Oreste de Bernardi - Questa o quella (Fonografia Nazionale, 1924)

Oreste de Bernardi (1893-1944) was an Italian tenor and stage director who spent the majority of his quarter century career in regional Italian theatres. Born in the Neapolitan municipality of Torre Annunziata in 1893, de Bernardi sang in his local church choir as a youth. While still in his teens, he relocated to Milan, where he began a period of vocal study with Cataldi. Following a few years of concerts and recitals, the not yet 20 year old de Bernardi made his official debut as Alfredo in La Traviata at the Teatro Donizetti in Bergamo in March of 1913. The young tenor spent the next couple of years performing with smaller provincial theatres before being conscripted into the Italian Army during WWI. After the war, de Bernardi resumed his career, appearing in Rovigo, Torino, Asti, Alessandria, and Savona. His repertoire grew to include Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana, Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Cavaradossi in Tosca, Rodolfo in La Bohème, the Duke in Rigoletto, and the title roles in Andrea Chénier and Werther. De Bernardi’s first appearance outside his homeland occurred during the fall of 1925 when he sang Riccardo in Un Ballo in Maschera at Volksoper Wien. That same season, he also appeared as Rodolfo, Cavaradossi, Alfredo, and the Duke. In the spring of 1927, de Bernardi was in Paris, where he appeared as Edgardo at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. The tenor travelled to Australia with the J. C. Williamson Imperial Grand Opera Company during the spring of 1932. Over the course of the six month tour, the tenor sang over 40 performances of Radames, Don José, Riccardo, Turiddu, and Edgardo. Reviews were mostly positive, with the critic of the The Brisbane Telegraph writing of his Edgardo, “Bernardi’s singing in all registers proved a remarkable model for young great opera aspirants to carefully observe and profit by.” The Melbourne Weekly Times said of de Bernardi’s Radames, “Although he did not have the appearance of a warrior, de Bernardi revealed a very fine tenor voice, and did full justice to the music.” The tenor proved quite popular with radio audiences, participating in several operatic broadcasts before the season’s end. De Bernardi also created a bit of a stir by publicly commenting on the physiques of aspiring Australian divas. In a November 1932 article in the Brisbane Telegraph, the tenor is quoted as saying, “Australian girls are always dieting and do not give themselves a chance to acquire physical strength.” In response, numerous singing experts roundly criticized de Bernardi, calling him out for his “antiquated ideas”. Perhaps it is just as well that de Bernardi never returned to Australia. As the 1930s drew to a close, de Bernardi gradually curtailed his singing activities. Following a late 1941 La Gioconda at Milan’s Teatro Lirico, he drifted toward the behind the scenes aspects of the business. The tenor began displaying his gifts as a stage director and producer, overseeing numerous productions in Milan in the early 1940s. Before he could parlay this talent into a second career, however, tragedy struck. On December 16, 1944, de Bernardi's concerned neighbors forced their way into his apartment. They found the 51 year old tenor dead in his bed. It was determined that de Bernardi had succumbed to asphyxiation from the open jets in his apartment's gaslights. It was never determined whether his death was an accident or if the tenor took his own life. Oreste de Bernardi was blessed with an extraordinary voice of sweetness, virility and great range. He did not, however, cut a dashing figure on the stage. A short, chubby man, he tended to act with his voice, rather than with his physical presence. De Bernardi’s career saw triumphs in such theatres as Milan’s Teatro dal Verme, the Petruzzelli in Bari, Palermo’s Teatro Massimo, Genoa’s Teatro Carlo Felice, Torino’s Teatro Regio, the San Carlo in Naples, as well as opera houses in Venice, Pisa, Catania, Siracusa, Bologna, Trieste, and Malta. His repertoire of over 30 roles included the tenor leads in Turandot, Madama Butterfly, Iris, Il Piccolo Marat, L’Amico Fritz, Mefistofele, La Favorita, Mignon, Damnation de Faust, Boris Godunov, and even Erik in Der Fliegende Holländer. De Bernardi also sang such rarely performed works as Marino Cremesini’s Janko, Nicola de Giosa’s Napoli di Carnovale, Giovanni Monleone’s Arabesca, Stefano Donaudy’s La Fiamminga, as well as the 1923 Pisa premiere of Beniamino Fonte’s Lucania, and the world premiere of Ezio Camussi’s Il Volto della Vergina in Torino in 1937. His recordings, made for Pathé, HMV, Columbia, Fonografia Nazionale, Fonit, Dominion, and other labels from 1924 to 1942, reveal a solid lirico-spinto tenor used with exceptional musical instincts. In this recording, de Bernardi sings “Questa o quella” from Verdi’s Rigoletto. This was recorded in Milan for the Fonografia Nazionale label in 1924.