Beniamino al cinema playlist

Beniamino on the big screen

Tenors have always met with success among followers of the world of ‘light music’. The transition from operatic romances to hit songs is one that has been made by many tenors, starting with Enrico Caruso, who in the early 20th century happily made the move to New York for a series of recordings for RCA, many of which were true songs and not opera arias. Later, the international popularity of Mario Del Monaco, Luciano Pavarotti and – in our own times – Andrea Bocelli proves that pop music listeners have never lost interest in this trend. Beniamino Gigli is another figure who belongs to this troop of tenors who have consistently been devoted to the world of songs: before the era of television, he used cinema to spread his popularity throughout Italy and even abroad. This playlist presents some of the songs performed by Gigli in films in which he played the lead role. It also includes a tribute to the first Italian sound film, La canzone dell’amore (1930). Although Gigli didn’t have a role in that film, later he nonetheless wished to pay homage to it by singing the song that it made famous. The song went by the same name as the film, although many people began to refer to it by the first verse of the refrain: ‘Solo per te Lucia’.