# Sopranos or Tenors



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Who do you think sell records and sell tickets better: sopranos or tenors. I know many people have one or the other group they favor. The Three Tenors made a sh*toad of money, but Nilsson left the fabuloulsy funded Birgit Nilsson Foundation. Which do you think has more fanatic followers... Tenors or Sopranos???


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

I just don't see many tenors who would draw me (Villazon and Kaufmann would and perhaps Florez), but there are many sopranos that would draw me (though I even more like altos).


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## Sieglinde (Oct 25, 2009)

Sopranos maybe, although for me the deciding factor when buying tickets are the baritones. Then again, I tend to go for Verdi.


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## Bonetan (Dec 22, 2016)

Tenors yo. There's no Three Sopranos :lol:


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

Bonetan said:


> Tenors yo. *There's no Three Sopranos* :lol:


That's because none of them can get along together long enough to produce a recording.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

I think the 3 tenors was a marketing stroke of genius. I don't consider them traditional opera as all were amplified. Sutherland I remember reading somewhere had an estate worth hundreds of millions. Memory fades. For many of the gays, like me, it is all about the women. Of course the new gays are different from my generation more frequently than the baby boomer crowd.


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

A good tenor is a sack of gold for an opera house. I think it was Corelli (maybe) who had a row with a baritone and demanded he be dismissed from the production. The opera house had no alternative but to decide on the tenor's side, no matter what the rights or wrongs. Baritones are two a penny. Tenors a very rare bird.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

My guess is tenors. ( I know they're MY favorite!)


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## Bonetan (Dec 22, 2016)

DavidA said:


> A good tenor is a sack of gold for an opera house. I think it was Corelli (maybe) who had a row with a baritone and demanded he be dismissed from the production. The opera house had no alternative but to decide on the tenor's side, no matter what the rights or wrongs. Baritones are two a penny. Tenors a very rare bird.


Exactly! A good tenor is just more rare, so it would make sense for them to be more of a draw. Good sopranos are everywhere, especially lyrics.


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## howlingfantods (Jul 27, 2015)

Gee I don't know--are there any examples of extremely fanatic followers of specific sopranos or tenors online?


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

I prefer sopranos and tenor is my least favourite voice type.

However, the question is which make more money?

I think that may depend at different times, but at the moment the big stars seem to mostly be tenors (Kaufmann being the prime example, but you have Florez, Calleja and Beczala too). Netrebko and Gheorghiu (who doesn't sing much anymore) are the only soprano superstars I can think of at the moment.

N.

P.S. And this isn't about which are the greatest artists of today. I'm thinking solely in terms of who is likely to be the bigger box office draw.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

DavidA said:


> A good tenor is a sack of gold for an opera house. I think it was Corelli (maybe) who had a row with a baritone and demanded he be dismissed from the production. The opera house had no alternative but to decide on the tenor's side, no matter what the rights or wrongs. Baritones are two a penny. Tenors a very rare bird.


This is what I was thinking. I think a great tenor might be less rare than great sopranos. Look at how Jonas Kaufmann rules the opera world today like the Pav did in his day.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

The Conte said:


> I prefer sopranos and tenor is my least favourite voice type.
> 
> However, the question is which make more money?
> 
> ...


If I could redo my thread I might skew it more in this direction. When it comes to casting, who can command bigger salaries due to scarcity. I wonder if Corelli made the same as Nilsson for Turandot?????????


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

howlingfantods said:


> Gee I don't know--are there any examples of extremely fanatic followers of specific sopranos or tenors online?


I don't know about this particular group, but I've certainly experienced quite a few over the years. They've tended to be older opera obsessives - fans of Milanov, Tebaldi, Tucker, etc. There was one guy on a forum who literally followed Hildegard Behrens around the world and saw virtually every performance that she gave.


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## Meyerbeer Smith (Mar 25, 2016)

What about countertenors?

And what about Bartoli?


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Bonetan said:


> Tenors yo. There's no Three Sopranos :lol:


side note: I think that would be a pretty interesting. like, let's say you took a dramatic soprano like Helen Traubel, a lyric soprano like Claudia Muzio and a super high sfogato coloratura like Ingaborg Hallstein. all very different voices which could compliment each other well in a trio.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

I think it depends on the singer, and their popularity. There is no denying that Caruso was once the most famous singer in the world and could command fees higher than any other. Indeed, at his peak, his performance fees exceeded $500,000 annually, which was worth a lot more back then.

Callas was as famous as a film star by the late 1950s, which no doubt made her more popular than any other singer. You only have to see the footage of the queues outside the Met, when she returned to the house in 1965. She may have been past her best, but it didn't stop people wanting to see her. Incidentally the Met had a top fee, which would be granted to all their star singers. Callas apparenty wanted to be the highest paid singer in the world and would pester Bing to pay her just one cent more than everyone else. Of course he refused, saying it would be the most expensive cent he had ever paid.

I doubt any soprano was as popular as the three tenors, when they were at their peak, particularly Pavarotti and Domingo.

Nowadays I'm not sure any singer commands the same sort of loyalty or popularity.


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## Bonetan (Dec 22, 2016)

Dr. Shatterhand said:


> What about countertenors?


I try my best to pretend they don't exist :lol:


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Bonetan said:


> I try my best to pretend they don't exist :lol:


yup. I like singers who actually sound their gender.


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## Bonetan (Dec 22, 2016)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> yup. I like singers who actually sound their gender.


But wait...you're not interested in female basses?? I call them countercontraltos :lol:


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Bonetan said:


> But wait...you're not interested in female basses?? I call them countercontraltos :lol:


I mean "contralto" already means "counter-alto", so that's kinda redundant :lol:


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> I mean "contralto" already means "counter-alto", so that's kinda redundant :lol:


Counter contralto maybe is a female baritone:


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## Aerobat (Dec 31, 2018)

Seattleoperafan said:


> If I could redo my thread I might skew it more in this direction. When it comes to casting, who can command bigger salaries due to scarcity. I wonder if Corelli made the same as Nilsson for Turandot?????????


I think to a degree that depends on the popularity / reputation of the singer, regardless of fach, and it also depends on the opera being performed and who will be the biggest draw for the audience. Florez & Kaufmann are both very bankable, and are also excellent performers on stage. In staging L'elisir d'Amore, you could argue that the tenor is the most important role, whereas in other works the Soprano or Mezzo will have a greater impact.

So, it's a combination of factors that determines which will command greater salaries....


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

GregMitchell said:


> I think it depends on the singer, and their popularity. There is no denying that Caruso was once the most famous singer in the world and could command fees higher than any other. Indeed, at his peak, his performance fees exceeded $500,000 annually, which was worth a lot more back then.
> 
> Callas was as famous as a film star by the late 1950s, which no doubt made her more popular than any other singer. You only have to see the footage of the queues outside the Met, when she returned to the house in 1965. She may have been past her best, but it didn't stop people wanting to see her. Incidentally the Met had a top fee, which would be granted to all their star singers. Callas apparenty wanted to be the highest paid singer in the world and would pester Bing to pay her just one cent more than everyone else. Of course he refused, saying it would be the most expensive cent he had ever paid.
> 
> ...


What about Fleming and Netrebko?


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## Bonetan (Dec 22, 2016)

Fritz Kobus said:


> Counter contralto maybe is a female baritone:


LMAO!!! This is gold


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## Music Snob (Nov 14, 2018)

It is the sopranos that won me over... a song like Ruhe Sanft from Zaide is such ear candy that can convert many to opera. Tenor voices are more of an acquired taste IMO .... However....

After immersing myself in Wagner’s music I have come to the conclusion that many Mozartian/ Italianate type singers are really shrill- too shrill. I feel that can be a turn off for some folks new to the genre. I’ll take Flagstad any day over Callas... not to mention the myriad of mediocre sopranos in the Baroque and Classical genres nowadays.

As far as tenors go, the only one that really floored me was Melchior. That guy is in a league of his own. Of course his repertoire is not for everyone.


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