The twentieth century was really quite lucky. It was entirely covered by just three great Italian tenors. In the beginning, there was the extraordinary Enrico Caruso whose career was comparatively short, as he died at the young age of 48 in 1921. The last half of the century was lucky enough to provide one Luciano Pavarotti. His career lasted several decades but then I wonder if he put his voice through the same stresses and strains that singers had to go through in the earlier part of the century. Pavarotti undoubtedly reached more than any other, however it is the tenor in the middle that arguably had the most beautiful voice of all the tenors in the last century.

Born the son of a shoemaker, all the young Beniamino Gigli wanted to do was sing. Anywhere and for anybody. After seven years of study with baritone Antonio Cotogni and Enrico Rosati, Gigli entered the international singing contest in Parma in 1914. There were 105 singers in all and Gigli came first. At last we have found the tenor with the underlined several times, the judges reported. And so it seemed to the public of Rovigo on 15th October 1914, when Gigli made his professional debut as Enzo in La gioconda – and so the career began.

That career spanned an incredible 41 years, beginning in October 1914, when he made his debut in the Italian town of Rovigo. His last appearance was at a concert in Washington on May 25, 1955. In the years between, Gigli sang 2.249 performances on stage. Of these, 510 took place at the Metropolitan Opera in 28 different roles out of the 62 he had in his repertoire. He also sang in concert around 1,300 times. Gigli was very generous to charitable causes throughout his career and he also gave around 1,000 benefit concerts. Gigli was a very busy tenor indeed and it shows just how good his method was. The preservation of his wonderful voice for so long, still remains something of a miracle.  

Gigli by being central to the Italian tradition, tried hard to make opera and his singing available to as many as possible – he even appeared on the Royal Variety Show with Gracie Fields in 1952 – through the stage and the concert hall, but also through the multi-media world of what was available at the time, in other words, the cinema, television, radio and of course recordings. He achieved all this, years before the three tenors. Gigli’s fame was huge and he was for sure THE tenor, a position he inherited from Caruso and really is without subsequent heir.

David Cutler