Allan Jones sings 'Oh! Paradis!' from "L'Africaine"

[rupepill]

Felix Knight, according to the detail given at the internet movie data base, sang in four seasons at the Met, including as the Count in Barber of Seville.

[SHICOFF1]

He sang it lists on the net in 28 operetta's and 12 opera's but only lists one opera as a leading role , not a well known opera and does not mention the parts he played in any of the better known opera's he sang in when in Europe. I wonder if anyone knows what parts he sang in Boheme and in Romeo? He did give concerts with top orchestra's such as the NY Phil and Chicago Symp. but the opera parts he sang remain no given.

[SHICOFF1]

Tauber may have had a short top but it was big enough in the middle especially even for a big house from what I have read. Again, don't know, never heard him, he died in 1948 and I was just 8 years old.

[SHICOFF1]

@rupepill I heard Schipa in 1962 give a Farewell recital in Los Angeles and I can see why he was able to sing at the big met house. His small voice had point and so like Kraus it could carry. I heard Kraus several times in Chicago and it also did carry in the huge house in his lyric roles. I never heard Jones in person, but a friend did. Sound on film is one thing and I heard both Bergonzi and Bjorling both live in the opera house and both sounded larger on records but sang the lead in Aida!

[rupepill]

gayteneor asks (or states): "Why does a performer you like have to have a large voice" I can't recall saying here or anywhere that a performer I like has to have a large voice. Tito Schipa, John McCormack and Richard Tauber all, as far as I can find, had small voice, yet I have often said or tried to say something complimentary about each of them, just as I enjoy the voices and singing of LIly Pons, Amelita Galli-Curci and the often nastily belittled Jeannette Macdonald - all were small voiced.

[rupepill]

Okay guys. No problem, if you wish to believe that Allan Jones had a small voice and I wish to disagree, let's simply be adult enough to agree to disagree. No hassle for me either way. There are more important matters in my life than arguments in a world already well provided with strife. Have a good one.

[SHICOFF1]

@shawdaman Heard Knight and he was excellent! I never knew he was in the laurel and hardy movie babes in toyland. By the way the heavy set Hardy (from Georgia USA) had a very good light tenor and sang in several laurel and hardy films. Stan and Ollie where favorites of mine as a kid and still are. Ollie Hardy sang with feeling and moved gracefully for a very heavy man.

[ShawDAMAN]

@SHICOFF1 yes Knight had a small very nice singing role in the film "Bohemian girl" with laurel and hardy too, he sings the tenor aria from the opera of the same name by Balfe. It's on youtube if you haven't heard it.

Yes Ollie sang very nicely, me and my family have always been big laurel and hardy fans. They could dance too, haha. I like them singing 'the lonesome pine.' As far as Jones I don't see any evidence of big leading roles either.

[SHICOFF1]

@ ShawDaman Knight My (spl) error.

[SHICOFF1]

@shawdaman Never heard of night! Will give a listen.

[SHICOFF1]

@Rupepill You have to respect Jones for what he did, like Pinza he did opera and film successfully like Eddy who did manage some opera also and even Mac Donald did. Pinza was smart, he sang opera first and then when older went into film where all was recorded in Studio. Lanza sadly for us did little besides new orleans in 1948 and concerts, then went to film and was lost to opera and died young after a fast life. His films got me interested in opera as it did with others, Domingo also.

[SHICOFF1]

@RUPEPILL yes he sang at Cannes in Romeo, Boheme, Manon and Faust but of course that is at most 1,800 seats, small theater like so many in Europe compared to here. He sang perfectly and yet in Film as tenors go Lanza had the looks, personality and voice that put him on top and yet he was not as polished a singer as Jones was nor did he sing in those opera's. Lanza in only two but did the act 3 Boheme live when he was very young. No recording of that exists. Lanza/ A Great natural voice.

[ShawDAMAN]

@SHICOFF1 Always liked Jones, liked him very much with Irene Dunne in the original showboat film and with the marx brothers etc. I doubt he had a very large voice at all yes. Felix Knight was another nice movie singer early on with a fine tenor voice and technique but probably pretty small, starred in some comedies and such.

[SHICOFF1]

In 1930 he sang for a truncated version of St. Matthew, that was a recording made in church . My point was it was a light voice, and he sang some lyric roles early in Cannes France. I don't know the size of that opera house but I would guess in lyric roles like Romeo he could carry in the proper house but only in Lyric roles. Opera of course is more demanding then the St Matthew Passion as far as volume, running around stage and singing at times from the back of the stage versus concerts

[SHICOFF1]

So he sang the Tosca aria in studio but Eddy was a Baritone so why be jealous of a tenor? odd really if Eddy was jealous, silly of him but in a movie Jones could of course sing Otello! All amplified and Lanza did sing Otello duet in the film Serenade but live in an opera I doubt he ever would but he surely had a voice that could carry and did sing in one opera. Butterfly in 1948 in New Orleans He also sang Fenton, small role in the light opera, Merry Wives Of Windsor. Jones was a fine singer

[al1936ful]

He also reportedly sang "E lucevan le stelle" (from "Tosca") in the 1936 "Rose Marie", but according to biographer Charles Higham, Nelson Eddy wwas so jealous that he ordered it cut, and he got what he wanted.

[rupepill]

If the tone of my most recent posts seems contentious, please understand that it was not my intention to be rude, picky or belligerent. However, I do thoroughly enjoy a lively discussion, and greatly respect and appreciate the extraordinary knowledge and experience of SHICOFF1 whose remarkable encounters with so many singers have provided him with the means to enrich the range and content of comments here at Youtube.

[rupepill]

The mention of Lily Pons in the Jones biographical excerpt reminds that she had a small or even tiny voice. However, Pons had a thirty year career at the Met, despite any such lack of volume or amplitude, for she knew how to focus and project the voice, as did Tito Schipa and others who managed without artificial amplification to be heard perfectly well in large auditoriums. As you know vocal size alone does not guarantee audibility, nor does a small voice necessarily get lost in a large space.

[rupepill]

The fact that the singer chose to use the microphone as an aid in a night club performance reveals more of the often appalling rudeness of chattering patrons in such places than it does of any supposed inability of his to be heard in an opera house. As for Jones not singing the 'Di quella pira', sensibly he did not so risk harm to his lyric tenor voice. Note: Jan Peerce also sang with Deanna Durbin on film the Miserere in English - but only a rare 'Di quella pira', wisely conserving his voice.

[rupepill]

From the allan jones tribute website: Allan Jones (then using his birth name of Theodore Jones), in 1929 when he was 21 or barely 22 years old, "... sang with the Cannes Opera Company in Deauville, where a young Lily Pons was also studying. He was offered a contract with the Opera Comique but refused because it was for three years. He instead held a contract with the Cannes Opera Company and sang in several operas including “Manon,” “Romeo et Juliette,” “La Boheme,” and “Faust"..."

[SHICOFF1]

My info came from a fan of his who heard him live He is an older gentleman and still very much alive but does not have a computer or interested in using it.

[SHICOFF1]

@rupepill  Thank you for the name of the movie. Why he was not a bigger star in film I will never know.

[SHICOFF1]

Jones did not have a big powerful voice or he would have been on the opera stage but it was fine as a lyric tenor for film and sang laater in night clubs also and he did not sing di quella but the miserere yes, why not. Lanza had a voice that could have gone opera with enough power but did not, yes Allan was well trained and a fine tenor but not for the met. opera stage or any big house. I have a friend who did hear him live from 12 feet away in a club in NJ of course it was with a Microphone

[al1936ful]

@SHICOFF1 He sang in Bach's "St. Matthew Passion", and that's pretty demanding.

[SHICOFF1]

When he was near 80 he was booked for student prince by Beverly Sills but I don't know if he did it at age 80.

[SHICOFF1]

@ German opera singer. Yes Eddy wanted his recordings removed according to Wikipedia anyhow. Of course one was a Baritone and the other (jones) a tenor.

[SHICOFF1]

What Movie was this?

[rupepill]

@SHICOFF1 The film in which this scene occurred was Honeymoon In Bali.

[SHICOFF1]

Some of the movie singers we had back then where better then the some of the opera singers today who don't always have big voices either and may get some electric help depending where they sing. Jones lived a long life and sang well even in his mid 60's when a friend of mine heard him in a night club in NY.

[SHICOFF1]

TANDY MAC KENIZE, THE TENOR DID THE OVER DUB IN THE MARX BROS. MOVIE FOR JONES IN TROVATORE.--- NIGHT AT THE OPERA

[rupepill]

@SHICOFF1 Where, please, did you find that alleged information? According to the Internet Movie Data Base Tandy MacKenzie sang the aria 'Di quella pira', and that was mimed not by Allan Jones but by another actor in Night At The Opera, Walter Woolf King.. Allan Jones, having a large, trained voice, needed no dubbing on his behalf.

Indisputably, in the Miserere duet (also from Verdi's Il Trovatore) with Kitty Carlisle in Night At The Opera the tenor voice heard is that of Allan Jones.

[gaytenor]

@rupepill While Allen Jones had an excellent voice it quite honestly was lyrical and he obviously had a very small voice. As to the Miserere the recording was done as part of a movie and you can be sure that the producers of the film didn't want the movie compromised by a tenor who could not be heard. Why does a performer you like have to have a large voice. With a small voice Alfredo Kraus sang Manon, Faust, Romeo, Werther, etc. at the huge Metropolitan Opera House.

[GermanOperaSinger]

Nelson Eddy was jealous of him and allegedly stabbed him in the back, asking MGM to cut Jones' scenes from a movie they both starred in. Eddy was great in his own right but what he did to Allan Jones was very low (assuming it's true).

[GermanOperaSinger]

He starred in the film version of 'Show Boat' in which Paul Robeson and Irene Dunne also sang. Fantastic voice and artist, he sang popular music wonderfully, but could also hold his own against any operatic tenor even in his time.

[judykay1229]

wow

I love him!

[Dogsledfan]

In reply to brukkala - Allan Jones' French was excellent owing to the fact that he studied in Paris for a time in the 1920's. Note a young Fred MacMurray here too!

[brukkala]

Finally a Hollywood "opera" star who doesn't butcher the French language. I love Allan Jones' voice.

[ShawDAMAN]

I like Allan Jones' singing very much, Showboat and Marx brothers a night at the opera intro'd me too him, I've been a fan since.

[cabratotal3]

yes man me too!

[allanandhoward]

Thank you so much for posting this. I wish Allan Jones had recorded more opera. He was fabulous.

[Dogsledfan]

Fantastic! The high B-flats aren't forced.