Category Archives: Tenors
Mario Chamlee
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 11th August 2025Every major opera company needs singers who, though they lack star power, can perform leading roles wth competence on a regular basis. They might not sell tickets, but when they’re on the bill with big attractions, they hold the show together and do so creditably and with some distinction. Mario Chamlee (1892-1966) was such a…
› Read the full entry
Mikhail Alexandrovich
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 3rd August 2025Latvian tenor Mikhail Alexandrovich (1914-2002) was another 20th century cantor who sang more than liturgical music. Some of the others were Yossele Rosenblatt, Joseph Schmidt, and Richard Tucker. Born in Bērzpils, Vitebsk to a very poor family, his extraordinary vocal gifts were recognized when he was six years old. In 1920 he was enrolled in…
› Read the full entry
O Paradis! from L’Africaine
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 29th July 2025L’Africaine was Giacomo Meyerbeer’s last opera. He started work on the project in 1852. Other activities, the unavailability of singers, and the death of his libretist Eugène Scribe delayed the completion of the opera. The full score was copied the day before Meyerbeer died in 1864. But a performing version done by the composer would…
› Read the full entry
Franco Corelli Interview
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 30th April 2025The video below is an interview with Franco Corelli (1921-2003) made around 1990. It’s in Italian, but it has English subtitles. The interviewer is not the most facile; nevertheless, Corelli’s comments are very interesting. Besides being on the short list of the greatest tenors of the last century, he was a sensitive and intelligent commentator…
› Read the full entry
Mario Del Monaco in Recital
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 22nd April 2025Mario Del Monaco (1915-1985) was the great Italian dramatic tenor of the last century. The dramatic tenor is a rare specimen. He is distinguished from the spinto tenor by the baritonal timbre of his sound combined with powerful high notes reaching to C5. It is the voice Verdi had in mind when he wrote Otello….
› Read the full entry
Night and Day – Mario Lanza
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 27th January 2025Night and Day Mario Lanza is the title of the latest CD release of Lanza’s singing using Digitally Extracted Stereo to enhance the original mono recordings. The technique is a revelation. Lanza’s great voice sounds like it was recorded yesterday. The two-disc set contains 49 selections ranging from opera to popular songs and a lot…
› Read the full entry
Giuseppe Giacomini
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 6th November 2024Giuseppe Giacomini (1940-2021) was one of the greatest tenors active during the last 30 years of the 20th century. Despite the excellence of his singing, he never achieved the widespread fame accorded his exact contemporaries – Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo. Nevertheless, his career was quite successful; he appeared at all the major opera houses,…
› Read the full entry
Insieme – Opera Duets
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 19th September 2024Jonas Kaufmann and Ludovic Tézier recorded nine tenor-baritone duets, released on a Sony Classics disc in June 2022. Insieme translates from Italian as together. The two singers are friends who have often performed together hence the title. The master of the tenor-baritone duet was Verdi. Accordingly, seven of the selections are by him. The CD starts with the…
› Read the full entry
Ah, La Paterna Mano
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 17th September 2024Verdi’s Macbeth was his 10th opera. It was his favorite of these 10 and the first of his three operas based on Shakespeare’s plays. It is clearly the masterpiece of his pre-Rigoletto works. The tenor role of Macduff is a minor part; he has little to do except sing the great aria that is the…
› Read the full entry
John McCormack
Written by Neil Kurtzman | 11th July 2024John McCormack (1885-1945) was an Irish tenor active from about 1909 to the early 1940s. Born to Scottish parents who had emigrated to Ireland, his interest in singing began as a child. In 1903, he won the coveted gold medal of the Dublin Feis Ceoil. A friend of James Joyce, who was two years older than…
› Read the full entry
