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THE TENOR VOICE
By Fred Plotkin
The tenor voice is probably the most prized one to possess, the most difficult to maintain, and the most in demand. Composers have understood that it can convey melting beauty (in operas such as Mozart's "The Magic Flute" and Puccini's "La Bohème"), ascend to thrilling high notes (notably in Donizetti's "Daughter of the Regiment" and other bel canto works) or ring out with trumpetlike precision (in Puccini's "Turandot" as well as several Wagner operas).
The bread and butter for most tenors are the lyrical and dramatic roles by Verdi and Puccini in operas we know well. The demand for good voices to fill these roles far outstrips the supply. So if a good tenor comes along, he can basically write his own ticket so long as he takes care of his precious instrument. But such an artist is a rare bird in the operatic aviary.
Whenever one talks to seasoned opera lovers, they will say that there are no great tenors anymore. lnevitably, they will say that the last great tenor was singing when they first discovered opera. In other words, it was a golden age because of who was singing the tenor roles: Enrico Caruso, Beniamino Gigli, Lauritz Melchior, Giuseppe di Stefano, Richard Tauber, Aksel Schøtz, Jussi Bjoerling, Mario del Monaco, Franco Corelli, Carlo Bergonzi, Nicolai Gedda, Jon Vickers, or Alfredo Kraus. Each of these artists was magnificent, and we are blessed to have their recorded legacy.
And then came the Three Tenors: Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, and José Carreras. These three men, all brilliant artists, arrived on the scene just as television, compact discs, and mass concerts spread operatic music to places it had never reached before. So ubiquitous were they that their names became synonymous with the word "tenor." Their popularity was a mixed blessing for the opera world. Their achievements were indisputably laudable, but the media attention that surrounded them led people who did not have a longer view to believe that there had been no tenors of quality before them and that there would be none to follow once the Three Tenors left the scene.
Top banner photos: Marcelo Álvarez and Salvatore Licitra (photos by Alberto Tolot) and the Colosseum in Rome, Italy. |
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Marcelo Álvarez didn't see his first opera until he was 30 years old (photo by Alberto Tolot). |
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Salvatore Licitra only began singing when he was in his late-teens (photo by Alberto Tolot). |
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