Carlo Baucardé

... for example, between Il trovatore and the tenor Baucardé, many legends and anecdotes exist that stay vividly alive in the memories of our masses; many still remember those today. I will quote only one. One evening at the Teatro Pagliano in Florence, Baucardé created wild enthusiasm by his intense singing of Ah! Questa infame l'onore ha venduto, so that both the spectators of the parterre and the Gods managed to get a third repeat of the piece; from that sensational tumult, it was feared that a sanguinary episode of the old factions of the Guelfi & Ghibellini was born again. Baucardé was the singer who knew how to touch genially the heart of the people. His art was instinctive, prompting the emotion and expression of a musical phrase to generate powerful effects. One cannot say that he had a beautiful voice. He knew how to modulate it with sweetness gradually toning it down to a bare thread. His mezza voce was a dream. I remember an old Baucardé, already retired from the stage since 1864, in Milan. One evening at the Café Martini, then the meeting place of all great and small singers, retired or still in activity, he was humming in low voice Spirto gentil from La favorita; suddenly the people in the café turned to him attracted by this soft paradisiacal singing. Since then, I have not heard any tenor capable of singing the famous romance so suavely and bringing tears to one eye, as it happened on that evening. Another tenor , Giuglini, the suave tenor per excellence, was superior to Baucardé in Spirto gentil. His superiority was in the way Giuglini could bind long held notes in the romance. I can say that the singing of Spirto gentil by Giuglini sounded like the magical bow of Paganini. Well Baucardé, who could bring tears to the eyes when singing Spirto gentil and Tu che a Dio spiegasti l'ali from Lucia, brought the shiver down the spine of the spectators during the Maledizione of Lucia and in Trovatore, the impetus of his voice would made the audience quiver in terror. Gino Monaldi: Ricordando Tamberlick e Baucardé. Corriere di Milano, 29 November 1923