# Three tenors?



## godzillaviolist (Jan 21, 2005)

hello,
Someone in another forum said:

>Do you mean Carreras, Domingo and Pavarotti? They are the greatest living tenors,

Okay, this is going to sound harsh but; says who? For one thing they are all getting quite old now, especially Pavarotti. They are _the most popular_ tenors undoubtedly, but that is by no means an indication of their talents. Also they don't really represent the variety of tenors out there. They consist of two spinto tenors and a spinto turned dramatic. There is no lyric tenor; the most important in terms of repetoire.
Also the person said;

>BTW, I adore the Three Tenors! Their voices, especially Luciano's, send chills down my >spine... but they can be discussed in the vocal music section!

My opinion on the tenors:

Carreras: Mediochre. He is a decent tenor, but not a great one.

Domingo: This tenor arguably has the best voice of the three. Great in his time, he is aging now and looking rather sad trying to portray twenty year olds ( and not sounding great either ). Also he never had the high notes. He was a great tenor- but not now.

Pavarotti: This man is perhaps the most over rated singer in history ( Callas is his only rival in this regard ). He started out as an okay lyric tenor, but he couldn't resist taking heavy parts- his voice went down the gutter. I thought he was okay at first, but after hearing truly lyric singing- tenors like Tito Schipa come to mind -Pavarotti sounded like a screaming meatball. Whats worse, the younger generation of tenors has copied him, both in weight and style. The lyric tenor voice has truly vanished outside of early music, and even there pseudo-Pavarotti's appear. This vocal tradgedy must be addressed, but it won't ever be solved until lyric singers learn not to be tempted by dramatic roles. 
godzilla


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## Daniel (Jul 11, 2004)

I don't like and listen to the Three Tenors too much, they only remind me of kind of "pop-culture". Personally i think the young Pavarotti was very good...


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## godzillaviolist (Jan 21, 2005)

*Singing decline*

I'd say it's more what he DID to his voice that made him an awfull singer later on. By his "three tenors" days he was already a quite rough. His recordings in the 70's and early 80's are best, past that, his decline was steep. 
It's influence I object to most. As an example, here is a modern lyric tenor;

http://www.michaelcolvin.com/Elisir.ram

Great voice! Beautifull timbre! But, as you can here in the middle sections, he is straining his voice to sound Pavarotti-ish. If he stops now, learns to project instead of push, he could become a great lyric tenor. I hope, but I doubt, that this will happen. I geuss in the mean time we always have countertenors  
godzilla


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## MustPractice (Feb 28, 2005)

godzillaviolist said:


> Pavarotti sounded like a screaming meatball.


Couldn't agree more.


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