Beniamino Gigli - Ridi Pagliaccio
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Adriana Perris, Alida Valli, Beniamino Gigli, Leone Paci, Luigi RicciDVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Subtitled); Italian (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, Classical, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 85 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-02-15
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Bel Canto Society
Movie Reviews of Beniamino Gigli - Ridi Pagliaccio
Movie Review: gigli films
Summary: 4 Stars
Hi, first I want to thank you for the delivery.I was told the delivery date would be 24 October,but my dvd actually arrived on the 1st.
I enjoyed Ridi Paliacco very much,even though it has not been digitally remastered,so you get the original 40's film,with English subtitles,but the singing of Gigli is exquisite.And,after all,that's why I wanted it.So thank you very much for speed of delivery and great enjoyment of the film. Linda Rayworth
Summary of Beniamino Gigli - Ridi Pagliaccio
RIVETING! The best plot of any Gigli movie.The powerful plot concerns Canio after prison, and the composition and premiere of Pagliacci. Paul Hoerbiger movingly portrays the real-life Canio. In the opera's premiere, Gigli is the Canio. To express the drama, he colors his voice far more than any other Canio on film or record.
In Ridi, pagliaccio Gigli's voice is more mature--and more appropriate for the part--than in his 1934 recording, on EMI. On the recording he is less secure rhythmically and colder and less detailed interpretively. It was made before he had stage experience with the role, whereas the film was produced a month after he sang a run of Canios at the Rome Opera. (A live version, from 1952, is exciting, but the CD transfer, on Eklipse, has pitch problems so severe that his voice is hard to recognize.)
Gigli's mezza voce remained ravishing to the end of his career. In Ridi pagliaccio he purrs "Prendi: l'anel ti dono," from Sonnambula, with surpassing sweetness.
The music in the film breathes beautifully, presumably thanks to the conducting of the legendary Luigi Ricci. This is a rare recorded example of his work. (He is remembered as a coach to Gigli, Olivero and others and was a composer in his own right.)
For all these reasons I watch the film again and again.--Stefan Zucker