HISTORICAL TENORS


urgently needs your donations to survive!

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)
DON'T MISS
our Facebook and Instagram pages
with news and suggestions what to select
from the wealth of material on this site
PLEASE RESPECT
the copyright and the work that owners
and contributors have put into this site –
don't copy material without quotation!
MANY FILES
on this site are in ra or rm format,
so please download Real Player for free
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



NEW

For the time being, primarily "old" content will be uploaded (again) – but in a technically (not aesthetically!) improved manner. Eventually, all links, particularly those to sound files, will work again (which too many of them haven't done for a very long time). Links to sections that have not yet been perfectly restored and reinstalled will remain inactive until everything in that section is working again.
GO TO RECENT UPDATES

/

CREDITS AND THANKS

This web page would not be as detailed as it is without the help of following individuals, in alphabetical order: Andres Acuña Guzman, Fernando Adam, Sergio Alfonsi, Giorgio Appolonia, Ashot Arakelyan, Fabian Arciniegas, Stathis Arfanis, Juan José Arias, Dina Azrikan, Algirdas Bagdonavičius, Vilijandas Bagdonavičius, Arkadi Bandukow, Oliver Barnedo, Guido Bathe, Fernando Battaglia, Jack Belsom, Yuri Bernikov, Eva Bertolis, Elchonon Bick, Anton Bieber, Richard Boijen, Gustave Botiaux, Luc Bourrousse, David Brandwein, Victor Brescia, Gilles Bresciani, Erik Bruchez, Harold Byrnes, Pirri Calogero, Paul Cammarata, Georges Cardol, Tonino Carlino, Samuel Cassons, Irina Casutt, Chris F. Catena, Paolo Cavassini, Pierre Ceccaldi, Jiyu Chen, Mark Chetwood, Serge Chèze, Egle Chisiu, Carlo Ciabrini, Leonardo Ciampa, Umberto Conforti, Martin Cooke, Gian Coral, Will Crutchfield, Balázs Csák, Fred Day, Alfred de Cock, Richard del Taglia, Davide Denti, Alex Dihes, John Di Lollo, Terence Doleschal, Marek Dolina, Carol Donelan, Pierre Duré, Robert Dure, Juan Dzazópulos, Vladimir Efimenko, Mel Eisenberg, Serge Escalaïs, Alain Étienne, Roberto Falcone, Miguel J. Fennick, Dana Fieda, Claude Fihman, Angelo Filistad, Alain François, Jacques Franken, Eduardo Gabarra, Daniele Godor, Jean Goury, Peter Groeger, Pekka Gronow, Thomas Gsell, Valeria Gualerzi, Vladimir Gurvich, Ross Halper, Frank Hamilton, James Hanrahan, Philip Hatzissimou, Eduardo Marcelino Herrera, Peter Hill, Edmund Hodges, William Hogarth, Edvard Hogestol, Larry Holdridge, Clemens Jabloner, Stefan Johansson, Egon Kaibel, Tom Kaufman, Marjan Kiepura, Gian Koral, Olga Korolyuk, Helmut Krautschneider, Aubrey Kreike, Piotr Kusiewicz, Frances Kutasi-Szabo, George Leotsakos, Joachim Leufgen, Richard Lindau, Robert Little, Larry Lustig, Vera Lyakhova, Alkis Magdalinos, Oscar Mago Bendahán, Armin Mairhofer, Geoffrey Mallinson, George Maran, Roberto Marcocci, Mario Marconcini, Gabriella Mariacher, Pippo Martelli, Carlos Martin, Francois Martini, J. Medina, Lysiana Medine, Paolo Michiotti, Igor Milner, Jean-Pierre Mouchon, Felix Müller, Julian Philip Myerscough, Andrey Naydenov, William Neill, Malcolm Nightingale, Imogen Norcroft, Walter Oeyen, Andrea Orsini, Alessandro Pagliazzi, Vittorio Pandano, Fridhardt Pascher, Michal Pekárek, Nicholas Peppas, Claude-Pascal Perna, John Freere Perry, Andreas Praefke, David Prager, Martin Ramor, Ken Reis, Claude Ribou, Andrey Rizhov, Léopold Robert, Montserrat G. Román, Victor Roman, Marcus Romedahl, Julian Rozental, Carla Rutili, Helge K. Sæbø, Akira Sakai, Lynn Samohel, Matthew Sampson, Albert Scerri, John Neville Scerri, Peter Schatborn, Alessandro Sciocchetti, Nick Secker, René Seghers, Danilo Serrano, Francesca Sgroi, Keith Shilcock, Joseph Shore, Thomas Silverbörg, Jolita Skinulyte, Benjamin Sloman, Raymond & Claudine Smeets, Brian Smith, Otto Striebel, Peter Strummer, Irene Suchy, George Everett Swails, Wesley Swails, K. Tanaka, Hélia T'Hézan, André Thomassin, Renato Toffoli, Giuseppe Tomaselli, Dragos Tomescu, Christian Tögl, Christian Torrent, Atro Tossavainen, Jaume Tribò, Alberto Trincucci, Sergey Tylibtsev, Frederik van der Heyden, Adriano Vargiu, Rafael Vázquez, Ildikó Végh, Richard J. Venezia, Tiziana Viganò, Marius Vlad, Georges Voisin, Stephen P. Wall, Derek Walsh, Helmut Weber, Axel Weggen, Tomi Wiegner, Jean-Paul Williart, Quade Winter, André Wium, Vladislav Zakrevsky, Pedro H. Zamagna, René Zeghers and Christian Zwarg.


© 1996–2016 by Historical Tenors/François Nouvion
© 2017–2024 by Historical Tenors/Robert Schlesinger






 Venice is indeed magical... and if you go, you should stay in a magical  accomodation, as well: La Rosa di Venezia