Molinari’s has never been a name to conjure with among collectors yet, as this CD proves, this Italian baritone merits a place among the leading Italian singers of the 1920s when he appeared regularly in all the main Italian houses and recorded extensively for Italian Columbia. His reputation remained local simply because he never sang at the Metropolitan or Covent Garden and therefore his recordings were confined for the most part to his native shores. He makes only three brief appearances in the pages of the three volumes of Opera on Record (Hutchinson), none in those of JBS’s The Grand Tradition (Duckworth: 1993).
To judge by the examples of his art collected here he deserves better of us all. His well-produced, keenly projected though I judge only medium-sized voice most calls to mind that of De Luca and perhaps Leonard Warren, showing a softer grain than that of such towering figures as, say, Ruffo, Stracciari and Granforte. Its owner uses it with appreciable skill, most notably in the ten Verdi titles included here, sensibly arranged in chronological order. You will find few more easily voiced versions of “Il balen” or “Di Provenza” (sadly only one verse) than Molinari’s and his account of “O vecchio cor” can almost rank with Amato’s famed 1913 version (available on various transfers).
Not everything is individually done. His “Pari siamo” has none of the variety, say, found in it by Stracciari or Gobbi: the dynamic range is limited, as it is in “Era la notte”. Yet Figaro’s “Largo al factotum”, a smiling performance, Gerard’s solos from Andrea Chenier and those of Simon Nago from Boito’s Nerone disclose a fair gift for creating character by voice alone. In duets from Il barbiere and Rigoletto Ninu Sanchioni’s tone proves something of a trial, but Molinari’s contributions are a pleasure to hear.
There is something especially beautiful about his Wolfram, a role of which he must have been a fine exponent: “O tu bell’astro” (“O du mein holder Abendstern”) is a reading to cherish. That, like all the items here, falls easily on the ear, both the original recordings, all Italian Columbias, and the transfers successfully catching the gratifying warmth of Molinari’s singing.'