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Post by tonyloco on Nov 16, 2017 23:51:30 GMT
Following on the fact that Maria Callas had only about ten years during which she was in good vocal health (basically the 1950s) I am trying to identify other opera singers whose careers were cut short by premature vocal problems. I can think of two other high profile sopranos, namely Ljuba Welitsch and Elena Souliotis, but as yet I can't think of any major tenors or baritones who have had the kind of vocal crashes that Callas, Welitsch and Souliotis all had.
Any suggestions?
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Post by Mr Snow on Nov 17, 2017 8:22:14 GMT
Do male singers tend to have longer careers? There are exceptions both ways.
Would Franco Bonisolli fit this category? His recording career lasted only 12 years but it maybe it was his behaviour that made him unemployable?
Prime amongst those those I saw early and watched their career blossom and then fade fast, was Linda Esther Gray who I believe became ill and was unable to resume her career.
Many singers do overcome vocal problems e.g. Kaufmann? And some careers seem to peak early. Rosalind Plowright quickly rose to the top in the Italian repertoire in the 80’s, aided by her dramatic looks and fine acting skills. She seemed to go ‘quiet’ in the 90’s and reinvented herself in mainly German roles this century.
Mainly I’m backing your observation.
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Post by tonyloco on Nov 17, 2017 13:40:26 GMT
Thanks Mr Snow. Yes, we hope that Kaufmann will survive his vocal problems and so far he does seem to be doing so. I think these singers who have operations to remove nodules etc, like Julie Andrews for example, are somewhat different from those whose voices go prematurely in mid-career without any surgical intervention as I think happened with Callas, Welitsch and Souliotis.
I don't know that we have all that much information about what happened to Bonisolli although walking out on Karajan in the middle of a performance of 'Il trovatore' is unlikely to do a tenor much good career-wise! And I guess that some of the promising Italian tenors like Tagliavigni failed to stay the course when they moved up from light lyric roles to heavier dramatic ones. But I am really looking for men who started off with big powerful voices and then lost those voices in mid career, as the three aforementioned ladies did. Maybe that's Bonisolli? Did he actually lose his voice?
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Post by tmesis on Nov 17, 2017 13:45:04 GMT
This may be a little unfair because he has had surgery for his vocal problems but the tenor Rolando Villazon was sensational in his early 30s live at The Garden but now, aged only 45, when most tenors are in their prime, he is a shadow of his former self.
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Post by tonyloco on Nov 17, 2017 14:03:01 GMT
This may be a little unfair because he has had surgery for his vocal problems but the tenor Rolando Villazon was sensational in his early 30s live at The Garden but now, aged only 45, when most tenors are in their prime, he is a shadow of his former self. Yes, I heard him several times being sensational when he first appeared and, as you say, he is now reduced almost to nothing. Maybe he might be worth including in my list even though he was not a dramatic tenor to start with, although his Hoffmann was certainly dramatic enough! Tmesis, do you know whether Bonisolli actually lost his voice or just made himself unemployable by his behaviour? |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 17, 2017 17:55:52 GMT
What about Carlotta? Does she count? She can’t even get to the end of Poor Fool, He Makes Me Laugh...   |
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Post by tmesis on Nov 17, 2017 18:27:31 GMT
This may be a little unfair because he has had surgery for his vocal problems but the tenor Rolando Villazon was sensational in his early 30s live at The Garden but now, aged only 45, when most tenors are in their prime, he is a shadow of his former self. Yes, I heard him several times being sensational when he first appeared and, as you say, he is now reduced almost to nothing. Maybe he might be worth including in my list even though he was not a dramatic tenor to start with, although his Hoffmann was certainly dramatic enough! Tmesis, do you know whether Bonisolli actually lost his voice or just made himself unemployable by his behaviour? No I don't know any more than yourself. He remains a bit of a mystery. |
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Post by Dawnstar on Nov 17, 2017 19:43:50 GMT
This may be a little unfair because he has had surgery for his vocal problems but the tenor Rolando Villazon was sensational in his early 30s live at The Garden but now, aged only 45, when most tenors are in their prime, he is a shadow of his former self. Yes, I heard him several times being sensational when he first appeared and, as you say, he is now reduced almost to nothing. Maybe he might be worth including in my list even though he was not a dramatic tenor to start with, although his Hoffmann was certainly dramatic enough! I only managed to see Villazon once, as Lensky. He was off sick when I was supposed to see him in both Hoffmann & Don Carlos. That would have been 2008 so perhaps related to his vocal crisis. Tenor Colin Lee vanished abruptly from the stage a couple of years ago but I don't know if that was due to vocal health or some other problem, there was just an announcement that he was retiring with immediate effect. |
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Post by tonyloco on Nov 17, 2017 21:48:05 GMT
What about Carlotta? Does she count? She can’t even get to the end of Poor Fool, He Makes Me Laugh... No, sorry Caiaphas. Carlotta manages to go on stage eight times a week and has been doing so for over thirty one years so I see no sign that she has had a mid-career vocal crisis. In fact, at this rate the only opera singer ahead of her soon will be Placido Domingo and he will be doing cameo appearances in bass roles like Sparafucile in 'Rigoletto' and Colline in 'La bohème'. I am sure his 'Coat Song' will be heart-breaking, with not a dry seat in the house. |
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Post by tonyloco on Nov 17, 2017 22:00:44 GMT
Tenor Colin Lee vanished abruptly from the stage a couple of years ago but I don't know if that was due to vocal health or some other problem, there was just an announcement that he was retiring with immediate effect. Sorry, Dawnstar, but that's the first time I have ever heard of Colin Lee so I don't think he counts in the ranks of major international opera stars, and the announcement, which I have just looked up, just said he was retiring with immediate effect for personal reasons. I may well use Villazon as an example of a male opera star who had a mid-career vocal crisis but whether it was due to surgery or just to a vocal collapse is not clear. Of course I know all about him as he was a huge star on Virgin Classics and there was an internal battle as to whether he should remain with Virgin Classics or move over to EMI Classics, which at that time were the same company although that is no longer quite true because the names have changed to Erato and Warner Classics and Villazon has faded away. Sic transit gloria! |
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Post by bimse on Nov 18, 2017 7:32:10 GMT
Yes, I heard him several times being sensational when he first appeared and, as you say, he is now reduced almost to nothing. Maybe he might be worth including in my list even though he was not a dramatic tenor to start with, although his Hoffmann was certainly dramatic enough! I only managed to see Villazon once, as Lensky. He was off sick when I was supposed to see him in both Hoffmann & Don Carlos. That would have been 2008 so perhaps related to his vocal crisis. Tenor Colin Lee vanished abruptly from the stage a couple of years ago but I don't know if that was due to vocal health or some other problem, there was just an announcement that he was retiring with immediate effect. I remember hearing Colin Lee, he was very good indeed , seemed to specialise in bel canto roles , he often “shadowed” Juan Diego Floréz. I never saw him perform but he was regarded as much the better actor of the two . Anyone know why Colin Lee retired ? |
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Post by Dawnstar on Nov 18, 2017 20:32:42 GMT
Tenor Colin Lee vanished abruptly from the stage a couple of years ago but I don't know if that was due to vocal health or some other problem, there was just an announcement that he was retiring with immediate effect. Sorry, Dawnstar, but that's the first time I have ever heard of Colin Lee so I don't think he counts in the ranks of major international opera stars, and the announcement, which I have just looked up, just said he was retiring with immediate effect for personal reasons. I didn't know you were specifically after "major international opera stars" as your first post just said "other opera singers". I wouldn't say Colin Lee was a star but I saw him sing several lead roles - Almaviva, Tonio & Don Narciso - at the ROH, so he had a fairly decent career. |
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Post by tonyloco on Nov 19, 2017 6:07:32 GMT
Hi Folks,
See my latest post on Legge and Schwarzkopf.
TL
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Post by tonyloco on Nov 19, 2017 16:17:43 GMT
I didn't know you were specifically after "major international opera stars" as your first post just said "other opera singers". I wouldn't say Colin Lee was a star but I saw him sing several lead roles - Almaviva, Tonio & Don Narciso - at the ROH, so he had a fairly decent career. Sorry, Dawnstar, but as I am gathering information to make a comparison with Maria Callas and why she lost her voice then I need to find examples of major international stars to compare with her. I am of course interested to hear about Colin Lee, but from what I see on Wikipedia it looks as if he didn't actually have a mid-career vocal crisis that anybody was aware of but just retired for unspecified personal reasons. And we also have the mystery of why Anja Harteros has effectively put serious limitations on her career 'for personal reasons'. Wikipedia makes absolutely no mention of all her cancellations and withdrawals but an article in the NY Times recently hints at her need to stay near Germany to look after her ailing husband, so that's apparently not a vocal crisis. |
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Post by loureviews on Nov 19, 2017 22:04:25 GMT
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Post by tonyloco on Nov 20, 2017 11:25:40 GMT
Fantastique! Many thanks loureviews, that's brilliant. It was an article by Will Crutchfield called 'The Story of a Voice' about Callas in the NY Times that started off my quest. I can't give you the URL at present because of my email problems and the NY Times search failed to find it but I guess it was from the same era as 'Vocal Burnout at the Opera'. I particularly like 'Vocal Burnout' because it is all about singers that I am familiar with. He singles out Renata Scotto and Beverley Sills for special treatment and I am certainly well acquainted with those divas both from live performances and from recordings. Anyway, I will study what Mr Crutchfield has to say about overwork ruining voices and see how I can equate that with his hypothesis that it was not only overwork that finished Callas but a faulty instrument to start with. And of course some of the singers he cites developed serious wobbles but continued to sing for many years. I remember an amazing 'Frau ohne Schatten' in Munich in the mid 1960s when Hans Hotter sang the Spirit Messenger and Martha Mödl was the nurse and they both had such enormous vocal wobbles that in their duet I was expecting the sound waves to cancel each other out in some physical way, but no, they stood there, wobbling ferociously at each other and both collected enormous applause! |
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Post by couldileaveyou on Nov 28, 2017 14:56:42 GMT
Katia Ricciarelli?
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Post by tonyloco on Nov 30, 2017 0:08:47 GMT
I don’t think Ricciarelli had what could be described as a serious mid-career burn out like Callas and Souliotis, but thanks for the suggestion.
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Post by sharon on Feb 14, 2023 7:56:08 GMT
Colin Lee stopped singing when he returned to South Africa to sell designer kitchens.
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Post by sukhavati on Jun 4, 2023 3:59:56 GMT
My mother used to mention Mary Costa "blowing" her voice out. She was the voice of Aurora in the 1959 Disney "Sleeping Beauty," and she did have an opera career, but I don't think she's been actively singing in opera productions since the 1970s.
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