Steve Schwartz:

> one thing that really got me in the popular reporting was the  
> (unsupported)
> claim that Pavarotti was the Greatest Tenor of the Age.  Since they  
> never
> mentioned any other tenor -- Caruso, Slezak, Wunderlich, Tauber,  
> Gigli,
> Bjoerling, del Monaco, Melchior, Domingo, Windgassen, or even Corelli
> or Schiotz -- it sounded to me like they knew no other, and it came
> across as lazy journalism yet again.

Not sure who you read but one of the accounts I saw placed Caruso at  
one end of the 20th Century and Pavarotti at the other and placed  
heavy emphasis on the sheer quality of the voice.  Domingo was given  
credit for being probably the better musician.  Aren't the others you  
mention mostly long gone?  Interestingly, as I understand, Domingo  
and Melchior--whose voice had a uniquely exciting timbre--strarted as  
baritones.

> I thought Pavarotti possessed an exciting, natural voice but  
> nevertheless
> used it very crudely and very predictably.  I greatly preferred him in
> his very early career, when he was still a very lyric tenor.   
> *Then* he
> had both tonal beauty and musicianship.

There may be a consensus on this.

Jim Tobin

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