefano Donaudy (1879-1925), beloved smiles, a passing spirit tells her that her lover is many households owned pianos, and enjoyed the professor of singing, and later the curator of the Musical represent generalised effusions, all of which describe enflamed with passion. “You are my delight and my pleasures of piano-playing. Family members would Archives at the Italian Court. some aspect of love: before, during and after. Thus torment... Ah, wake not, o flower of paradise, for I will accompany each other in a wide range of songs. Thus In 1875 Tosti visited London for the first time. Here Malia (Enchantment) 1 equates flowers from the lover come to you in your dreams and kiss you!” When the the demand for ballads which could be easily performed he came into contact with a number of influential with the enchantment of a love-potion, from which it is moon shines down on Marechiare 0 even the fishes with elegance and style was huge, and at the same time persons who introduced him to the highest levels of but a short step to the magic of love. Next follows the dream, and the sea itself sings of love. The stars shine could be satisfied quickly through an international British society. Tosti soon became a staple of the kiss: ’A vucchella (A pretty mouth) 2 – the sweet mouth down, but are not as brilliant as your eyes. The Sogno infrastructure of publishers and printers. One of the drawing-rooms and salons of the spring social season. delivers the sweet kiss. Even if the beloved is to be (Dream) ! is told from the perspective of the beloved. most successful of composers of drawing-room ballads He returned to London annually until 1880, when he married, as in L’ultima canzone (The last song) 3, she “I dreamt you were on your knees, like a saint praying to was Sir Paolo Tosti, whose career combined musical decided to settle there permanently. In the same year he will always be a cherished flower to the lover: the Lord… but I conquered myself and refused you... virtuosity, aristocratic patronage, and commercial was appointed singing teacher to the royal family. With remember his kisses. Aprile (April) 4 is the season of But your lips brushed my face... Yet, I was dreaming… acumen. But it was not always so. the seal of royal approval thus bestowed his fame and love: flowers bloom, the fields are filled with new and the lovely dream vanished.” Just as L’alba separa Paolo Tosti was born in 1846 in Ortona, a small fortune increased rapidly. Demand for his songs became scents, and love is in the air. By contrast, in Non t’amo dalla luce l’ombra (The dawn divides the darkness from town situated on the eastern coast of Italy. Here he enormous: when Violet Cameron introduced one of his più (I no longer love you) 5 the lover recalls the ecstasy the light) @, “ I do not want to see the day, for I so love received his early musical education, before entering in songs, For ever and ever, at the Globe Theatre in of love: when love reigned perfection existed, but alas my dream and the night-time”. In the Song of farewell, 1858 the Naples Conservatory, where he studied violin London, it became a popular success almost overnight. no more. The Luna d’estate (Summer moon) 6 has Partir c’est mourir un peu (Parting means dying a little) with Pinot and composition with Saverio Mercadante. By 1885 he was the most popular composer of songs in driven the singer to love, as does the sight of two #: to part “means always mourning over a vow, the last Mercadante was so impressed with Tosti’s abilities that the country and his publishers paid him a huge retainer beautiful eyes. Love is like the sea, and the heart is like line of a poem”. O del mio amato ben (O lost he made him his student teacher, an appointment which in return for composing just twelve songs each year. He an undulating wave which can only be halted by the enchantment of my beloved) $ speaks from the brought with it a small salary. By 1869, however, Tosti fully joined the Establishment in 1894 when he was beloved’s eyes and rose-petal lips. La serenata (The perspective of the lover. “Everywhere seems sad to me, was suffering from illness and overwork, and he appointed a professor of singing at the Royal Academy serenade) 7 flies into night air on its own, while the without her. Day is like night to me; fire is like ice to returned to his home town to rest and recuperate. Here of Music. He took British citizenship in 1906 and was moon, also alone, shines down. The waves dream on the me... Life thus seems of little use to me, without my he wrote four ballads, including the later popular Non knighted by his friend King Edward VII in 1908. He moonlit shore, and like dreams they refuse to stay still. beloved.” m’ama più and Lamento d’amore. He submitted two of returned to Italy in 1913 to spend his final years there, In Ideale (Ideal) 8 the lover follows the beloved and these to the Florentine Art Society and two to the dying in Rome at the end of 1916. senses her in the air, light and the perfume of the David Patmore publisher Ricordi, but all four were rejected. After Tosti’s output as a composer of songs was very recovering from his illness Tosti moved to Ancona, large indeed, and he was happy to set French as well as another coastal town north of Ortona, but so great was Italian and English texts. As a general rule his songs are his poverty that he had to subsist on a diet of oranges characterized by natural, easily singable melodies and a and stale bread. Eventually he made his way to Rome, sweet, but not cloying, sentimentality. His influence as a where he met the pianist and composer Giovanni composer may be seen in the enormous number of Sgambati, who took him under his wing.
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