Any great French tenors apart from Georges Thill?
David
decided in our blissful ignorance that Georges Thill was the only truly
great tenor of French ethnic heritage.
Any voices of dissent out there?
D.
TomKauf2
would. So, please add Vezzani and Luccioni. What about Escalais and Franz? How
about Affre?
Cheers
Tom
Commspkmn
would. So, please add Vezzani and Luccioni. >>
And, Vanzo as well.
Ken Meltzer
wk...@juno.com
On Tue, 11 May 1999 23:26:30 +1000 "David" <davi...@bigpond.com.fenork>
writes:
Paul Franz
Leon Escalais
Andre d'Arkor
Fernand Ansseau
That's just a start...
Bill
==================================
William D. Kasimer
wk...@juno.com (no attachments)
wk...@mindspring.com (for attachments)
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wk...@juno.com
wk...@juno.com wrote:
> Paul Franz
> Leon Escalais
> Andre d'Arkor
> Fernand Ansseau
Tom Kaufman privately reminded me that both d'Arkor and Ansseau were
Belgian, not French. He's right of course, but I included them as
native Francophones. I assume that Joseph Rogatchewsky wasn't, which is
why I didn't include him, but I doubt that you can tell from his
records.
Another great one that I omitted was Louis Cazette, who made some fine
records in his very short career.
Thill was a terrific, versatile singer, but like any singer with that
wide a repertoire, there are roles done better, or as well, by others.
Bill
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William D. Kasimer
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planet...@uswest.net
n...@home.now wrote:
> Had a discussion recently with friend, about French tenors, and we
> decided in our blissful ignorance that Georges Thill was the only
truly
> great tenor of French ethnic heritage.
>
> Any voices of dissent out there?
>
> Probably not the kind of tenor you want, but I think Vanzo even if he
was born in Monte Carlo.
JJ
> In article <19990511.13062...@juno.com>,
> wk...@juno.com wrote:
>
> > Paul Franz
> > Leon Escalais
> > Andre d'Arkor
> > Fernand Ansseau
>
> Tom Kaufman privately reminded me that both d'Arkor and Ansseau were
> Belgian, not French. He's right of course, but I included them as
> native Francophones. I assume that Joseph Rogatchewsky wasn't, which is
> why I didn't include him, but I doubt that you can tell from his
> records.
I believe Rogatchewsky was Russian.
Jon
Benjamin Maso
David wrote in message <373830...@bigpond.com.fenork>...
>Had a discussion recently with friend, about French tenors, and we
>decided in our blissful ignorance that Georges Thill was the only truly
>great tenor of French ethnic heritage.
>
>Any voices of dissent out ther
Several great or at least good French tenors have been mentioned already:
unfortunately most of them in the distant past. Other candidates are Emil
Scaremberg, Georges Imbart de la Tour, Charles Dalmores, Lucien Muratore,
Albert Alvarez, David Devries, Albert Vaguet, Gaston Micheletti (another
Corsican), Edmond Clement and one of my personal favorites: Charles Friant.
Friant started his career as a ballet dancer and actor (he played jeune
premier-roles in the company of Sarah Berhardt), but finally decided to
become a singer. His vocal technique was far from perfect: he wasn't without
intonation problems and his voice sounds guttural and constricted. But what
an actor! I hardly know a tenor better capable to express inner emotions
than Friant. Not by hamming, sobbing or other false histrionics, but by
suggesting repressed feelings which at any moment seem on the verge of
bursting out (but never really do). A fine example is the final scene of
Carmen (with Nino Vallin), but even more his Werther. He recorded his part
almost complete and listening to it gives me gooseflesh (on Vintage usic
Company VM 1003). I love Thill in this role, but I have to admit that his
characterizing is only sketchy compared with Friant.
A great french tenor, no doubt.
Benjo Maso
¨
I saw Roberto Alagna two years ago at the Opera Bastille in La Boheme. I
think that he is the best french tenor since a long time. Have you heard his
last CD records (la Rondine, les contes d'Hoffman) and of course his records
with his wife, Angela Gorgiu ?
I beleive that in the sixties, some tenors were so goods when they sang
french music -for instance Nicolas Gedda - that they surpassed all the
french tenors !
--
David <davi...@bigpond.com.fenork> a écrit dans le message :
373830...@bigpond.com.fenork...
> Had a discussion recently with friend, about French tenors, and we
> decided in our blissful ignorance that Georges Thill was the only truly
> great tenor of French ethnic heritage.
>
>
> D.
dio...@my-dejanews.com
Noone mentioned Rene Maison. A fabulous dramatic tenor who sang quite a
bit with Flagstad in the 30's and 40's and created the role of the
priest in Stravinsky's oratorio Persephone. I think he was Belgian,
however.
Ciao
Antoine
donpaolo
¨ <falchun...@wanadoo.fr> wrote in article
<7ha64c$fa2$1...@wanadoo.fr>...
> I beleive that in the sixties, some tenors were so goods when they sang
> french music -for instance Nicolas Gedda - that they surpassed all the
> french tenors !
Excellent point! I might add Bjoerling, Valletti & DiStefano to your
naming of Gedda!
Regards,
DonP.
C Giles
--
<g>
Divamanque (Evelyn Vogt Gamble)
sequence!
Divamanque (Evelyn Vogt Gamble)
Mike Richter
Part of the difficulty here is that the French school of singing was not
limited to France (or even to Europe). Thus, many would choose as the
finest living French tenor Leopold Simoneau, who is Canadian.
There may be a greater issue here in the matter of vocal production. The
classic French tenor uses far more 'head voice' than is accepted in the
great theatres today. That was not true for all - I think immediately of
Leon Escalais - but for many. I suspect that one reason so many
Corsicans show up on such a list is that they had enough Italian
infulence to provide more nearly the sort of sound we expect.
The French influence may best be heard in some of the Russian singers -
Rogatchewsky (already mentioned), Smirnov, Sobinov and Vinogradov among
them. Apparently, that production was accepted there more readily than
in the rest of the world. (Just guessing here, I admit.)
Mike
--
mric...@cpl.net
http://mrichter.simplenet.com
CD-R http://resource.simplenet.com
Benjamin Maso
dio...@my-dejanews.com wrote in message <7haf68$rro$1...@nnrp1.deja.com>...
>Noone mentioned Rene Maison. A fabulous dramatic tenor who sang quite a
>bit with Flagstad in the 30's and 40's and created the role of the
>priest in Stravinsky's oratorio Persephone. I think he was Belgian,
>however.
>Ciao
>Antoine
Yes, he was Belgian, so he doesn't count.
Benjo Maso
Benjamin Maso
Divamanque (Evelyn Vogt Gamble) wrote in message
<3738DC99...@earthlink.net>...
>Jen d'Reske (sp)? Or was Eduard the tenor and Jean the baritone?
Jean de Reske was the tenor (first baritone), Edouard the bass. But they
were Polish!
Benjo Maso
Hemidemi
a class by himself.
Benjamin Maso
Mike Richter wrote in message <3738E7C5...@cpl.net>...
>Jean was the tenor - but the brothers were Polish, not French.
>
>Part of the difficulty here is that the French school of singing was not
>limited to France (or even to Europe). Thus, many would choose as the
>finest living French tenor Leopold Simoneau, who is Canadian.
>
>There may be a greater issue here in the matter of vocal production. The
>classic French tenor uses far more 'head voice' than is accepted in the
>great theatres today. That was not true for all - I think immediately of
>Leon Escalais - but for many. I suspect that one reason so many
>Corsicans show up on such a list is that they had enough Italian
>infulence to provide more nearly the sort of sound we expect.
>
>The French influence may best be heard in some of the Russian singers -
>Rogatchewsky (already mentioned), Smirnov, Sobinov and Vinogradov among
>them. Apparently, that production was accepted there more readily than
>in the rest of the world. (Just guessing here, I admit.)
>
>Mike
I don't think using relatively much head voice is typically French, but
typically 19th century (Urlus is doing the same for instance). The fact that
French tenors continued singing in that style was probably because French
(and Russian) opera remained blissfully immune to the verismo-style of which
Caruso was the most prominent representative and which forced almost any
dramatic tenor to push his voice. The exceptions are indeed Corsicans like
Vezzani, Escalais, who after a conflict with the Paris opera spent most of
his career outside France, and Thill, who had his training in Italy.
Benjo Maso
planet...@uswest.net
Simoneau to that list.
> Regards,
>
> DonP.
daniel....@industrie.gouv.fr
Vezzani had a very hefty voice, but could be surprisingly good in
lighter repertoire (Manon for instance)
Luccioni was Thill's competitor for french people. He seems to me a
little more spinto, with a sounds that sometimes recalls Merli. I prefer
him to Thill in the Italian repertoire.
The reputation of the three of them in France was quite different,
Vezzani considered as a "big mouth" - the opposite of Thill, famous for
the purity of his singing.
Vanzo quite different : he's (still alive) a lyrico leggero, with a
style which recalls Schipa. IMO the best Nadir.
Daniel
di2...@my-dejanews.com
Australian (or American), I don't remember.
Hemidemi
Jack Giefer
Divamanque (Evelyn Vogt Gamble) <evg...@earthlink.net> wrote in article
<3738DC99...@earthlink.net>...
> Jen d'Reske (sp)? Or was Eduard the tenor and Jean the baritone?
>
Wren't they Polish?
DS445
was the Domingo of his day. Some sang certain roles better. Few, if any, sang
everything as well. He was not however alone. There were many great French
tenors. In some circles, Paul Franz (along with the Dutch Jacques Urlus) is
considered the great Wagnerian before Melchior, the only singers even mentioned
in the same breath with the great Dane. Do we include Francophones and ethnic
French from other countries? If so, we find the Canadian Raoul Jobin and the
great Belgians, Annseau, Maison, D'Arkor. Italians like to consider Luccioni,
Vezzani, Vanzo (I'm not sure if he is a Corsican) and the other Corsicans as
French only by an accident of force. Escalais, Cazette, and the others of that
generation and older represent another tradition. Thill, Vezzani, Luccioni and
the like are squarely in the twentieth century in style and method. For me,
the great French tenors of the latter third of this century were Vanzo, Lance,
and Simoneau. Vanzo lyric, later almost spinto, Simoneau as the pure lyric,
and Lance as the spinto. There was also the dramatic Guy Chauvet, but I don't
think he was in that class as a singer or artist. What he had coujld be
glorious, but iit did not last well. BTW, while were on the subject of French
singers and who is French, the great Crespin was half Italian!
Don
wk...@juno.com
ds...@aol.com (DS445) wrote:
> For me, Georges Thill was one of the truly great tenors of this
> century. He was the Domingo of his day.
Not to start yet another Domingo war, but I believe that the two
sentences above are not compatible.
> In some circles, Paul Franz (along with the Dutch Jacques
> Urlus) is considered the great Wagnerian before
> Melchior,
Actually, I think that Franz was the greatest Wagnerian tenor of the
century, period. But he sang in French, and didn't record more than
snippets of the roles, which makes Melchior a very valuable second.
Speaking of Simoneau, DG just released a CD of him singing operatic
arias and duets with his wife - it's 457 752-2, and a glorious CD.
Bill
--
William D. Kasimer
wk...@juno.com
andre35
no pasaran
andre35
Enrique Eskenazi
school.
Regards
---
Enrique
eske...@mail.sendanet.es
Io chi sono? Eh, non lo so.
-Nol sapete?
Quasi no.
Eleanor Kett
Enrique,
For French tenors how about Charles Burles? Wonderful cryspt French lyric
tenor. Haven't you heard his recording of "Lakme" he recorded with Mady Mesple?
Or how about his superb performance as the Brahmin in "Padmavatti" (with Gedda
and Horne). I highly recommend you listen to his enthralling rendition of the
aria "Padmavatti est l'image vivante du lotus celeste". Let me tell you this is
one of the most beautiful romantic arias composed in the 20th Century, and to
really be impressed, you shouldn't miss Burles.
Ellie
DS445
really is a tenor. But, Domingo, if nothing, is versatile and a first rate
musucian. Yes, I think (my opinion) Thill has the greater instrument. Franz
was truly magnificent.. Get the Romophone Opera en Francais. You will also
hear one of my absolute favorite soprano's, Germaine Lubin. The richness and
beauty of that voice was incredible. BTW, Vezzani's Wagner is ineresting and
Journet's utterly magnificent.
Don