Fiat lux

Googlebot has finally released Voce di Tenore from the outer darkness. Says Mr. Shelley...

Ten thousand columns in that quivering light
Distinct, between whose shafts wound far away
The long and labyrinthine aisles, more bright
With their own radiance than the Heaven of Day;
And on the jasper walls around there lay
Paintings, the poesy of mightiest thought,
Which did the Spirit's history display;
A tale of passionate change, divinely taught,
Which, in their wingèd dance, unconscious Genii wrought.

Ten thousand flowers in spring...

Plácido Domingo conducting Erwin Schrott

Puerto Rico, October 9, 2007

Ten thousand flowers in spring,
the moon in autumn,
a cool breeze in summer,
snow in winter.
If your mind isn't clouded by unnecessary things,
this is the best season of your life.

The Wu-Men Kuan

Googlebot kills tenor!

Giuseppe Sabbatini in La damnation de Faust, Parma, 2007

Trying to find the Voce di Tenore web site via Google? For some inexplicable reason, on September 15th, Google dropped all the pages on the main site from its search engine. Sister sites Carreras Media, Carreras Gallery, and Opera Polls have fortunately escaped the deadly ministrations of the Googlebot... so far.

The main site may eventually be liberated from the Underworld. In the meantime, if you're searching for items about Juan Diego Flórez, José Carreras, Roberto Alagna, or Giuseppe Sabbatini which you think might be on the main site, use the Yahoo, Altavista, or MSN search engines instead.

Cor mio, deh, non languire.

Thunder and lightning

Why should I be the only one who gets to 'enjoy' them? A selection of disgruntled and/or demented emails sent to voceditenore.com (original spelling and punctuation preserved)...

I. "One is amazed to see such limited unerstanding of singers as singers and artists and the time spent on the four listed, who seem to be favourites. It is so parochial. One aria in his day and you would forget all the tenors yowling their various arias and that was - Vickers - none you mention are in his league - they yowl for pretty notes - Carreras next to Vickers - Alagna next to Vickers - they are nothing . But then I am talking the real artist as against mere tenors most who have resonance where their brains ought to be as in the three tenors garbage . Expand !!!!!!!!!"

II. "On your web site - VOCE DI TENORE - there were one or two references to Battistini. Why is this? When I was trained in St. Louis we never tried to even suggest fatuous comparisons between past opera greats and the present crop of singers who may or may not be great one day. I guess what I'm saying is that just as Charlemagne had to send to Ireland for 6 monks who knew Latin Grammar intimately and scholarly and bring them back to Paris to lead the massive effort to reconstruct the "lost French language" of that time, we must find a music czar who will finally pronounce Enrico Caruso as number 1 and the remainder would be identified by a worldwide survey supervised by a committee that includes the United Nations, one ex-Pope, one ex-American President, Bill Clinton, and one Jewish banker to be named after Peace comes to the Middle East. Other than that I see no solution to this harrowing experience of living with wet and insipid opinionators who "sell certain singers" as actually being competent and alive and well enscounsed upon a fast tract to operatic stardom."

III. "Dear sir I want Villazon's items."

En fermant les yeux...

En fermant les yeux, je vois

Là-bas... une humble retraite,

Une maisonnette

Toute blanche au fond des bois!

Sous ses tranquilles ombrages

Les clairs et joyeux ruisseaux,

Où se mirent les feuillages,

Chantent avec les oiseaux!

C'est le paradis!... Oh non!

Tout est là triste et morose,

Car il y manque une chose,

Il y faut encore Manon!

Act II, Manon, Jules Massenet

Julián Gayarre

"A virile, vibrant tenor voice with the most beautiful timbre. When it comes from the chest, it exerts an irresistible power, penetrating the ear and the soul like the roar of the sea... When it comes from the head, it is radically transformed, and the voice that just a moment before had resonated with ardent and captivating intensity, is suddenly transformed into something very small and very gentle, a feminine voice, a kind of sigh that fills one with emotion, delight, ecstasy. Gayarre's voice is the most perfect that one could desire, and undoubtedly the most perfect that exists today."
Critic and musicologist, Antonio Peña y Goñi, in Arte y patriotísmo: Gayarre y Masini, 1882

“He had a voice of wonderful sweetness, full of a strange fascination that brought to mind the sound of angels and caused shivers of emotion. I never heard another voice its equal. It was the voice of paradise, an angelic voice”
Italian soprano, Gemma Bellincioni, in her memoirs - Roberto Stagno E Gemma Bellincioni Intimi, 1943

"The stage artist's glory is like one night's dream. A painter, a poet, a composer leaves behind his works. From us, what is left?... Nothing, absolutely nothing. One generation that says to another: "How Gayarre sang!"... When my throat says to me: "I can no longer sing", what will remain of Gayarre? A name that will last as long as the people who heard me, but after that no one. Believe me, Julio my friend, our glory does not last longer, nor is it worth more, than cigar smoke."
Julián Gayarre in a letter to Julio Enciso shortly before his death in 1890

Julián Gayarre began his career in 1869 in Varese, as Nemorino in L'elisir d'amore. His last performance was on December 8, 1889 in Madrid, as Nadir in Les pêcheurs de perles. He died 25 days later at the age of 45. There are no known recordings of his voice.

Not all heroes are tenors...

Erwin Schrott in the title role of Don Giovanni

Royal Opera House Covent Garden, 11 June 2007

Deh, vieni alla finestra, o mio tesoro,
Deh, vieni a consolar il pianto mio.
Se neghi a me di dar qualche ristoro,
Davanti agli occhi tuoi morir vogl'io!
Tu ch'hai la bocca dolce più del miele,
Tu che il zucchero porti in mezzo al core!
Non esser, gioia mia, con me crudele!
Lasciati almen veder, mio bell'amore!

Don Giovanni, Atto II, Scena 3

Man's a phenomenon, one knows not what,
And wonderful beyond all wondrous measure;
'T is pity though, in this sublime world, that
Pleasure's a sin, and sometimes Sin's a pleasure;
Few mortals know what end they would be at,
But whether Glory, Power, or Love, or Treasure,
The path is through perplexing ways, and when
The goal is gained, we die, you know -and then -
Lord Byron, Don Juan, Canto I, cxxxiv

"Erwin Schrott is the most sardonic, seductive, witty and mercurial Don Giovanni I have ever seen. This hugely gifted Uruguayan bass oozes sex appeal, but he doesn't just preen his good looks and firm pecs - this is a subtle and thoughtful characterisation of an insouciantly self-centred aristocrat, sung with clarity and sensitivity. His comic timing was immaculate, the champagne aria fizzed, the serenade melted, and he was dragged down to hell with splendid heroic defiance. An enthralling star turn."
Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph, 13 June 2007