Here is a formidably equipped, unjustly overlooked baritone. Beginning his career in Italy in the early part of the century, Formichi gained international fame in Spain and South America, then moved to Chicago in 1922, where he remained the leading baritone in Italian and French repertory for the next ten years, managing visits to Covent Garden in-between. His repertory, which encompassed Verdi, Puccini, Gounod, Saint-Saens, Bizet, Massenet and Wagner, is well represented on this reissue of his Columbia 78s (he recorded for no other company).
The voice is firm, compact, headily exciting in its biting way, with the tone just occasionally spreading under pressure at the top. Its owner used it to great effect in the villain's music so often assigned to baritones in Italian opera, but he could also soften and refine it to the needs of the complex monk Athanael in Thais, which he sang opposite Mary Garden in the title-role in Chicago.
You would look far to find versions of Gerard's ''Nemico della patria'' or Scarpia's Te Deum to surpass Formichi's. Apparently a noted actor he must have made an imposing effect in both roles on stage. He was certainly admired in his debut at Covent Garden in 1924 as Scarpia, also as Rigoletto. In the latter his performances here suggest more raw power than subtlety. He must also have been impressive as the High Priest in Samson et Dalila to judge from his delivery of that character's fiery credo.
The electric recordings of songs included here suggest that the voice, far from deteriorating in the 1930s, became stronger, more secure—or so his 1932 account of Brogi's emotion-laden Il volontario would suggest. Then he fines down his tone to the suave phrasing called for in Hahn's plaintive and moving D'une prison. He is a singer worthy of anyone's time and attention. The transfers are excellent apart from a faint hum on the earlier tracks.'