[Bellinilover]

Has anyone ever noticed how a number of the names in the "American baritone line" are almost comically similar? I mean, there's...

Mack Harrell
Robert Merrill
Cornell MacNeil
Sherrill Milnes

A lot of double "l"'s and rhyming in there! Moreover, even Lawrence Tibbett, Leonard Warren and Quinn Kelsey all have double letters in their names.

Incidentally, Robert Merrill made his stage name by, basically, switching around the letters in his real last name, "Miller" (which was in turn derived from "Milstein"; his real first name was "Moishe"), and Leonard Warren's real last name was "Warenoff." Sherrill Milnes' first name is actually the last name of an Episcopal bishop his father admired: Reverend Henry Knox Sherrill.

 

[Bellinilover]

When I was just learning about different opera singers , a few names sounded very much alike to me even though the voices were so different e.g. Tagliabue and Tagliavini, Taddei and Tozzi, Bonci/Borgioli/Bergonzi as well as Smirnov and Sobimov.

I think Alan Blyth mentioned the Italian sopranos whose names might be mixed up e.g. Sciutti + Scotto + Moffo (Millo could be there as well)

J.B. Steane mentioned that second point, too (he may have been quoting Alan Blyth).

 

[Bellinilover]

Richard Tucker and Richard Tauber
Leontyne Price and Leona Mitchell
June Anderson and Joan Sutherland