Thursday, September 06, 2007

Dear Mr. Holland:

Please try to get the facts right when you pen obits of the famous.
  • That first Three Tenors concert wasn't put on for the filthy lucre, but to raise money for Jose Carreras's medical care when he had leukemia.

  • Please stop with the canard about how Domingo's tenor is "manufactured." He's not a high-note singer, but I remind you that no one survives forty years and thousands of performances of the most punishing tenor roles unless he's a tenor - not to mention the fact that Domingo sounds pretty damn good after those forty years. If you don't believe me, check out the career of Ramon Vinay, baritone, who managed to sing tenor roles for about a decade before sliding back whence he'd come. Or look at the career of another great tenor who was originally, mistakenly, though a baritone, one Lauritz Melchior. Or, the great Carlo Bergonzi.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Actually, Carreras was already cured by the time the first 3 Tenors concert came along. The concert was a "celebration" of his recovery and was in fact put on for "filthy lucre"

Lisa Hirsch said...

I was at least half-right: the concert was ostensibly to raise money for the leukemia foundation that Carreras started.