CLAUDIO VILLA ‘Una vita per la canzone’
Edizione Timaclub nr 21
2 CD + biography

The Roman born singer Claudio Villa (1926-1987) is surely known to every self-respecting tenor-voice lover. While not being 100% a tenor in the operatic sense Villa nevertheless belongs to that now gone generation where a classically trained voice was essential in the popular trade reminiscent of his great predecessor Carlo Buti. The fifties and the sixties had Claudio Villa and while Villa stuck to his ideals Domenico Modugno paved the road for the present-day Ramazzotti’s of ill-taste with their imitation of Anglo-Saxon microphone screamers and the subsequent noise pollution. Villa nevertheless still won the San Remo festival as” late” as 1967 with “Non pensare a me” a song also recorded by Carlo Bergonzi.
Claudio Villa made his professional career debut in 1941 with ‘Villa Triste” a song known to record collectors through Schipa’s version. Villa appeared in movies and made numerous recordings which were best-sellers in and outside of Italy. His repertoire included the old songs of Italian music ranging from Neapolitan songs, traditional songs and love songs in the tradition of a Carlo Buti but also opera. Maurizio Tiberi of the Tima record company has already issued 4 Cd’s of Villa containing 89 songs taken from previously unavailable 78 rpm recordings which get excellent transfers and sound quality. In Tiberi’s already legendary series ‘Una vita per la canzone” he has now released another double CD volume containing 45 rare and unpublished (mostly live) recordings displaying again Claudio Villa at his very best. The edition also contains a 72 pages booklet with numerous photos and a discography. This compilation also includes the excerpt from Mascagni’s Cherry duet opposite Magda Olivero going back to a Rai transmission in 1958 as far as I know a first-time CD release. Wonderful.
Rudi van den Bulck