Lionello Cecil or Lionel Cecil Sherwood, was born in Australia in 1893. He studied in Australia and in Italy. He was a lyric tenor who had good legato and whose voice was very well placed. He used the resonating cavities in his head very well, and he had good breath control.
Once again, I had never heard of this tenor. But I was very glad to discover him and to be able to present him to you.
Bizet, I pescatore di perle, “Mi par d’udire ancora”
Mi par d’udire ancora
O scosa in mezzo ai fior
La voce sua talora
Sospirare l’amor!
O notte di carezze
Gioir che non ha fin
O sovvenir divin!
Folli ebbrezze del sogno, sogno d’amor!
Dalle stelle del cielo
Altro menar che da lei
La veggio d’ogni velo
Prender li per le ser!
O notte di carezze!
Gioir che non ha fin!
O sovvenir divin!
Folli ebbrezze del sogno, sogno d’amor!
Divin sovvenir, divin sovvenir!
Bizet, The Pearl Fishers, “Nadir’s Romance”
I still seem to hear
Hidden among the flowers
Her voice sometimes
Sighing love!
O night of caresses
Joy that never ends
O divine memory!
Mad intoxication of dreams, dreams of love!
From the stars in the sky
Nothing but her
I see her, stripped of every veil
Taking them for the night!
O night of caresses!
Joy that never ends!
O divine memory!
Mad intoxication of dreams, dreams of love!
Divine memory, divine memory!
Giordano, Fedora, “Amor ti vieta”
Amor ti vieta di non amar…
La man tua lieve che mi respinge,
cerca la stretta della mia man:
la tua pupilla esprime: “T’amo”
se il labbro dice: “Non t’amerò!”
Giordano, Fedora, “Love bars you”
Love itself bars you from not loving…
Your light hand that repels me,
still looks for the stroke of my hand:
your eyes exclaim: “I love you”
even when your lips say: “I will not love you!”
Donizetti, L’elisir d’amore, “Una furtiva lagrima”
Una furtiva lagrima
negli occhi suoi spuntò:
Quelle festose giovani
invidiar sembrò.
Che più cercando io vo?
Che più cercando io vo?
M’ama! Sì, m’ama, lo vedo. Lo vedo.
Un solo instante i palpiti
del suo bel cor sentir!
I miei sospir, confondere
per poco a’ suoi sospir!
I palpiti, i palpiti sentir,
confondere i miei coi suoi sospir…
Cielo! Si può morir!
Di più non chiedo, non chiedo.
Ah, cielo! Si può! Si, può morir!
Di più non chiedo, non chiedo.
Si può morire! Si può morir d’amor.
Donizetti, The elixir of love, “A single secret tear”
A single secret tear
from her eye did spring:
as if she envied all the youths
that laughingly passed her by.
What more searching need I do?
What more searching need I do?
She loves me! Yes, she loves me, I see it. I see it.
For just an instant the beating
of her beautiful heart I could feel!
As if my sighs were hers,
and her sighs were mine!
The beating, the beating of her heart I could feel,
to merge my sighs with hers…
Heavens! Yes, I could die!
I could ask for nothing more, nothing more.
Oh, heavens! Yes, I could, I could die!
I could ask for nothing more, nothing more.
Yes, I could die! Yes, I could die of love.
Lionello Cecil
September 20, 1893 – November 13, 1957
Lionel Cecil was the son of Abraham Robert Sherwood, a senior sergeant of police, and his wife Kate, née Heagan, both from Ireland. Educated at Sydney Grammar School. His teacher Andrew Black encouraged him to study abroad and Cecil left for Europe in March 1914 after giving a concert at Sydney Town Hall. That year he won a scholarship to the Verdi Regio Conservatorio, Milan, Italy, and from 1916 studied with Mario Pieraccini. Adopting the stage name ‘Lionello Cecil’, he made his opera début in 1918 at the Storchi Theatre, Modena, as the Duke in Rigoletto. He rapidly established himself as a leading operatic tenor of the Italian provincial houses.
For almost fifteen years Cecil gave hundreds of performances in such places as Pisa, San Remo, Parma, Verona and Bergamo. He made occasional appearances at more famous opera houses, including the Dal Verme and the Lirico, at Milan, with seasons at La Fenice, Venice (1921, 1925) and at the Costanzi, Rome (1925). Having toured South America in 1926, he sang next year with an Italian opera company in Austria, Switzerland, Germany and Spain. In 1931 he appeared at Nice and Marseilles, France. His recording career had begun in 1919 with discs made acoustically in England for Pathé. He sang tenor lead in the first microphone recording of La Traviata (Italian Columbia, 1928) and in Madama Butterfly (Italian His Master’s Voice, 1929-30), and made his last recordings in 1942 (Columbia, Australia): these discs reveal a powerful lyric tenor and singing characterized by intelligence rather than virtuosity.
Under contract to the Australian Broadcasting Commission, in September 1933 Cecil returned to Australia; in 1933-34 he sang the lead in all but one of eighteen broadcast operas. He did studio and concert work across the country for the A.B.C. until 1942, and taught his own pupils (including Ken Neate) in Sydney. After touring New Zealand in 1937, Cecil sang Alfred Hill’s music in Ken Hall’s film, The Broken Melody (1938). As a military censor during World War II, Cecil interpreted for Italian prisoners of war interned at Cowra. From 1942 he appeared as ‘Lionel Cecil’. At the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music in July 1944 he sang Canio in Pagliacci, in what was probably his farewell to the stage.