ML Hart - The Tenor Book 2 / 109 Interviews: All About the Book

THE TENOR BOOK2 109 INTERVIEWS: Just what IS it about tenors?

A great tenor is a rare creature. In the whole world, there are only a handful in any generation, and you can name them all - that's how rare. But to make a great career, talent alone is not enough. Some would say it takes a brilliant PR agent... but ultimately, the singer has to deliver. It really takes a combination of determination, strength, skill, some luck – all added to a splendid voice - in order to make it happen.

"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture."

- Elvis Costello

I asked a lot of different people just what it was, anyway, about those tenors... Why not just tenors? I tell people it’s sort of like looking at a hurricane. If I only talked to tenors, it would be like standing in the eye of the hurricane - and you get a wonderful view from that point. But if I move out of there, and look at an infrared satellite photo, or if I'm at landfall, then I'm going to get a very different picture.

George Jellinek - writer and radio host: "The Vocal Scene"

And that's exactly what's happening. It would be easy to say everyone has an agenda, but there's little of that promotional/soapbox/I-me-mine thing going on - though the dialogue and conversations have been interesting, that's for sure! By talking to stage directors, composers, conductors, other singers, coaches, backstage crew, and administrative people in the opera world, I'm getting a complete - if complicated - map of what being a tenor is all about.

So this isn't a recitation of first-I-did-this and then-I-appeared-here – it's not a resumé. It's not gossip either, but rather, an open look at how they do what they do onstage. Along the way, there's getting started, getting a break, concerns about the business side of the job, what keeps them going, how they fit into the whole process of creating the onstage magic.

You could say it's a profile piece - but not a profile of any one singer. It's perhaps more a mosaic, giving an overall profile of tenors and their day-in, day-out approach to their craft, which gives us the big-picture look at the art of opera.

"I think when anything is at an extreme and one suspects it may be getting toward the limit, the excitement is heightened. There’s a certain sexuality in all of this, a sensuality in it all - there’s no doubt about that - which gets the blood coursing around that much the quicker. And there’s an animalistic quality to it as well... something like the law of the jungle, if you like. But you recognize an animal that is in full cry, which I think is what a tenor is doing at that particular moment."

- Thomas Allen (baritone)

"When I was 17 or 18, I was singing as a baritone, but it was the tenor voice that I was most excited by - I spent all my pocket money on 78s, Caruso and Gigli and Björling and Tito Schipa. And that tenor music, I believe it’s something to do with the sheer fact that the higher you go the more exciting it becomes. Possibly also the more dangerous it becomes.

"The average member of the public is never aware, unless you have perfect pitch or you know the music very well, that a baritone is at the upper extreme of his range. And even when he sings a high A, equivalent to the tenor high C, it’s not the same kind of thing. You don’t know there’s a famous high note coming - is he going to get it? There’s never any doubt. Whereas when the tenor is preparing for the high C in the Bohème aria, everybody knows it’s a trapeze act coming. And he hasn’t got a safety net. Is he going to tumble? I think there’s something of that in it, as well."

- Nigel Douglas (tenor)

Martha Jane Howe - singer (mezzo-soprano)

B.H. Barry - fight director/choreographer for opera, ballet, theatre, and film

Victor Callegari - makeup supervisor, at the Met for 30+ years

THE INTERVIEWS

THE AUTHOR

The interviews and photographs are being sorted into chapters about first steps as a singer, rehearsals, the joys of travelling, recitals, recordings, and much more - the good and the bad, in other words.

There will also be a historic timeline of opera's landmark tenor roles and the singers who defined them forever... and sidebars about topics that need more discussion or context: Mario Lanza is one. Microphones - or "enhanced sound" - in the opera house is another.

"What is the use of a book without pictures or conversations?"

- Lewis Carroll

AUTHOR'S JOURNAL "That's an interesting question...!"

"No matter what you write, be it a biography, an autobiography, a detective novel, or a conversation on the street, it all becomes fiction as soon as you write it down."

- Guillermo C. Infante

I realized early on the book would be based on information I needed to get from interviews. I started with a list which kept expanding as people would recommend names of others I should talk to. Not just tenors, not even just singers, but a lot of different types of people in the business. Requests were made, and I began working with schedules - when could I meet with someone? where? It was like a very complicated jigsaw puzzle.

Usually I call the interviews "conversations," because I prefer the implication of a give-and-take dialogue rather than an interrogation. Certainly they were based on questions and answers. But as the interview process went along, I ended up with about 5 main questions I'd ask everyone, and then let the conversation guide me to other questions. People will generally talk about what's important to them, when not constrained by a framework of sound-bite answers to the same questions everyone asks.

For those interview veterans, accustomed to a list of questions from a journalist, there was often surprise, often not at all concealed. "That was painless" was a comment I heard more than once as we wrapped up. "No one's ever asked me that before," and "That's a good question" were others. "That's an interesting question..." was something I also heard - I chose to take it as a compliment!

The vast majority of my interview subjects were honest and candid in our conversations, avoiding slick, pre-packaged, PC, PR-perfect responses. I believed at the time that lively dialogue on a wide range of topics would not only be great fun - and it was - but would give me a wealth of material to choose from.

I still believe that, even as I'm fighting an astonishing wealth of material in what seems to be an endless battle with the hours and hours of interview tapes. Transcribing the tapes - typing up a verbatim record of the conversation - is hard work. The hardest part is choosing punctuation, believe it or not. Think of it this way: no one talks in complete sentences unless he's reading a speech. And when you're talking about topics and themes that are hard to put into words anyway, you don't have the thought fully formed as you start to speak. There are starts and stops, changes in direction, finding the right words, jumping to another thought that suddenly occurs to you... how does this "translate" to the written word? Where do the commas go? when would a semicolon be better? how about an ellipsis? a dash?
While I feel it's important to preserve the rhythm and cadence of the speaker, it's crucial to me that his personality comes across - but anyone can look either dry as dust or pretty stupid when their thoughtful, dynamic conversation is no longer connected to the inflection in the voice, a twinkle in the eye, the sound of the laughter. (Think about courtroom transcripts being read back to the jury, and how tedious that can be!)
It's an ongoing challenge, one that has continual shifts in the "rules" as I learn more and more about it. You can read the results in selections from some of the interviews on these pages. It gives me a chance to present material that I may never be able to use in the book... because yes, there really are 109 interviews.
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Q: How many tenors does it take to change a light bulb?

A: Only one. He holds onto it, and the world revolves around him.

mlh:    When I first started doing the work on this book, I went to New York - I'd never been, if you can believe that, and I was meeting a lot of guys for interviews that had been set up for me, people that I did not know, had not met, didn’t have a clue what they looked like. And we invariably met at the fountain at Lincoln Center - because I knew where that was!

MK:    Right. So did they! [laughs]

mlh:    Right! [laughing] But I was guaranteed to be there. And you know, I could sit there and it would be about the time they were supposed to show up, and I would just watch. And I could always tell who they were, you know? The tenors. You could spot them. By the way they walk. It’s the way they carry themselves, it’s the confidence, there’s a swagger, there's… and I was never wrong in

picking them out. I mean, you could spot ‘em all the way across the plaza. It was absolutely amazing. The ones who looked like a tenor, that was them.
MK: So do you define that as short and, ahhh… mlh: No, no! [laughing] MK: You’re talking about the ego and the… mlh: I’m talking about the way they carry themselves and the way they walk, as if they owned the place. MK: The stallion thing, or the bullfight thing. mlh: It is! It is, exactly. And the first couple of times, I thought this is hysterical. And then I thought, No... this is an important part of who they are.
MK: No question. Because, think about it. In Che gelida manina, everybody you’re talking to has sung that aria once in his life. Even if they’ve left that repertoire. So the phrase with the famous high C - that he didn’t even write but everybody has to sing it now - is preceded by a bar and a half where you don’t sing...
mlh: Mm-hmm! MK: ... where the orchestra is playing this beautiful tune. Now what do you suppose is in the mind of every tenor during that bar and a half? And that’s what we’re really talking about here. Do you say to yourself, I can do this again, I’ve done it before, I will myself to do this, I’m going to… which is what made you recognize them in the plaza as a tenor. mlh: Right. You know, it was always the tenor. Out of all those people on the Plaza – I was never wrong!

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EXPLORE MORE

Interested in more? Just below, there's basic information about enjoying opera in general... there are photographic essays in connection with individual operas with links to stories of the operas... there are more pages in this Tenor Book section... and in Words & Music you'll find detailed profiles about many of ML Hart's favorite singers throughout history. And still more. Wander through, and enjoy.

NAVIGATION

OperaBasics - An Introduction
The Art of Making Opera - Inside the Book

Explore More: Top 10 Ways to Fall in Love With Opera

Principal Singers & Singing
Invitation to the Rehearsal Hall

INDIVIDUAL OPERAS IN PHOTOGRAPHS... AND MORE

CONNECTING

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ML HART HOME

WORDS & MUSIC SHOP
recommended recordings by tenors & Artist Profiles of many favorites

TENORS! TENORS! TENORS!
CDs from favorite tenors

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THE ART OF MAKING OPERA

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The OperaWest critic says:
"Hart's observations about what goes on backstage, frontstage and all around the theatre are - I can only say - truly revelatory. This is one of the best books I've ever read on the creation of opera."

exclusive excerpts from ML Hart's interviews with:
Sir Thomas Allen - September 16, 1999
Nigel Douglas - September 28, 1999
Martin Katz - February 1, 1999

THE INTERVIEWS - in conversation with MARTIN KATZ

		I spoke with master accompanist Martin Katz, talking about his work with great singers - Tebaldi, Corelli, Carreras - and I told him this story. His take on it is articulate in a way that makes it even more clear - and we had a lot of fun!