Do we REALLY want a new tenor to come along who is better than Lanza?

[jora...@gmail.com]

Do we REALLY want a tenor to come along who is better than Mario?  (By “better” I mean more pleasing vs. technical merit). Now before you think oh, oh…Joe is into the Scotch again, I realize this is a strange notion BUT in all candor, haven’t we developed a psychological investment in Lanza after all these years? Would we admit it to ourselves if a new voice DID exceed our platinum standard? My thought on this is NO but a “close second” would be wonderful so that we would have a chance to hear music Mario never recorded. What say you?

[Michael McAdam]

Interesting thought, Joe. Especially about the chance to perhaps hear the pieces that Mario never got to record.

It would be nice if, like Calleja, the tenor was also a great fan of Lanza's.

Mike

On Tuesday, December 4, 2012 7:24:27 PM UTC-4, jora...@gmail.com wrote:

......a “close second” would be wonderful so that we would have a chance to hear music Mario never recorded. What say you?

[Derek McGovern]

Hi Joe: I've flirted with the same question myself, but I've always come back to the overwhelming conviction that a more beautiful, more perfectly-placed lirico-spinto tenor voice would be hard, if not impossible, to imagine. That luscious, velvety quality in the lower and middle registers---and the absolute seamlessness from top to bottom---coupled with thrilling squillo, power and outstanding expressiveness: what are the chances of a voice like that turning up in my lifetime?

The closest we've come since to a voice of comparable beauty has been the young Carreras of the 1970s, I feel---and he was an outstanding lyric tenor rather than a lirico-spinto who, even in his glorious heyday, lacked the security and bell-like ringing quality in the upper register that Lanza possessed. But Carreras had an incredibly beautiful instrument. 

Let's say, for argument's sake, though, that a tenor with a voice and singing commitment comparable to Lanza's did happen to come along. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to be able to experience such a singer on the contemporary stage! I'm not one of those peculiar individuals who only fully appreciates an artist once they're no longer with us :) But that doesn't mean, of course, that I'd ever turn my back on the tenor who changed my life.

Cheers

Derek

[Savage]

Any and all serious contenders would be welcomed with open arms or at least open ears.  Wouldn't it be great if an equally thrilling tenor voice were to emerge in the near future?  I doubt if anyone will surpass Mario, but would love to hear a serious contender.

                                                       David