Word: tenoritis
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Malenkov began with a beaming report of the "wonderful,"' "talented" and "hospitable" British people he had met. Then for 40 minutes he fielded questions from some 300 newsmen (the biggest press conference in London's history), answering the questioners quickly in his sharp tenor and smiling so steadily that one reporter said it made his own face ache just watching. Questions covered everything. A newshen asked his impressions of English women. He chuckled jovially: "It was difficult for me to make love to English women through an interpreter...
...tenor makes a fresh debut . . . Exclamations of pleasure and surprise greet his first melody . . . yet this is but the prelude to the emotions he is to stir before the evening is over . . . A number comes during which the daring artist, stressing each syllable, gives out some high chest notes with a resonant fullness, an expression of heart-rending grief, and a beauty of tone that so far nothing had led one to expect. A petrified silence reigns in the house, people hold their breath, amazement and admiration are. blended in a mood akin to fear. There is, in fact, reason...
...years since Composer Berlioz made his observations there has been little change in the perilous artistic life of the operatic tenor. His concern about whether the next high C will crack and degenerate into an ignominious squeal-or whether his voice will simply refuse to make any sound at all-keeps him in a constant state of apprehension. Moreover, the whole business of singing at the top of his voice and range presents an additional physical hazard. The fact that good tenors are always in short supply aggravates the other problems by encouraging the poor fellow to sing more than...
...Elephantiasis of the ego. The star tenor tends to swagger in company as well as on stage; he is quite sure that women have a yen for him-and so, usually, is his wife. He lords it over his colleagues and is inclined to feel that he need not rehearse with the rest of the cast. Like most singers, he thinks he is better than the impresario does, and demands starring roles too early in his career...
...Volatile temperament. Germany's Wagnerian Tenor Hans Beirer is not ordinarily temperamental, but at one rehearsal he went into a pet and refused to sing until somebody brought a couch on stage for him to lie on. Hungarian Sandor Konya, rehearsing for the German premiere of Menotti's Saint of Bleecker Street, was scheduled to pick up a knife to stab. When it turned up missing, he flew into a rage and took a walk. It was replaced, but another singer, all unawares, took the replacement knife to peel an orange. This time Kenya's curse-punctuated...