Herbert studied singing in Milan and Munich and made his …

Lázaro’s early years were the years of an unusually promising tenor, the Caruso-successor, the incarnation of the Tenor-Torero, self-secure, with ringing top notes and fearless of extreme tessitura. Lauri-Volpi claims he could sometimes approach the audience at the proscenium in the middle of a performance, whispering to them: “Behold, you are listening to the number one tenor in the world!” Yet he didn’t succeed in becoming the household name Caruso had before him, despite the fame and the acknowledgment he enjoyed in his native Spain and throughout Central and South America. According to Lauri-Volpi, Lázaro “stopped his ascent half way for his fixation of imitating Caruso and surpassing his glory or for giving up the 19th century repertory and choosing to sing Mascagni’s operas.”

This young Ukranian tenor with a big voice has been …