The thrill of Franco Corelli
As I once wrote in the Dutch Music Magazine Luister, one may compare opera with religion. Both have believers in various Gods,and using only Christianity as an example, there is a striking parallel between BC and AD. The watershed year in opera is 1837, when Gilbert Louis Duprez gave the world ‘Il Do di petto’ – the high C from the chest. Ever since, tenors have reigned in the operas of Donizetti, Verdi and Puccini. However, along with their enhanced status, their worries also increased. Ever since Duprez, it was ‘all or nothing’, especially for the rare breed of dramatic tenors in Italian opera, of whom only a handful have truly succeeded in the last 170 years. After Duprez, perhaps only Francesco Tamagno, Giovanni Zenatello, Giacomo Lauri-Volpi, Mario del Monaco and Franco Corelli whose throne has been vacant since he gave up the stage in 1975 (except for some brief returns in 1976 and 1981).
As within any religion, some might argue about the latter statement, saying that later Gods like Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo or even the young José Carreras made very successful recordings of Corelli’s hallmark operatic roles from Calaf in Turandot to Manrico in Il trovatore.
Prince of Tenors | The decisive Corelli biography
Prince of Tenors recreates Corelli’s life as closely as possible, for better or worse. The audience is taken along on a ride to Ancona where Corelli was born. His mother Natalina, his father Remo, his sister Liliana and his wild, exciting & very sympathetic brother Ubaldo «Bibi» will be brought to life, as Dario «Franco» Corelli was a family man from the start. And then, on a beautiful spring day, we will literally see him fall desperately in love, until his true muse finally claims him. While reading the book you should imagine him singing Gino Bechi’s ‘Una strada nell’bosco’ as he did as a youth when he began to test his voice. But the story is not all about singing alone, far from it. Prince of Tenors also takes you to the campfires of his teenage years, and you’ll be peeking over his shoulders when he enters military service, and after his discharge, you’ll see how he made ends meet through the war, repairing bicycles. At the war’s conclusion, you will be liberated along with Corelli and the rest of Italy; this liberation brought about Corelli’s first public concert! You’ll look in on Corelli’s work in the municipality, follow his first serious efforts to sing, including his first recording session, all of which occurred before he ever set foot on a stage. His pre-career story runs at least fifty pages, complete with pictures that illustrate the text throughout.
