RIP Agnaldo Rayol

 

With a powerful baritone voice, Agnaldo Rayol echoed Italian singing in Brazil

Dead at the age of 86, the singer from Rio de Janeiro lived his peak in the 1960s and went through periods of low in the 1970s and 1980s until he was reborn in 1993 in the soundtracks of soap operas by his friend Benedito Ruy Barbosa.

 

Globo.com

By Mauro Ferreira

11/4/2024

A friend of Benedito Ruy Barbosa, Agnaldo Rayol was invited by the novelist in 1993 to record the song Em nome do amor (César Augusto and Piska) for the soundtrack of the soap opera Renascer, aired by TV Globo that year with great success.

Even though it did not impose itself on the soundtrack of Benedito Ruy Barbosa's rural plot, the recording of In the name of love promoted the artistic rebirth of Agnaldo Coniglio Rayol (May 3, 1938 – November 4, 2024), a singer, actor and presenter from Rio de Janeiro who had been successful in the 1960s, but who had been forgotten and, At that time, he had not released an album for seven years.

The invitation to the soundtrack of the soap opera Renascer injected encouragement into the artist's phonographic career – who, from then on, began to record better-kept albums such as Agnaldo Rayol (1994) and Todo o sentimento (1997) – and increased the concert schedule of this singer much loved by the public that likes grandiloquent interpreters.

Died in the early hours of today, at the age of 86, as a result of a fall suffered in the house where he lived in the city of São Paulo (SP), Agnaldo Rayol was one of the Brazilian symbols of bel canto, an Italian term that designates the singing of an operatic style, exacerbated, based on vocal technique.

Rayol's powerful baritone voice accredited the singer – of Italian descent on his mother's side – to face themes such as Mia Gioconda (Vicente Celestino, 1946), recorded by the artist with the duo Chrystian & Ralf for the soundtrack of the soap opera O rei do gado (Globo, 1996), another blockbuster plot by Benedito Ruy Barbosa.

Also through his novelist friend, Agnaldo Rayol experienced a peak of popularity when he recorded the then unreleased Italian theme Tormento d'amore (Luiz Schiavon, Marcelo Barbosa and Antônio Scarpellini, 1999) in duo with the Welsh singer Charlotte Church for the opening of the telenovela Terra nostra (1999).

At that moment, Rayol was heard again throughout Brazil almost with the same intensity with which he had been heard in the 1960s, the artist's golden decade

Agnaldo Rayol began singing in the late 1940s, as a teenager, at the Brazilian Post and Telegraph Company, in his hometown of Rio de Janeiro (RJ). But he had to wait for his baritone voice to gain muscle and reach adult form to release his first album, Agnaldo Rayol, released in 1958 with an old-fashioned romantic repertoire.

Oblivious to the bossa nova revolution in that same year of 1958, Rayol made a name for himself with a sentimental songbook, the keynote of albums such as Sonhos musicais (1959), Maior que a saudade (1960) and Se ela voltar (1961). The artist never abandoned this romantic repertoire that never goes out of style.

Parallel to his singing career, the artist began to act as a presenter – commanding programs on TV Record such as the Côrte Rayol Show (1965) with the comedian and writer Renato Côrte Real (1924 – 1982) – and as an actor in soap operas and films. However, for the Brazilian public, Agnaldo Rayol was above all a singer.

From the 2000s onwards, the singer's recording career again slowed down as in the 1970s and 1980s. However, the artist continued to play shows in Brazil until he began to become debilitated and develop Alzheimer's disease.

Agnaldo Rayol's last work was made in 2020 at the initiative of Thiago Marques Luiz's music producer. It is an audiovisual record of voice and piano of the Voices of the Best Age Festival.

In this recording, Rayol spoke a little about his artistic trajectory and gave voice to songs such as the song Chão de estrelas (Silvio Caldas and Orestes Barbosa, 1937) and the samba-song A noite do meu bem (Dolores Duran, 1958) in the tone that consecrated him as an opulent voice of bel canto, a style that echoed in Brazil with great pride.

RAYOL, Agnaldo (Agnaldo Coniglio Rayol)

Born: 5/3/1938, Niterol, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Died: 11/4/2024, São Paulo, Brazil

 

Agnaldo Rayol’s western – actor:

Pistoleiro Bossa Nova - 1959