Historical Operatic Tenors in Opera

The question is how do we go about to findand according to GT, there are two pre-Caruso
websites dealing in details with operatic tenorstenors: Giovanni Apostolou and Fernando Valero.
from nowadays to as far back as the 19/18thThen comes a list of post-Caruso tenors: Alcaide,
centuries.Cortis, Davidov, Gigli, Labinsky, Marini, Martinelli,
If you use the Google Keyword Tool withMerli, Rosvænge, Schipa, von Pataky, Zanelli. The
Historical, Tenors as Keywords, you find thelist of 20th century tenors lists names like
following:Björling, Lugo, Schmidt, Kiepura and so on. Why
The most popular keywords, connected withRosvaenge and Schipa are post-Caruso tenors
operatic tenors, are: Tenor ahead of Tenors withand not Lugo and Björling will probably remain
different entries for 3 Tenors, 4 Tenors and sothe secret of the prior Editor.
on. If you goggle tenor or tenors, you do not getThe GT staff loves to appropriate information
any meaningful results. the same thing happensand to present it on their website without
with a Yahoo Search using the same keywords. Itacknowledgment. A funny case is the one of the
is also the same thing with In each case we areValero discography, which was copied entirely
looking at, we will limit our self to the first page offrom Historical Tenors (HT) - including one
the search results.mistake. After the prior Editor was made aware
Now let choose the keyword Tenori, Yahooof the missing acknowledgment and of the
Search, Google and yield one possible interestingunspecified error by the owner of HT, GT now
site Grandi Tenori.mentions the source - but the mistake is still
Now using the keywords Historical Tenors, wethere. Another case is the biography of Achille
get following results:Braschi which is, according to GT, still "under
Google: At the top of the list there is anconstruction". There are, however, a few
interesting site Historical Tenors, strangely enoughsentences about this tenor, of which every bit is
the site link is not direct but through other sitestaken from another article about Achille Braschi.
on the first page of the search results. In theOn the positive side, the biographies written by
search list, there is an entry for Golden MusicJuan Dzazopulos are excellent. Mr. Dzazapulos also
Memories of Yesteryear and finally the Googlepublishes on the other site HT.
search first page ends up for another linkage toNow the article section is practically dead and that
the Historical Tenors site, even including onethe author and editor of the audio of the month
through Geocities, now a defunct service.section seems to be rather tired of writing for
Yahoo Search: At the top again Historical TenorsGT, as the audio of the month has completely
but through another site, Grandi Tenori is onstopped - and that the forum, full of American
second place, and a possible new comer Greatestopera fans and amateur singers, is the only
Tenors With Frank E. Dee. The first page of thereason for why GT is still online.
search results also includes link to Flute relatedNow GT has a new editor who promises a new
pages.look and new sections, but nothing has happened
Bing.com: It provides a direct link to Historicalyet.
Tenors on the first position, Grandi Tenori is onNow let look at the other sit HT. The HT website
the third place, while Italian Tenors. | Italy is onis the No. 1 tenor site on the internet. When one
second place and Golden Music Memories oflands on the index page, we find a very well
Yesteryear is at the bottom of the page, theorganized page with a navigation bar at the top
other results not being really relevant.showing:
Let now examine those different possible sites:New (site update), Tenors' index, sound index,
Golden Music Memories of Yesteryear/Greatesttenors' operas, tenors' vital records, non-tenor
Tenors With Frank E. Dee is the same site thatzone, articles, reviews and recollections, read/send
provides the same run of the mill information oncomments, credits/thanks, cartoons, pearls of
tenors that you can find somewhere else whileGT, links
providing a forum for mainly unsophisticated users.New is a link to a page displaying the latest
This is not what we are looking for.updates of the site with corresponding links. There
Italian Tenors. | Italy lists ten tenors that are alsoyou have also a link to an older updates page in
run of the mill information and nothing new. Wecase you missed the latest updates.
can safely exclude that site as a rehash of theTenors' index shows a wide variety of indexes of
same information.singers divided in categories mostly in linguistic
Grandi Tenori looks promising. It states in hisorigins (Italian, Spanish/Portuguese, English. Asian,
introduction:Eastern European and so on) with special
Grandi is an "E-Library" with biographies andcategories such tenors could have recorded but
articles on tenors, historical and contemporary,did not, tenors that do nothing for the site etc
extended with rich analysis of renditions of arias,Sound index gives you all the sung material on the
news on promising tenors and debates on tenorssite by composer, opera and singer.
vocal qualities, stage presence and interpretation.Tenors' operas give cast listings some as far back
The site also includes monthly reviews on operaas the 19th century for operas such Guillaume
on stage, on CD or on DVD, spectacular photosTell, Il Trovatore etc
and featured singers of exceptional stature.Tenors' vital records give tenors birth and death
Grandi (GT for short from now on) is also adates
meeting place for opera lovers, be it mereNon tenor-zone has interesting materials on non
aficionados or singers, professional as well astenors, especially recommended a targeted
young and aspiring. One of the aims with the sitecomparison for the bass duet in Don Carlo.
is precisely to put aficionados of vocal artArticles are divided into two categories one on
together, and if possible, promote young singerssinging by the great Baritone Joseph Shore and
and artists who otherwise lack projection.one with thought provoking articles by Daniele
A closer look at the site reveals a differentGodor on Calleja, Pavarotti and so on.
matter:Many pictures of tenors, some very rare and
This e-library, however, comes with less than 100unusual are shown on the sides of the index page
biographies of which most (exempt from theand below the navigation bar.
longer articles in the "feature" section) are notIt has reliable biographies and discographies about
longer than 500 words. Many of the links to thehistorical and modern tenors. As to tenors, the
promised tenor biographies do not work. A closersite is very extensive and even superior to
look at the biographies unfortunately reveals theKutsch/Riemens' cyclopedia. The site provides
lack of knowledge of the prior editor and hisaudio files of almost any tenor between De
assistants. Most of the biographies are not only fullReszke and Domingo for free. You can find
of strange comments about singing - also a lot ofinformation on Rubini showing that he was
biographical information is inaccurate.probably the tenor that sang more roles on stage,
The rest of the site is written in exactly theclose to 200 roles. In the 19th century section
same style. The tenor biographies are put into ayou will find also information on Duprez, Nourrit,
weird order where everything is arranged aroundAbruñedo,, Fraschini and so on. The Italian and
Caruso:Eastern European sections are particularly filled
" Historical Tenors, meaning all the tenors fromwith information on good tenors that have been
the 15th century to the 1st half of the 19thforgotten with recordings, some unique. While on
century, including castrati; Pre-Caruso tenorsthe modern front, you can find Antonenko,
(1850-1900), Post-Caruso tenors (1900-1930) andCalleja, Villazon, Pavarotti, Domingo, Carreras,
finally, 20th Century tenors."Annaloro, Poncet, Florez and so on. The site is
The prior Editor gives no reason for this choice;also filled with pictures not seen anywhere else.
instead, he declares that his choice was notThe site is also updated and or corrected as new
"meant as historically correct" (sic). The firstinformation becomes available.
section ("Historical tenors") has not a single entry,The site of choice is Historical Tenors.