A te o cara

Aristodemo Giorgini, 1879-1937 was a bel canto tenor trained in the grand style, and his singing is a welcome and unusual study of 19th century tenor singing. The following information on Giorgini (not easy to find) has been provided by Tim at dantitustimshu, a more than capable musical scholar!

Aristodemo Giorgini: Scott wrote about him in "The Record of Singing". Here's what Scott said: "Aristodemo Giorgini (1879-1937), another Neapolitan tenor, was perhaps not in the Anselmi class but at his best his singing has something of the same sweetness and charm. After studying at the Academia Santa Cecilia in Rome, he made an unsuccessful debut in 1903, following which he returned to Naples and there renewed his studies under Massimo Perelli. When he re-appeared, at La Scala as Ernesto in 1905, he had a considerable success, and he returned there on several occasions; in 1901 he was Elvino to Storchio's Amina in a popular revival of Bellini's La Sonnambula. In these years he sang at most of the leading Italian houses, and at Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon, Warsaw, St Petersberg and Moscow. In the autumn of 1905 he appeared at Covent Garden succeeding de Marchi's Rodolfo opposite Melba's Mimi, singing a "gifted" Duke, and with Battistini as Don Giovanni his "pretty voice" was thought "of great service as Don Ottavio." In the US he sang with the Chicago Opera. His career continued until the later 1920s.

Giorgini made his first records in 1904; 24 years later he sang Rodolfo in a complete Boheme. As we hear it in Arturo's 'A te o cara', it is an attractive lyrical voice with a rapid but not unpleasant vibrato. The registers are well blended and he has no difficulty with the high C, though he is inclined to make too much of a feature of it and it does not rise smoothly out of the line. There is a want of really persuasive legato, or expressive phrasing; it is a sound but rather provincial interpretation."
(Michael Scott, THE RECORD OF SINGING, VOL. ONE: TO 1914, P. 130)