Classical Music Forum banner

Top Ten Tenors (okay maybe five)

17K views 57 replies 33 participants last post by  messadivoce 
#1 ·
Who are your favourite tenors of all time?

In no particular order I'd say

Sergei Lemeshev
Lauritz Melchior
Jussi Bjorling
Placido Domingo
Max Lorenz


Hopefully this thread isn't a little superfluous but I'm curious to discover more tenors I actually like.
 
#36 · (Edited)
I have a trinity:

Caruso, Schipa, Bjorling.

Caruso remains the vocal miracle: heroic and lyric, bel canto and verismo, tenor and baritone, the tone all pure, rich, vibrant core - and the hugest, most generous spirit that ever emitted sound.

Schipa is the poet, the gentle artistic soul with a modest, plaintive, unmistakable timbre, subtle style, a mezza voce like the fragrance of a flower, and diction so exquisitely clear on his lips that to hear him is like reading from a book. He also looks exactly like me (over there, to the left).

Bjorling is the natural, a voice of such ease and purity it seems to have, or need, no technique at all, plaintive beauty like "unshed tears" ( I don't know who said that), rising from pure lyricism to ringing heroism. And the greatest recording ever made, or ever to be made, of "O Holy Night (O Helga Natt)," obligatory at Christmas.

Then there are Sirota (I'd put him in my trinity but there are no more seats), Gigli, Melchior, Piccaver, Schiotz, Simoneau, Valetti, Vickers, and a bunch of other people.

Alas, of tenors currently active, the only one who gets me excited is Kaufmann, the guy whose tongue and hyoid bone are said to be having an intimate relationship. I can only wish them happiness together.
 
#37 ·
I have a trinity:

Caruso, Schipa, Bjorling.

Caruso remains the vocal miracle: heroic and lyric, bel canto and verismo, tenor and baritone, the tone all pure, rich, vibrant core - and the hugest, most generous spirit that ever emitted sound.

Schipa is the poet, the gentle artistic soul with a modest, plaintive, unmistakable timbre, subtle style, a mezza voce like the fragrance of a flower, and diction so exquisitely clear on his lips that to hear him is like reading from a book. He also looks exactly like me (over there, to the left).

Bjorling is the natural, a voice of such ease and purity it seems to have, or need, no technique at all, plaintive beauty like "unshed tears" ( I don't know who said that), rising from pure lyricism to ringing heroism. And the greatest recording ever made, or ever to be made, of "O Holy Night (O Helga Natt)," obligatory at Christmas.

Then there are Sirota (I'd put him in my trinity but there are no more seats), Gigli, Melchior, Piccaver, Schiotz, Simoneau, Valetti, Vickers, and a bunch of other people.

Alas, of tenors currently active, the only one who gets me excited is Kaufmann, the guy whose tongue and hyoid bone are said to be having an intimate relationship. I can only wish them happiness together.
Sirota really belongs in my top 10 as well, except that I made myself abide by a totally arbitrary rule that only tenors who actually appeared in opera were eligible! For sheer voice and virtuosity he cannot be beaten. Of the tenors I chose, there are maybe two or three whose voices I slightly prefer to his, but none whose voices I could say with certainty are better. I've attached a couple of sound files of his operatic recordings in case anyone is interested. The Celeste Aïda in particular ranks with the best.
 

Attachments

#38 ·
In no particular order:

Jussi Bjorling-He's the tenor in a lot of Verdi/Puccini recordings I admire. Love his Calaf in Turandot particularly
Ramon Vinay-I always think Kaufmann has a similar dark voice to Vinay.
Franco Corelli-Diction could be an issue, but what an exciting singer.
Nicolai Gedda-A wonderfully versatile singer.
Jonas Kaufmann-I do think he's the real deal. He's been incredibly sensible in his career path so far but I do pray he will sing Siegmund or Lohengrin at ROH, some time soon.
Sandor Konya- A wonderful Lohengrin. However most of all I love his von Stolzing in the Kubelik Meistersinger as its great singing!
Placido Domingo-What can you say! All the roles he has covered and along with Vinay the finest Otello IMHO.
Fritz Wunderlich-Great Mozart singer and also love his recording of Das Lied von der Erde with Klemperer. Such a tragedy he wasn't allowed to develop.
Carlo Bergonzi-A wonder singer of Verdi's music. The Aida recording with Von Karajan stands out.
Wolfgang Windgassen- A great heldentenor and my favourite Ring and Tristan recordings feature him.
 
#41 ·
My top 10:

1. Nicolai Gedda
2. Carlo Bergonzi
3. Topi Lehtipuu
4. Fritz Wunderlich
5. Giuseppe di Stefano
6. Mario Lanza
7. Alfredo Kraus
8. Jose Carreras
9. Placido Domingo
10. Mario del Monaco

;)
Great list!.................
 
#45 · (Edited)
You said it. I had the interesting experience, once, of hearing recordings of the same aria by John McCormack (the quintessential "Irish Tenor") and Lauritz Melchior (the quintessential Heldentenor). Same notes, same words, but as different as day and night - and both of them superb in their way. (I think it was the "Prize Song" from Die Meistersinger, because it's about the only thing I can think of that they would both have been likely to try. They were that different.)
 
#46 ·
I personally cringed at McCormack's Prize Song, though I'm usually a massive fan of his. I read somewhere that he was fixated with Jean de Reszke (also not the possessor of a huge voice, I believe) and the recording was in a sense a tribute to him. I suppose that is one potential answer to the question of 'why the #%-@ did John record something so obviously unsuitable for his voice?'

I would personally choose Francisco Viñas' early, piano accompanied, Italian language recording of that aria to take to my desert island. Very nineteenth century Italianate phrasing and beautiful silvery timbre, lyric and dramatic all rolled into one!
 
#49 ·
5 is so hard. I can try 10 but there's the dramatic and lyric and spinto differences that can't really be compared. I like hearing what I feel are perfect vocal techniques. I like hearing squillo in any voice (dramatic or lyric), good diction with pure vowel sounds, a good piano and mezza voce, even timbre throughout their range, and also the ability to put emotion into their singing.

Alfredo Kraus
Dino Borgioli (not his early recordings. anywhere in the late 20's and beyond)
Carlo Dani
Léon Escalaïs
Tito Schipa
Beniamino Gigli
Alessandro Bonci
John McCormack
Enrico Caruso
Fernando de Lucia

Here's the honorable mention list. Most of these I love the timbre alone or the dynamics and musicianship. Some are missing good subtlies with dynamics and phrasing. Some have interesting vowel sounds. Some round out the vowels intentionally for aesthetic reasons like Pertile but others do it out of a conceived notion of necessity to cover at and above passagio. Some sing in different styles from different periods and standards too. I love all of these tenors too. Some I just forgot about and didn't make my initial list because of that.

Aureliano Pertile
Jan Peerce
Giacomo Lauri-Volpi
Jussi Bjorling
Sergei Lemeshev
Ivan Kozlovsky
Kurt Baum
Lauritz Melchior
Roberto d'Alessio
Franco Corelli
Guiseppe di Stefano
Leopold Simoneau
Carlo Bergonzi
Richard Tucker
Nicolai Gedda
Albert Da Costa
Fritz Wunderlich
Luciano Pavarotti
Francesco Tamango
Edmont Clement
Guiseppe Anselmi
William Matteuzzi
Juan Diego Florez
Arthur Espiritu

I'm sure I missed a bunch like everyone else did and my opinions will change.
 
#56 · (Edited)
Certainly Pavarotti and Domingo have to be there.
Bergonzi was magnificent as was Di Stefano before he blew his voice.
I love the sound Corelli makes but subtlety was not his watchword!

for Wagnerian tenors Vickers reigned supreme in his generation though, of course, Melchior had the greatest voice of any.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top