The question is how we go about finding websites that deal in detail with operatic tenors from the present day to the 19th and 18th centuries.

If you use the Google Keyword Tool with Historical Tenors as your keywords, you’ll find the following:

The most popular keywords, related to opera tenors, are: Tenor in front of Tenors with different entries for 3 Tenors, 4 Tenors and so on. If you search for tenor or tenors, you don’t get any meaningful results. the same goes for a Yahoo search using the same keywords. It is also the same with Bing.com. In each case we are looking at, we will limit ourselves to the first page of the search results.

Now we are going to choose the keyword Tenori, Yahoo Search, Google and Bing.com produce a possible interesting site Grandi Tenori.

Now, using the keywords Historical Tenors, we get the following results:

Google: At the top of the list is an interesting site Historical Tenors, oddly enough, the site link is not direct but through other sites on the first page of search results. In the search list, there’s an entry for Golden Music Memories of Yesteryear, and finally, the first page of Google search ends with another link to the Historical Tenors site, even including one via Geocities, now a defunct service.

Yahoo Search: On top of new Historic Tenors but via another site, Grandi Tenori is in second place, and a possible newcomer Great Tenors with Frank E. Dee. The first page of the search results also includes a link to pages related to Flute.

Bing.com: Provides a direct link to the historical tenors in the first position, Grandi Tenori is in third place, while the Italian tenors. | Italy is in second place and Golden Music Memories of Yesteryear is at the bottom of the page, the other results are not really relevant.

Let us now examine these different possible sites:

Golden Music Memories of Yesteryear/Greatest Tenors With Frank E. Dee is the same site that provides the same run-of-the-mill information on tenors that you would find anywhere else, and provides a forum primarily for unsophisticated users. This is not what we are looking for.

Italian tenors. | Italy lists ten tenors that are also current information and nothing new. We can safely exclude that site as a repetition of the same information.

Grandi Tenori looks promising. He says in introducing him:

Grandi Tenori.com is an “electronic library” of biographies and articles on tenors, historical and contemporary, augmented with a rich analysis of aria performances, news on up-and-coming tenors, and discussions of tenor vocal qualities, stage presence, and performance. interpretation. The site also includes monthly reviews of opera on stage, on CD or DVD, spectacular photos, and outstanding singers of exceptional stature.

Grandi Tenori.com (GT for short from now on) is also a meeting place for opera lovers, whether they are amateur moms or singers, both professionals and young and aspiring. One of the objectives of the site is precisely to bring together fans of vocal art and, if possible, to promote young singers and artists who otherwise lack projection.

A closer look at the site reveals a different matter:

This electronic library, however, comes with less than 100 biographies, most of which (except for the longest articles in the “featured articles” section) are no more than 500 words. Many of the links to the biographies of the promised tenors don’t work. Unfortunately, a closer look at the biographies reveals the lack of knowledge of the previous editor and his assistants. Most biographies are not only full of bizarre comments about singing, but also much biographical information is inaccurate.

The rest of the site is written in exactly the same style. The biographies of the tenors are put in a strange order in which everything is organized around Caruso:

“Historical Tenors, that is to say, all the tenors from the 15th century to the first half of the 19th century, including the castrati; Pre-Caruso tenors (1850-1900), Post-Caruso tenors (1900-1930) and finally, Tenors of the xx.”

The Editor above does not give any reason for this choice; instead, it declares that his choice was not “intended to be historically correct” (sic). The first section (“Historical Tenors”) does not have a single entry and, according to GT, there are two pre-Caruso tenors: Giovanni Apostolou and Fernando Valero. Then comes a list of post-Caruso tenors: Alcaide, Cortis, Davidov, Gigli, Labinsky, Marini, Martinelli, Merli, Rosvænge, ​​Schipa, von Pataky, Zanelli. The list of tenors of the 20th century lists names like Björling, Lugo, Schmidt, Kiepura, etc. Why Rosvaenge and Schipa are post-Caruso tenors and not Lugo and Björling will likely remain the previous editor’s secret.

GT staff love to hijack information and present it on their website without acknowledgment. A curious case is that of Valero’s discography, which was copied entirely from Tenores Históricos (HT) -including an error-. After the previous editor noticed the misrecognition and unspecified error from the HT owner, GT now mentions the source, but the error is still there. Another case is the biography of Achille Braschi which, according to GT, is still “under construction”. There are, however, some sentences in this vein, all of which are taken from another article on Achille Braschi. On the positive side, the biographies written by Juan Dzazopulos are excellent. Mr. Dzazapulos also posts on the other HT site.

Now the articles section is pretty much dead and the author and editor of the audio of the month section seems to be pretty tired of writing for GT, as the audio of the month has completely stopped, and the forum, full of fans of the american opera. and amateur singers, it’s the only reason GT stays online.

Now GT has a new editor that promises a new look and new sections, but nothing has happened yet.

Now let’s look at the other HT site. HT website is the number 1 tenor site on the internet. When one lands on the index page, we find a very well organized page with a navigation bar at the top that shows:

News (site update), tenor index, sound index, tenor operas, tenor vital records, non-tenor zone, articles, reviews and memories, read/submit comments, credits/thanks, cartoons, GT pearls, links

New is a link to a page that displays the latest updates to the site with corresponding links. There you also have a link to an older updates page in case you missed the latest updates.

The tenor index shows a wide variety of singer indexes divided into categories mainly by linguistic origins (Italian, Spanish/Portuguese, English, Asian, Eastern European, etc.) with special categories such tenors could have recorded but did not, tenors that nothing for the site, etc.

The sound index gives you all the material sung on the site by composer, opera and singer.

Tenor Operas offer cast listings dating back to the 19th century for operas like William Tell, Il Trovatore, etc.

The tenors’ vital records give the dates of birth and death of the tenors

Non tenor-zone has interesting material on non-tenors, especially recommending a specific comparison for the bass duet in Don Carlo.

The articles are divided into two categories, one on the singing of the great baritone Joseph Shore and another with thought-provoking articles by Daniele Godor on Calleja, Pavarotti, etc.

Many tenor images, some very rare and unusual, are displayed on the sides of the index page and below the navigation bar.

It has reliable biographies and discographies on historical and modern tenors. As for tenors, the site is very extensive and even superior to the Kutsch/Riemens cyclopedia. The site provides audio files of almost any tenor between De Reszke and Domingo for free. Information about Rubini can be found that shows that he was probably the tenor who sang the most roles on stage, close to 200 roles. In the 19th century section you will also find information on Duprez, Nourrit, Abruñedo, Fraschini, etc. The Italian and Eastern European sections are particularly full of information about good tenors that have been forgotten with recordings, some unique. While on the modern front, you can find Antonenko, Calleja, Villazon, Pavarotti, Domingo, Carreras, Annaloro, Poncet, Florez, etc. The site is also full of images not seen anywhere else. The site is also updated or corrected as new information becomes available.

The site of choice is Historic Tenors.