Legendary Voices

It was good to reaquaint myself with this top rate tenor who I remember for his performabces with Tito Gobbi at the Daily Herald Opera Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, London all those years ago.

I had the pleasure of seeing and hearing Luigi Infantino at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester in 1957 or 1958 when at the height of his powers, he appeared as a replacement for Guiseppe di Stefano who was "indisposed". Di Stefano was at the peak of his career but his voice was already showing the first signs of that fragility that was to terminate his career. Frankly, at the time, I had never even heard of Luigi Infantino. I could have got my money back and walked away but I had gone to Manchester to hear an Italian tenor and if not one, I would hear another. It was one of my better decisions. Luigi Infantino is a tenor of the top rank and with a beautiful smooth lyric voice. He is not a man to sing Otello or the operas of Wagner but in the operas of Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini and some of Puccini and Verdi he is wonderful. I still remember that concert 55 Years ago, the quality of the sound and the fact that he gave us 7 or 8 encores. We didn't want him to leave. He has never been much available on record but now some seem to be appearing from the archives of the record companies. These recordings all date from about 1950 when Infantino was under 30 years of age. Some of the sound on this disc is not brilliant but most tracks are very good considering their age. Listening to this after all these years I am able to hear again a wonderful Voice. He is not as good as Pavarotti or Gigli — although on some of the tracks he does sound like Gigli — but, unlike di Stefano — he only sang music that suited his voice.He can now be heard also on a re-issued recording of The Barber of Seville with Guiseppe Taddei.Luigi Infantino died in 1991 at the age of 70. His entry on Wikipedia tells us that "Luigi Infantino had an impressive personality, lots of humor and a very big, Italian heart." And he was not a bad singer either. I enjoyed this disc enormously and I am sure that others will as well.