From: Karen Mercedes
To: VOCALIST <vocalist>
Subject: Re: Domingo - a baritone?
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

On Thu, 16 Dec 1999 Tamarent-at-aol.com wrote:

> What a shame Domingo & Carreras are such dreadful singers.
>
> I hope they are able to keep their spirits up in light of this terrible
> deficiency. If only they had chosen different careers, their lack of ability
> would not hinder them so.
>
> Tami


Oh, give me a break. If we can't discuss the technical shortcomings of
major singers on this list, what exactly is the point?

Do not do a rec.music.opera to us, Tami. No-one even remotely implied
that Domingo or Carerras were dreadful singers. The only observation I
made was that both tenors have trouble with their top notes. I pity you
if you're one of those unfortunate souls who believe that the only way to
judge a tenor's quality is by how many high Cs he can produce. God knows,
there are many, many more tenors - including some of the most successful
in history - out there who CANNOT produce high Cs reliably well (and some
who cannot produce them at all!) than there are those who can. Perhaps
you've heard of the greatest Heldentenor of this century, Lauritz
Melchior?

The fact is, that there is little need for the dramatic tenor to ever sing
a high C; indeed, dramatic tenors seldom sing above an A or B flat.

And, by the way, Verdi never wrote the high C at the end of Manrico's "Di
quella pira" which is so often used as the measuring stick for whether a
tenor "has it" in terms of high Cs. That high C was interpolated by a
later singer, and remains due to tradition, the same way the cadenza with
the high C remains in Azucena's second aria - it's traditional, it wasn't
written by Verdi.

KM
=====
There is delight in singing,
tho' none hear Beside the singer.
- Walter Savage Landor
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