Tag Archives: Tenors

Top Ten Tenors List

Written by James Drake | 21st June 2020

[James Drake is an internationally known author, pedagogue, administrator, and general all around expert on opera singers. He has written the definitive biography of Richard Tucker and several books on the legendary American soprano Rosa Ponselle. NK] In the mid-1970s, when I was writing occasional articles for High Fidelity, I interviewed renowned Ukranian-American basso Alexander Kipnis about…


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Si Pel Ciel – Otello Act 2

Written by Neil Kurtzman | 5th August 2017

Verdi’s penultimate opera is a masterpiece of dramatic cohesion and inspiration. Set to one of opera’s greatest librettos, it reflects all that its composer had learned from a life spent in the the theater. The duet, ‘Si pel ciel’, that ends the second act is as rousing as anything Verdi had written 40 years earlier,…


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Giuseppe Di Stefano 1921-2008

Written by Neil Kurtzman | 4th March 2008

No great tenor seems to have spawned more ambivalence among opera lovers than the late Giuseppe Di Stefano. Even I’m showing it by leading with a negative. So let’s get it out in the open. He was the greatest Italian tenor I ever heard in performance. That he’s not a household name as are Callas…


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Joseph Calleja Revisited

Written by Neil Kurtzman | 26th February 2008

More than three years ago I reviewed tenor Joseph Calleja’s first recital CD. Though it received many favorable notices,I wasn’t all that impressed. I heard the broadcast of his Met debut as the Duke in Verdi’s Rigoletto and still wasn’t impressed. What annoyed me the most was his fast vibrato (or bleat if you’re inclined…


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Coming Soon: Birgit Nilsson's 3 Favorite Tenors

Written by Neil Kurtzman | 5th January 2008

Jussi Björling and Franco Corelli are not among these three, though the great diva professed profound admiration for both of them. Read about it here – soon. Well, you could read about it somewhere else, which is where I found it.


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