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WELCOME TO HISTORICAL TENORS |
© 1996–2016 by Historical Tenors/François Nouvion; © 2017–2024 by Historical Tenors/Robert Schlesinger |
HISTORICAL TENORS is the most comprehensive site on tenors on the World Wide Web |
HISTORICAL TENORS provides biographies, discographies, photos, sound files, reviews and more on about 2190 tenors (and counting!) |
HISTORICAL TENORS is a non profit website, and intended for educational and scholarly purposes |
PLEASE CHECK the NEW and the READ FIRST pages (above), and the SITE PHILOSOPHY (below) |
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PLEASE RESPECT the copyright and the work that owners and contributors have put into this site – don't copy material without quotation! |
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THE SITE PHILOSOPHY This website is an impossible project. It aims at documenting every operatic tenor since the invention of the recording process, ideally with at least one sound file, at least one picture, a discography and a (however short) biography or career outline. Well... did I already mention that it's totally impossible to ever come close to such an encyclopedic aim? And yet, what this website has grown to over the years actually is a tenor encyclopedia - and a surprisingly exhaustive one, thanks to the contributions of many, many collectors and experts over many, many years. (Keep the stuff coming, folks!) The heirloom organization of the site is by sections that are partly geographic (like "Belgian tenors"), partly linguistic ("German speaking tenors"), partly by voice type ("Comprimari"). This may be less that logical, but as I said, it's well-established and will thus mostly remain for now, though probably not forever. And as a first amendment, the rather bizarre "East European" section is broken up into six more specific sections (Balkan tenors, Baltic tenors, Czech and Slovak speakers, Hungarian and Romanian speakers, Polish speakers, Russian and Ukrainian speakers). Be warned that the makers of this site have never been among those opera lovers who are always and inevitably amazed, particularly at contemporary singing, and who are convinced that if a singer has become famous, that's proof enough that s/he must be one of the great. On the contrary! Stardom is a matter of good luck (regularly also of good looks), and of marketing - and increasingly so! It has nothing to do with ability or quality, and many of the best singers have always been, and increasingly are, all but unknown; while an equal percentage of famous singers have always been, and increasingly are, just awful!! François Nouvion, this site's founder, used to write on the start page: "If you believe that Carreras, Domingo and Pavarotti were among the greatest tenors of all time, well this site is not for you." That's still very true, and it's also true of the predecessors and of course of the heirs of the "Three Tenors". Or wait... perhaps this site is precisely for you who think that such singers are great. The stuff on this site might open your eyes (or rather, your ears). If, on the other hand, you already know that of the "Three Tenors" generation, the three truly great tenors were, say, Bonisolli, Moldoveanu and Terranova, you'll find plenty of music and information here that's going to make you happy. Plus all of you, I swear, will literally find hundreds of tenors whose names you've never heard so far. Additions and corrections are most welcome and will be acknowledged. Robert Schlesinger |
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