Franco Corelli: Prince of Tenors
by Rene Seghers, Franco Corelli
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Book Summary Information
Author: Franco Corelli, Rene SeghersEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-01-01
ISBN: 1574671634
Number of pages: 528
Publisher: HAL LEONARD CORPORATION
Book Reviews of Franco Corelli: Prince of Tenors
Book Review: Corelli the Magnificent
Summary: 5 Stars
I have seen Pavarotti live many times - I forget just how many. I saw Corelli live just twice. I could never forget.
For those who don't know or remember Corelli let me hasten to mention that he was considered the greatest tenor of all time. Caruso was voted third.
Pavarotti had a wonderful voice of course but for some of us he was always a little distasteful. With his enormous bulk he encouraged the public to laugh at classical music and opera. Pavarotti couldn't read music and learned his roles very slowly, if at all. He made opera haters love him because he reinforced their prejudice that opera was a freak show. Every man might wish to sound like Pavarotti but no one wanted to look like him.
Corelli was different - much different. Every man wanted to look like him. He was typically described as looking like a god. He was tall with broad sholders and a narrow waist. If Clark Gabel had been a bit taller he might have been able to play Franco Corelli.
Then there was the voice. Pavarotti was a middle weight. Corelli was a heavy weight or dramatic tenor. Much of this difference is simply volume. Corelli had a much bigger voice that Pavarotti, but some of the difference is also color, range and roles undertaken. Many dramatic tenors have a short top. Jon Vickers and Lauritz Melchiore for example didn't sing high Cs. Corelli did. He had a kind of baritonal sound like most dramatics but he sang many romantic lyric roles because he had the range and the looks. In the theater Pavarotti voice was admirable but Corelli's voice just grabbed you and lifted you out of your seat.
This book is a must read for any opera lover or would be opera lover. Not only was Corelli an electrifying performer he was a bit of a kook. He was dominated by his wife yet he was a man's man. He got in a lot of fist fights. If you booed him he was likely to jump off the stage and try to punch you out. He had serious stage fright but on stage he often chewed up the scenery. He seemed elemental and instinctive but he actually spent most of his life in study. We think of dumb Italian tenors like Pavarotti who needed months to learn a role. Corelli typically learned new roles without a coach in a week. He was hounded by women everywhere he went but was reclusive and faithful to his wife. He was personally shy and and retiring but on stage he often pushed the soprano back so he could get to the footlights.
Corelli was a true mass of contradictions.
Summary of Franco Corelli: Prince of Tenors
His exceptional good looks made him a matinee idol, and Franco Corelli - the Prince of Tenors - was dubbed ""Mr. Soldout"" for 20 consecutive years. In 1958, just seven years after beginning his career, he was already the highest-paid tenor in Italy. Following his Met debut in 1961, he was celebrated as the greatest tenor in the world, a position that he retained until his departure from the Met in 1975. His charismatic performances in such operas as La Vestale and Fedora (both in collaboration with Maria Callas), coupled with a formidable mystique, as well as a number of notorious and colorful incidents, including his real-life sword fight with Boris Christoff in Rome, the Callas walkout there, the beating up of a spectator in Naples, and the alleged biting of Birgit Nilsson on a Boston tour of Turandot, created a mania for Corelli. Nearly a decade in the making, this definitive biography is based on the author's extensive research of theater archives and interviews with the opera star's numerous friends, family members, colleagues (Nilsson, Pavarotti, and many others), as well as the management of some of the world's leading opera houses.Theater Books
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