Because I love opera and have done all my life, Yale University Press very kindly sent me a copy of this book for me to review. Very much a 'newbie' as far as receiving books from this publishing house is concerned, but the thing that has struck me already is just how gorgeous these books are. Beautifully printed, high production values, paper you want to stroke and the whole package just resulting in a book that you want to hold just for its sheer sensory pleasure even before reading its content. I am currently half way through the Dickens biography by Michael Slater also sent to me and, apart form being a simply magnificent book (of which more later), it is also gorgeous to the touch.
OK back to the Tenor. I was married to one of these strange creatures, for they are a race apart I can assure you, for some 23+ years and over the years became used to the endless practicing, in music room and in bath (Patrick's rendition of Nessun Dorma one evening bringing riotous applause from all out neighbours who were listening in), the sucking of cough sweets, the panic when anybody with so much as a sniffle came within a radius of 100 yards (with two young children this was problematical), the warming up, the repetition of listening to the same phrase over and over again as he learned a new role/lieder/oratorio. This was all part of my life and I just took it as normal - heaven knows why when it was anything but. So I came to this book with the working knowledge of what a life of a tenor was all about.
I went to my first opera when I was about 12. It was the Barber of Seville sung in English and I saw it at the then Sadlers Wells opera. Sung in English with the Almaviva short and fat I was somewhat disappointed (this year saw Juan Diego Flores in this role at Covent Garden - oh my goodness) and it was not until I was taken to see Aida at Covent Garden that the gloriousness and wonderfulness of this art form burst upon me and I have been an ardent fan ever since.
The tenor has all the best tunes, we know this already though I always rather liked a baritone and I could go on about hat but won't as I am reviewing this totally fascinating book. I was expecting something a little learned and rather difficult to read and though, indeed, it has obviously been heavily researched and sourced it is written in a relaxed and informative style that enabled me to zap through this in one morning with huge enjoyment.
Difficult to pick out a part of Tenor to concentrate on as overall it is just such an interesting book. Best to run through the chapter headings I think to give you an idea of the stages in this history: Prehistory of the Voice; Handel, Mozart and the Tenor-Castrato connection (this always makes me wince); The Tenor as Artist; Caruso and the Italian Succession; France; Russia, Romantic Tenor Hero; Heldentenor.
These are just a few of the aspects of the Tenor voice covered and I had more interest in some than the others because of my personal interest. The section on Heldentenors and Wagner was, of course, one of the first chapters I read. One famous such tenor Melchior, who was brave enough to leave the Festival in Bayreuth because of its politicization, a very career risking move, appeared at Covent Garden and became a long standing favourite at the Met in New York. Melchior became involved in radio, television and theatre work so the 'cross over' singer is not a new phenomenon.
Later in this section Cooper discusses Rene Kollo, who I saw sing and then Siegfried Jerusalem, who I remember well as a sexy and gorgeous Siegmund in a televised Ring shown on the BBC back in the seventies (yes an entire Ring on the BBC - can you imagine that now? No need to answer that).
Then James King, who I never saw in Wagner, but remember hearing him in a dreadful performance of Il Trovatore at ROH - I can assume he must have been having an off night as I have heard him sing beautifully on record and TV - this was the only time I saw him live, sadly. Jon Vickers - magnificent voice and though I never saw him live I have his recording of Fidelio and Othello on my shelves.
I have concentrated only on the Heldentenor section of Cooper's excellent book, but of course I cannot possibly leave this review without mentioning the Three Tenors. Difficult to emphasise just how much impact this one concert had on the spread of opera worldwide - I remember watching it with my husband and two daughters and as the evening wore on the excitement and sheer total thrill of watching Carreras, Pavarotti and Domingo producing sound after glorious sound was overwhelming. While I deplore some of the current so called 'opera singers' promoted by record companies and a certain radio station, and who are nothing of the kind (you know who you are...), I have to rein in my snobbish tendencies and remind myself that I am just so glad that more and more people are listening to opera in any shape or form. It is the greatest art form in the world, well in my humble opinion anyway) and the tenor voice, whether we like it or not, is the one that has a visceral quality that will grab you and thrill you.
I have been present in an opera house and heard Carlo Bergonzi (elegant, honeyed phrasing, not a nasty sound anywhere, sublime); went to a dress rehearsal and then a performance of Verdi's I Lombardi when I heard Carreras for the first time and practically had to be carried out on a stretcher; Pavarotti and Sutherland in Lucia di Lammermore when the Sextet brought proceedings to a halt while the audience shrieked and screamed; Domingo in Verdi and more recently in Wagner, which I will never EVER forget; further back in time I have heard James King, Alberto Remedios (ENO Ring-magnificent), Charles Craig (long forgotten English tenor, mentioned here, who had a wonderful voice - saw him as Radames in Aida), Juan Diego Flores in Barber - well I could go on and on and add to that television appearances and all the opera recordings I own.
I cannot finish without mentioning Giuseppe di Stefano an Italian tenor who smoked too much, drank too much and womanised too much and who wrecked his voice in the end, but for ten glorious years was THE Italian tenor. It was the recordings of Italian opera with Di Stefano, Callas and Tito Gobbi that I played over and over again as a teenager (played the records so often they resembled lace doyleys at the end) and I have never forgotten his full bodied and totally committed approach. When I first heard the young Carreras I was struck how his phrasing was similar to that of Di Stefano, and then read that he had been his hero ....so the tradition goes on and on.
I am straying wildly form the main reason for this post which is to review this book, but then I do tend to get carried away when I discuss opera as I love it sooooo much but back to Tenor - the History of a voice..
And what do I think of it?
Totally fascinating, meticulously researched, a book covering the history of the tenor voice up to date, can be kept on your shelves as a book to be taken down and referred to at any time, flowing style, total honesty about past and present singers and, in short, a simply marvellous book. And, as I mentioned above, the tradition continues with new and exciting singers coming to the fore. We may have lost Pavarotti and Carreras now retire, we still have Domingo but even this superb singer cannot go on for ever, and it is a comforting thought that the tenor voice will never die, the chapter Post War Losses and Gains makes this very clear. I gather that John Potter is a tenor himself so he knows all about his subject.
I close with this rather touching anecdote about Francesco Tamagno who was of the first tenors to record. Nowadays when all singers can hear their own voices at the touch of a button of the click on an iPod, it is difficult to realise how a singer must have felt to hear himself for the first time:
".....but to watch Tamagno as he stood by machine, at times leaning lovingly over it, listening all the while with profound enjoyment to the tones of his own robust, colossal voice. From time to time he would ejaculate with a broad smile "Che bellazza" or "Com e bello, non e vero?"
Isn't that lovely?
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