The question is how we can find websites that deal with the details of operatic tenors from today to the 19th and 18th centuries.

If you use Google’s keyword tool with historical, tenors as keywords, you will find the following:

The most popular keywords, related to operatic tenors, are: Tenor ahead of tenors with different entries for 3 tenors, 4 tenors and so on. If you have tenor or tenor glasses, you don’t get any meaningful results. the same goes for a Yahoo search using the same keywords. The same is true of Bing.com as well. In each case that we are looking at, we will limit ourselves to the first page of the search results.

Now choose the keyword Tenori, Yahoo Search, Google and Bing.com to get a possible interesting Grandi Tenori site.

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

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

Yahoo Search: At the top of New Historic Tenors, but through another site, Grandi Tenori is in second place, and a possible New Greatest Tenor with Frank E. Dee. The first page of the search results also includes a link to Flute-related pages.

Bing.com: Provides a direct link to Historical Tenors in the first position, Grandi Tenori is in third place, while 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’s now examine those different possible sites:

Golden Music Memories of Yesteryear / Greatest Tenors With Frank E. Dee is the same site that provides the same current information on tenors that you can find elsewhere, while also providing a forum for primarily 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. It says in its introduction:

Grandi Tenori.com is an “E-Library” of biographies and articles on tenors, historical and contemporary, expanded with a rich analysis of aria versions, news on promising tenors, and discussions of tenor vocal qualities, stage presence and performance. The site also includes monthly reviews of opera on stage, on CD or DVD, spectacular photos, and featured singers of exceptional stature.

Grandi Tenori.com (GT from now on) is also a meeting place for opera lovers, be they simple amateurs or singers, both professional, young and aspiring. One of the goals 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 of which the majority (exempt from the longer articles in the “features” section) are no more than 500 words. Many of the links to the promised tenor bios don’t work. A closer look at the biographies unfortunately reveals the lack of knowledge of the previous editor and his assistants. Most of the biographies are not only full of strange comments about the singing, but also a lot of biographical information is inaccurate.

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

“Historical tenors, that is, all 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, twentieth-century tenors.”

The previous editor does not give any reason for this choice; instead, he declares that his choice was not “considered historically correct” (sic). The first section (“Historic Tenors”) does not have a single entry and, according to GT, there are two precarious 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 20th century tenors includes names like Björling, Lugo, Schmidt, Kiepura, etc. Why Rosvaenge and Schipa are post-Caruso tenors and not Lugo and Björling will likely remain the former editor’s secret.

GT staff love to steal information and present it on their website without acknowledgment. A curious case is that of Valero’s discography, which was copied entirely from Historical Tenors (HT), including an error. After the previous publisher realized the lack of recognition 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.” However, there are some phrases about this tenor, all of which is 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 practically dead and that the author and editor of the audio section of the month seems to be quite tired of writing for GT, since the audio of the month has completely stopped – and that the forum, full of fans of American opera and amateur singers, it’s the only reason GT is still online.

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

Now let’s take a look at the other seated HT. The HT website is the number one 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:

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

New is a link to a page showing the latest site updates with the corresponding links. There you also have a link to a previous updates page in case you missed the latest updates.

The tenor index shows a wide variety of singers indexes divided into categories mainly of linguistic origin (Italian, Spanish / Portuguese, English, Asian, Eastern European, etc.) with special categories that such tenors could have recorded but did not. , tenors that yes 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 lists from the 19th century for operas such as Guillaume Tell, Il Trovatore, etc.

Vital records of tenors give tenors dates of birth and death

Non tenor-zone has interesting materials about non-tenors, especially a specific comparison for the bass duo in Don Carlo is recommended.

The articles are divided into two categories, one on the singing of the great baritone Joseph Shore and another with articles that invite reflection 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. Regarding the 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 showing that he was probably the tenor who sang the most roles on stage, about 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 on good tenors that have been forgotten with recordings, some unique. While on the modern front, you can find Antonenko, Calleja, Villazón, Pavarotti, Domingo, Carreras, Annaloro, Poncet, Florez and so on. The site is also full of images that are not seen anywhere else. The site is also updated or corrected as new information becomes available.

The chosen site is Historic Tenors.