Here is Giuseppe di Stefano, pictured on the original album cover as Canio in Pagliacci despite the fact that he’s not heard here in that opera. So much for packaging in the late ’50s when this was recorded and first released. If a guy was Caruso-like in his Pagliacci-ness, well, that’s how you could recognize a tenor. Everything both good and bad about di Stefano is to be heard here (aside from his slack rhythm and occasional vulgarity, which showed up in live performances). The notes above A-natural are not “covered”; they have a bleached, forced effect much of the time–but occasionally they’re even more exciting for their nakedness. Di Stefano can sing softly–“En fermant les yeux” from Manon is divine–but he doesn’t always do it when called for: Nadir’s little serenade from Pearl Fishers is bleated, and Don José’s Flower Song ends with a blaring B-flat. Similarly, “E lucevan le stelle” contains some soft, gorgeous moments, including a stunning diminuendo on the high A, while the B that ends “Nessun dorma” is uncomfortable and makes the listener uneasy as well.
Di Stefano became famous early in his career at the Met for an endless, beautiful diminuendo on the high C at the end of Faust’s aria, but there’s no such thing here: we get a big, wide, open C, but you can almost feel the tenor thinking about trying it pianissimo but realizing he can’t. So that’s it. You take the good with the bad, and you can almost hear what it was that made di Stefano’s voice shatter a few years after this was recorded (in 1958). Fascinating.
