Word: pavarotti
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...judgement of voices--thankfully--is a highly subjective process. Dogma has no place in art. Politics and religion seem to satisfy man's need for pigheadedness. But there is similarly no need to be pigheaded in favor of Pavarotti's voice, an attitude which I'm afraid has become far too widespread lately, swooning at the mention of his name and fainting at the sound of his voice is chic nowadays. Quite frankly, he's a second rate tenor in an era when first rate tenors seem to be extinct...
...Pavarotti's voice is the "bel canto" voice par excellence: light, thin, with a pleasant floating quality: truly lyric. In contrast to tenors like Jon Vickers or James McCraken, who sing as if they had swallowed cooking knives, Pavarotti's sings effortlessly. Nothing is worse than a singer who strains. But unfortunately, Mr. Pavarotti, like too many other lyric tenors, suffers from the identity crisis of a vocal lightweight. Not satisfied with the lyric repertoire, he wants to conquer the dramatic roles; Manrico, Radames, Canio. He could make no greater mistake. Nothing destroys a lyric tenor more quickly or completely...
...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...
...handle high notes. Jose Carerras or Placido Domingo often sing not just arias, but entire acts a whole step down. Today Tenors with "tops" are special phenomena. One need only recall singers like Giacomo Lauri-Volpi, whose upper range range with a clarion brilliance that would bury any Pavarotti high C. The great Fancesco Tamagno, the original Otello and perhaps the greatest Otello of all time, would often take arias up a half step or more because of the voice's increased power even at that pitch...
...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...