Top Ten Tenors

[Petrushka]

Bjorling - yes!

(And Nicolai Gedda).

Yes to both. That recording of Nessun Dorma was one of my favourites on an old HMV Treasury LP when I used to sing along to it (very badly).

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Bjorling - yes!

There's an interesting chapter on Bjorling in John Culshaw's Putting the Record Straight. Not altogether favourable, but that had little to do with his magnificent voice.

[Petrushka]

Anyone who was present at the Barenboim Prom Gotterdammerung last summer could not possibly leave out Andreas Schager from the list. He was a total natural as Siegfried and must surely be a big, big name in the future.

[Beef Oven!]

Bjorling - yes!

(And Nicolai Gedda).

OMG!! How did I forget Nicolai Gedda

[Beef Oven!]

Yes to both. That recording of Nessun Dorma was one of my favourites on an old HMV Treasury LP when I used to sing along to it (very badly).

Was singing along to it myself, earlier (very badly)!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Ernst Kozub - anyone heard of him? He was originally cast as Siegfried in the Decca/Solti Ring cycle, but was replaced by Windgassen after Kozub failed to learn the part. However, it later turned out that Kozub was ill; he died in 1971.

[Zucchini]

Carlo Bergonzi for musical intelligence and seamless vocal production
Jon Vickers for overwheming intensity
Mark Padmore because I really like his voice
Jonas K. I've only heard him once but so classy...

For visceral thrill, Franco Corelli. When he let fly it was like being hit by a cannon.

[Petrushka]

Ernst Kozub - anyone heard of him? He was originally cast as Siegfried in the Decca/Solti Ring cycle, but was replaced by Windgassen after Kozub failed to learn the part. However, it later turned out that Kozub was ill; he died in 1971.

Yes indeed. 'Our Siegfried' in Ring Resounding. He can be heard in Solti's recording of Tristan in the role of Melot. In an ironic coincidence, similar circumstances occurred at the Solti Ring in Bayreuth in 1983. The culprit there was Reiner Goldberg and he was replaced by Manfred Jung who had sung the part in the 1976 centenary Ring.

[Richard Tarleton]

Carlo Bergonzi for musical intelligence and seamless vocal production
Jon Vickers for overwheming intensity

Jonas K. I've only heard him once but so classy...

Bergonzi the tenor I'd most like to have heard live but didn't. Vickers I did, thankfully, just twice.
I'd have to pass on Padmore but Kaufmann definitely. My other 7:

Placido Domingo
Luciano Pavarotti
Philip Langridge
Martyn Hill
Ben Heppner (on a good day )
Gosta Wynberg
Wolfgang Windgassen

[Petrushka]

Bergonzi the tenor I'd most like to have heard live but didn't. Vickers I did, thankfully, just twice.
I'd have to pass on Padmore but Kaufmann definitely. My other 7:

Placido Domingo
Luciano Pavarotti
Philip Langridge
Martyn Hill
Ben Heppner (on a good day )
Gosta Wynberg
Wolfgang Windgassen

I saw Vickers just once in a 1982 Tristan at Covent Garden under Colin Davis. I saw both Reiner Goldberg AND Ben Heppner in the same evening in the role of Stolzing in Die Meistersinger at Covent Garden when the former had to withdraw at the end of Act 2 and Heppner took over.

[Richard Tarleton]

I saw Vickers just once in a 1982 Tristan at Covent Garden under Colin Davis. I saw both Reiner Goldberg AND Ben Heppner in the same evening in the role of Stolzing in Die Meistersinger at Covent Garden when the former had to withdraw at the end of Act 2 and Heppner took over.

My sister saw him in Tristan, something I've never quite got over, I saw him in Otello and Les Troyens. Heppner - some understudy! I have the Met DVD of M'singer and his recording with Sawallisch, heard him too in Troyens, but witnessed his onstage breakdown in Tristan....

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Yes indeed. 'Our Siegfried' in Ring Resounding. He can be heard in Solti's recording of Tristan in the role of Melot. In an ironic coincidence, similar circumstances occurred at the Solti Ring in Bayreuth in 1983. The culprit there was Reiner Goldberg and he was replaced by Manfred Jung who had sung the part in the 1976 centenary Ring.

I always thought it was Rene Kollo who performed the role of Siegfried in the centenary Ring. Or did they rotate?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I always thought it was Rene Kollo who performed the role of Siegfried in the centenary Ring. Or did they rotate?

Manfred Jung on the videos (I think - it's certainly not Kollo).

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Manfred Jung on the videos (I think - it's certainly not Kollo)

It seems we were both right. Kollo in 1976-78 (including the televised performance); Jung in 1979-80 (including the filmed version).

[Petrushka]

It seems we were both right. Kollo in 1976-78 (including the televised performance); Jung in 1979-80 (including the filmed version).

Kollo sang in Siegfried only; Jess Thomas (now there's a name no-one has mentioned) sang the role in Gotterdammerung in 1976.

I saw Kollo sing the role in Siegfried at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin in 1990 and met him afterwards.