Baltimore Opera Company

Study Guide

La Sonnambula
The Sleepwalker

Rubini, the tenor

When one thinks about the world of tenors, there is generally one name that finds itself at the top – Enrico Caruso. Blessed with a large, roomy voice with a ringing top and a warm middle register, as well as extraordinary expressive powers, he is pretty much the standard by which all tenors are judged. In fact to this day, whenever many tenors are having difficulty with phrasing in an aria, they listen to a Caruso recording, and learning from it, are able to solve their problem.

However, there is in the history of singing a tenor, predating Caruso by a good 75 years, who in his time was perhaps even more celebrated than his latter day compatriot. He was Rubini, Bellini's favorite tenor, who created the tenor roles in Bellini's major operas– Il Pirata, I Puritani and La Sonnambula. One immediately notices that Norma is not included in that celebrated list, which may account for the fact that Pollione is a thankless role with no aria! Perhaps more important than his creation of these principal roles is the fact that his voice, a very high tenor (called a tenorino), influenced several generations of vocalists. His facility in the highest register of his voice, a very rare vocal gift amongst tenors, led to the writing of roles which today are almost impossible to cast.

He was born Giovanni Battista Rubini in Bergamo , Italy on 7 April, 1794 and showed musical talent early on, being accomplished not only as a singer, but also as a violinist. At age 12 he made his operatic debut in Romano singing a female role. He then emerged as a successful Rossini singer with contracts all over Europe, especially celebrated in Paris , where he was called the “Roi des ténors” – the “King of Tenors”. While he had the requisite coloratura facility to sing the Rossini roles, he became interested in the more expressive and perhaps musically calmer music being written by the emerging Donizetti and Bellini. His first Bellini collaboration was in the little known opera Bianca e Gernando , which led to Il Pirata and immortality. In fact, during the composition of Il Pirata the two actually roomed together to achieve complete musical fusion, and during the composition of I Puritani Bellini refused to write a note of music for the tenor role until he could consult with the peripatetic Rubini. He was also favored by Donizetti and for him created the tenor roles in Anna Bolena and Maria Faliero.

In today's world we thrill to the ringing, macho high notes of Pavarotti, Domingo, and their brethren, but in the early age of bel canto one would never have heard such sounds, and instead would have heard the more “refined” sounds very much associated with the vocalism of Rubini. Rubini's voice, while naturally situated high, apparently was a mix of a chest resonance with a strengthened falsetto. No tenor would have been expected to sing any note higher than an A without such a mix, in fact, to have done so would have been considered rude and distasteful. However, he was known for highly expressive singing, and in fact created the convention of the Italian “sob”, that plangent expressive vehicle so beloved by both singers and listeners alike.

He was indeed known for his highest register, marvelously exploited by Bellini in I Puritani in which Arturo sings the High F above High C, the highest note ever written for a tenor in an opera. Even with his high extension, he had to cleverly negotiate the break between falsetto and complete chest resonance, which he accomplished with terraced dynamics and with his expressive powers.

His light did not shine for long, although it was the most brilliant of his time. With the advent of Wagnerian and Verdian singing, as well as the “new” tenor convention of singing the top part of their register without falsetto, he found himself rich but somewhat passé. Like Caruso, he was neither particularly good-looking nor a good actor, and although the natural beauty of his sound was unparalleled, his fame was usurped by more glamorous singers such as the one-named divo Mario.

Rubini retired from the stage in 1845 at the age of 51 and lived in a villa in Bergamo for the rest of his life, which is now a museum dedicated to his memory. He died on March 3, 1854 at the age of 60. His legacy is both boon and bane – boon in that he helped create some of the most gorgeous music ever written, and bane in that the music is so fiendishly difficult that only rarely can singers be found who can sing it!

James Harp

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