others have greatness thrust upon them
As you may recall, last year the BBC Music Magazine published a list of “The 20 Greatest Sopranos of All Time,” and one or two of you didn’t quite see eye to eye with their selection.
Well, this year they’ve turned their attention to the top 20 among tenors, who are (in ascending order of greatliness):Â
20. Sergey Lemeshev
19. Wolfgang Windgassen
18. Alfredo Kraus
17. Anthony Rolfe Johnson
16. John McCormack
15. Franco Corelli
14. Peter Schreier
13. Juan Diego Florez
12. Carlo Bergonzi
11. Tito Schipa
10. Peter Pears
9. Nicolai Gedda
8. Jon Vickers
7. Beniamino Gigli
6. Lauritz Melchior
5. Jussi Bjoerling
4. Fritz Wunderlich
3. Luciano Pavarotti
2. Enrico Caruso
1. Placido Domingo
Jesus Christ. In what crazy, miserable world is Peter Schreier regarded as greater than Franco Corelli?!?!
Seriously- what’s the criteria here??
Domingo as the greatest tenor who ever lived? Greater than Caruso and Bjoerling? I’m totally speechless. I’m happy that Lemeshev was mentioned, but come on!
Where’s Di Stefano? Pertile? Richard Tucker?
Grr
What about Del Monaco? Vinay? Martinelli?
And, to be fair, I’m surprised to not see Lanza on the list. Sure, he may have had a very minor stage career, but he sure got a lot of people singing and listening.
Does anyone else raise an eyebrow at Pears and Schreier being more highly placed than Kraus? These “best of” lists are subjective–no one will ever agree on it.
Yeah, I have a hard time with this list. I mean, in terms of Placido and his artistry and his IMPACT in general on OperaWorld, now that he’s an artistic director of a couple of houses, and a conductor, he’s tremendously important. But I think even he might blush at being called greater than Caruso…
Why are we preoccupied with having to rate opera singers? Beauty is in the ear of the beholder.
Anthony Rolfe Johnson? Isn’t it rather amazing that the BBC Magazine list didn’t also include Walter Widdop,Heddle Nash,Frank Mullings,etc.
Johnson and Schreier but no Jean de Reszke? Please!
could the list more accurately described as Greatest Tenors since the Invention of sound Recording?
I am not sure there is sound recordings available for Jean de Reszke. That would explain for me the absence of people like Rubbini, Tamberlick, and the old school.
Gran dio, this list is…well…odd.
But since I’m one of those people who try and see the bright side, let’s make our own lists of who we think should be on it.
Here are my top 5
1 – Caruso
2 – Vickers
3 – di Steffano
4 – Corelli
5 – Ramon Vinay (an oddball choice to be sure, but he’s like a pre-Domingo in vastness of the rep).
Thoughts?
I would certainly say that Domingo may be the most versatile tenor, or at least one of them. But ranking is pointless, as it is with anything. This reminds me of the AFI lists of 100 greatest comedies of all time, etc. Somehow, Some Like It Hot was voted number 1 of all time. And last week in the NY Times Magazine section referred to Tootsie as the greatest comedy of all time, bypassing The Women, Auntie Mame, Kate and Spence, Cary Grant, His Girl Friday, What’s Up, Doc, etc. I sent an email to the magazine editor, as I did just now concerning Mr. Holland’s opus.
And how come Wenarto’s boytoy isn’t on this list?
What kind of piece of shit tenor list gives the number one spot to a baritone? Domingo isn’t fit to clean Alfredo Kraus’ toilet bowl or Pavarotti’s dirty underwear. And where is Jose Carreras? Del Monaco, Martinelli, Di Stefano? hahhahaaha