Historical Tenors

This Web site is dedicated mainly to tenors. It provides information such as discographies, repertories, short
biographies, sound files, recollections of performances I attended, and links to other sites. Tenors are listed by
linguistic and/or geographical affiliations (Italian, Spanish, French, etc...). For the other tenors, other categories
exist. You will find them in the tenors' index. There are many more names that shall be added on a continous basis.
This list does not pretend to be complete. You can also find a main index of tenors currently on the site. This
includes a section on Tenors in disguise (tenors singing in other keys). The chronological information provided for some tenors does not pretend to be complete. A section on non-tenor items has been added. This is reserved
either for singers that did not get the recognition they deserved or for very rare non-tenor recordings. In this
section, you can link to section on "non-tenors singing tenor arias and/or in tenor key", maybe it is a "secret tenor dreams" section.

There is a section on singer book reviews and associated dictionaries. This is not limited to tenors. You will also
find articles on the death of opera, on the current lack of great singers, the lack of vision of today's new vocal
teachers, and hopefully many more. Opera is dying. You will read why in the article by Joseph Shore. Nowadays it is considered good singing when you can barely be heard but demonstrate great artistry. What ever this means!

If you believe that Carreras, Domingo and Pavarotti were among the greatest tenors of all time, well this site is not for you. Carreras had a very beautiful voice, but his lack of technique and singing non suitable parts resulted in his destruction. He never learned to cover. Pavarotti never had a large voice, had a lyrical voice with a good easy top that he destroyed by singing heavy parts and trying to produce a sound large enough to be heard in large theatre.
In short, he was what is called in France an opera-comique tenor. He should have sung that repertory. Domingo
was the best of the three as far as musicality is concerned. On the other hand, he never had a top to talk about or any squillo. He sang so many different roles without any differentiation in their characterizations. If you believe that Bocelli is an opera singer, well this site is not for you.

Now we are dished out Duetto: Marcelo Álvarez & Salvatore Licitra, the last attack of Bad Taste against opera.

Additions and corrections are welcome and will be acknowledged.

François Nouvion

Older Updates, biographical notes of Costa Lo Giudice; the voice of Ifrim; in the Non-tenors singing tenor arias: Endrèze, another Di quella pira: Ikaia-Purdy; additional recording of Schmidt; the voice of Sattler; more Di quella pira: Romeo Berti, Drvota, De Primo, Reinhardt; the voices of Amadi, and Cheyrat; additional recording of Milhau; additional recording of Venturini; additional recordings of Giacchero, and Caffetto; the voice and picture of Castellani; the voices of Malesci, Cibelli, and Ravazzalo; additional recordings of Vanni, and Cosentino; the voices of Francell, and Verteneuil; the voices of Belina, and Karienzin; additional recording of Nasta; the voices of Oldham, and Lloyd; the voices of Bru, and Torre; biographical notes and pictures of Jan Kusiewicz, and Piotr Kusiewicz; biographical notes, discography and additional recordings of Chamlee; addition to the discography of Miranda-Ferraro; additional recording of Pertile; additional Di quella pira: Colazza, Merritt, Fischers; additional recording of Miranda-Ferraro; additional recording of Beczała with a review; additional recording of Gould with a review.

This web page would not be as detailed as it is without the help of following individuals, in alphabetical order: Andres Acuña Guzman, Prof. Giorgio Appolonia, Fabian Arciniegas, Stathis Arfanis, Juan José Arias, Dina Azrikan, Algirdas Bagdonavicius, Vilijandas Bagdonavicius, Arkadi Bandukow, Eva Bertolis, Richard Boijen, Luc Bourrousse, David Brandwein, Victor Brescia, Harold Byrnes, Georges Cardol, Maestro Tonino Carlino, Samuel Cassons, Chris F. Catena, Paolo Cavassini, Pierre Ceccaldi, Mark Chetwood, Serge Chèze, Egle Chisiu, Leonardo Ciampa, Martin Cooke, Balázs Csák, Alfred de Cock, Richard del Taglia, Alex Dihes, Terence Doleschal, Marek Dolina, Juan Dzazopulos, Vladimir Efimenko, Mel Eisenberg, Serge Escalaïs, Roberto Falcone, Miguel J Fennick, Angelo Filistad, Alain François, Jacques Franken, Eduardo Gabarra, Daniele Godor, Sergei Golik, Frank Hamilton, James Hanrahan, Philip Hatzissimou, Dr Eduardo Marcelino Herrera, Edmund Hodges, Edvard Hogestol, Helmut Krautschneider, Clemens Jabloner, Egon Kaibel, Prof. Tom Kaufman, Gian Koral, George Leotsakos, Richard Lindau, Robert Little, Alkis Magdalinos, Geoffrey Mallinson, Francois Martini, Roberto Marcocci, Gabriella Mariacher, Pippo Martelli, Carlos Martin, J. Medina, Lysiana Medine, Julian Philip Myerscough, Andrey Naydenov, Malcolm Nightingale, Imogen Norcroft, Nicholas Peppas, Michal Pekárek, Martin Ramor, Ken Reis, Claude Ribou, Montserrat G. Román, Victor Roman, Julian Rozental, Helge K. Sæbø, Franco Sakai, Lynn Samohel, Albert Scerri, Peter Schatborn, Robert Schlesinger, Emy Scicluna, Prof. Alessandro Sciocchetti, René Seghers, Danilo Serrano, Keith Shilcock, Maestro Joseph Shore, Thomas Silverbörg, Benjamin Sloman, Raymond ; Claudine Smeets, Brian Smith, Peter Strummer, George Everett Swails, Wesley Swails, Mr. Tanaka, Hélia T'Hézan, André Thomassin, Renato Toffoli, Maestro Giuseppe Tomaselli, Dragos Tomescu , Christian Torrent, Sergey Tylibtsev, Prof. Adriano Vargiu, Rafael Vázquez, Richard J Venezia, Georges Voisin, Stephen P. Wall, Helmut Weber, Tomi Wiegner, Quade Winter, André Wium, and Vladislav Zakrevsky.