Three Legendary Tenors

1 DVD - Label: Kultur - D2262 - - - Tenor: Enrico Caruso - Tenor: Jussi Bjorling - Tenor: Beniamino Gigli

There is some extraordinary singing on this disc, made more attractive by digital reprocessing of pre-hi fi recordings, but that is not the primary attraction. The music is used mostly to illustrate points in the biographical details and critical observations of the documentary's narrator, English tenor and author Nigel Douglas. Besides still photos and film clips of "our original three tenors" (silent films for Enrico Caruso), the visual attractions include striking views of landscapes and architecture related to the tenors' lives. Douglas's remarks are accurate, precisely observed, and carefully calculated to provide the information most fans will want. Discussing Caruso, he mentions the "chiaroscuro" (control of light and dark shading) in his voice, his talent as a cartoonist and fondness for practical jokes, and a music teacher's verdict that Caruso's voice "is too small and sounds like the wind whistling through the windows." Among many other acute observations, he discusses the emotional intensity of Benjamino Gigli's singing, and the contrast between Jussi Bjoerling, a moody, complex, "northern" singer whose voice was "heavy with unshed tears " and his sunnier, Mediterranean colleagues. --Joe McLellan

Price: $18.98