What's interesting to me about Martinelli is his almost complete lack of vibrato, I'm not sure who trained him but I don't know how a singer could gain such a following with a very alternative vocal style despite the vocal zeitgeist at the time. Of course in America people like less vibrato than in ...

The national style of old French singing has always been my favorite and you are exactly right one can see a major decline in individuality past WWII, I mentioned Vezzani and Scaremberg in an earlier post and I absolutely love Franz, great examples of the style! Here are some more examples of my fav...

I do prefer this performance of this

LaGioconda wrote:

Nonde wrote:Tell me a pre-50's tenor who can beat Juan Diego Florez in Rossini...

Fernando De Lucia, Giovanni Manurita, De Muro Lomanto, Dino Borgioli, Cesare Valletti, etc and then there are the Tells...

Very beautiful singers on this list, I definitely agree here...

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if his interpretation was better?

oddjobman wrote:An example of phony emotion and bad taste:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdUwbWH4E9I

If the singers move like this before they move me then they are definitely over acting to compensate for lack of voice, this is a perfect example thanks

On the question of whether or not we need another Verdi, I hope you will pardon me if I disagree. My view is that we desperately need another Verdi but his day is over, it just isn't going to happen, is it ? On the question of modern opera, as an old friend of mine remarked on the old Grandi-Tenori...

They definitely focus more on the composer and less on the singers, not that that is a bad thing. We don't really need another Verdi opera...

There are in fact many explanations, a number of which have been touched upon by people here. Certainly recording equipment and the recording process in general makes a difference. Certainly vocal technique is not the same (for the most part) although many voice instructors in modern times will cla...

Louis Cazette was once an opera-comique tenor long ago. A very pretty lyric tenor... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BYBybwI9Lw I love Cazette. Great tenor who died very young. Exceptional voice and refined singing. Try also Tosti´s "Pour un baiser" [YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?...