Word: carusos
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...From Caruso to Corelli, the Italian tenor has always been and remains music's only matinee idol. The tenors have preserved a paradoxical mystique, combining refined and vertiginous high C's on stage with crude pidgin English and fiery Latin lust off. In most respects, Pavarotti lives out this mystique, regularly publicizing his voracious sexual and insatiable culinary appetites. But when it comes to comparisons with forebears where it really counts, Pavarotti's mystique loses potency. On the subject of singing, mere mention of Pavarotti's name in the same breath as that of the illustrious Caruso and Gigli marks...
...even within his own specialty, of lyric singing, Pavarotti cannot match many of hs predecessors. For all its ease, the voice simply does not have the sheer beauty of a Gigli or a Caruso or a Tagliavini. These were "golden voices"; the sound was not light and thin, but light and full, with richness and texture to the sounds they produced; they soothed and caressed your ears. Pavarotti's voice is pretty, but not as startlingly beautiful...
...high notes do not a tenor make. At least they shouldn't even though high C's account for Mr. Pavarotti's sudden fame. Caruso was a B-flat tenor, as were, Pertile, and Schipa. High C's were simply out of their performing range. And some past greats, like Martinelli and Pertile not only lacked good high notes but lacked beautiful voices altogether. They made their reputations on vocal excitement and elegance of interpretation. Today most tenors sing with plodding monotony; no variety of color, no subtlety of phrasing, no dramatic imagination. Mr. Pavarotti uses his voice with...
...only took three or four of the opening crashing chords to humble Pabst. Supposedly, Pabst spun around in amazement, and then jumped off the podium to stare incredulously Horowitz's hands. At the end, the house rose, screaming hysterically. The leading critic wrote that "not since Hamburg discovered Caruso has there been anything like this...
...course, not talking about bringing back the good old days when a Caruso would stride forward, plant his feet squarely behind the prompter's box and, as it were, deliver his aria in person. When Strehler puts a soprano at her ease, or when he positions a chorus so that it does not have to shuffle around the stage while performing, he does it with logic and a convincing illusion of action. At his best, he preserves and freshens the essence of an older work. Says he: "That point of contact between past and present is fleeting. Often...