David Cutler – Beniamino Gigli: The Peoples’ Tenor

This week’s Exchange Talk given by David Cutler and chaired by RCS archivist Stuart A. Harris-Logan accompanies the exhibition currently on show next to the Ledger Recital Room at RCS. The name of Italian tenor, Beniamino Gigli is virtually forgotten in 2024. Certainly by those who are outside the field of opera. He was the Italian tenor for a very long time, certainly from after Enrico Caruso until the early 1950s. Gigli’s golden voice placed his tenor in a class by himself. He was born a warm-hearted musician, who sang because he had to.

BIO:
An amateur tenor, David Cutler studied singing with the Polish bass, Marian Nowakowski, who was himself a pupil of Adamo Didur. He sang in concert in Dublin, London and Perugia. He reviews new releases of classical music for the U.S. publication, Fanfare. In late 2021, he took on responsibility for finding a home for the Beniamino Gigli Archive belonging to the late Mark Ricaldone. It is now housed by the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. He has compiled a website (www.beniaminogigli.co.uk/) which he composed the new Live Recordings of Beniamino Gigli for, a discography for which he won the Association for Recorded Sound Collection (ARSC) 2022 award for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research.