This amazing recording makes a love song of what you'd never have supposed to be one.
Lawrence O'Neil was a 1970s tenor for whom only some concert appearances are verifiable online, such as in Berlin (1978) and New York
(1974). In the Fanfare magazine (2012), I found the following lines:
"For those who don't know, O'Neill was an incredibly handsome Irish-American tenor who had studied with the widow of legendary
baritone Pasquale Amato and who produced his own independent LP of opera arias and songs in the late 1970s.
The joke among lovers of vocal music was that he looked 10 times better than he sang; his voice was pinched, nasal,
and very ugly."
The liner notes of that self-produced LP claim that he had sung with Baton Rouge Opera and New Orleans Opera, as well as concerts in
Baton Rouge and Houston – for what it's worth, because they also state that he appeared with the Metropolitan Opera on tour, which
is definitely a lie.
