100 Greatest Singers: ANTONIO CORTIS

THIS PROJECT IS RESERVED ONLY FOR THE GREATEST! What do you mean about Antonio Cortis in this list? Please comment!

Antonio Cortis, Tenor (1891-1952)

Giuseppe Verdi - Rigoletto
La donna è mobile
(Recorded 1930)

My personal opinion: Spain gave the world many great voices and especially tenors. In the first half of the last century three of them dominated the opera stage: Hipolito Lazaro, Miguel Fleta and Antonio Cortis, in my opinion the best among them. He was a stylish singer, but no regular belcanto hero anymore. His "La donna" has a wonderful timing and great sense for phrasing and affect. May I say, this is one of the three best recordings of this aria? As a Puccini-singer he was one of the best, and his Nessun dorma (here on YouTube) show you why... By the way: Cortis and Caruso were friends and in 1917 they stood together on stage in "Pagliacci". Cortis career was outshined by other tenors. His singing wasn´t much extensiv and expressive, but he was more controlled and with plainness. And that´s the reason, his recordings are still fresh and without vocal gimmicks.
I would like to say, for a short time he was Carusos successor until Gigli took over the scepter.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Antonio
• Cortis
• Miquel
• Fleta
• Hipolito
• Lazaro
• Spain
• Giuseppe
• Verdi
• Rigoletto
• Duke

[cacata98]

Spain gave the world three superb tenors in the early XX Century: Hipolito Lazaro, Miguel Fleta and Antonio Curtis. They should be placed together with Caruso, Gigli, Schippa and all the other famous Italians. Perhaps the low immigration from Spain to the USA as compared to Italy did not permit the necessary publicity and noise to project them among the best of history at least in the USA market where the pay of better than in Europe.

[billyguns2]

Mike, I certainly agree with your choice of this great tenor as one of the"100 Greatest;" I hope he becomes better known, as I believe he was one of the greatest tenors of all time.

[cacata98]

Gayarre

[Aetion]

@Aetion I got it! I meant Julián Gayarre. Dont't bother.

[Aetion]

@cacata98 Reading your comment, which I of course agree with, I try to remember the name of a great Spanish tenor of the end of the 19th century, whose life was made a film too. Guillermo G…??.. Can you help me please? Thank you.

[Lovelytenor1]

I had seen the name but never heard the voice. Nice, warm lyric(almost spinto) instrument- intelligently used. Thanks for posting.

[quakercub]

Not a great deal of feeling IMHO, but a beautiful sound

[paulostroff99]

In a word-awesome! Bravo TY.

[paulostroff99]

cacata98-Please do not omit the awesome di Stefano,and yes IMHO these 3 Spanish tenors were all up there with the best Italians or any others for that matter. I cannot even choose between them they are all so great.

[tenorvoicefan]

Ihm fehlt von allem ein kleines bisschen, Expressivität, Höhe, langer Atem. Und trotzdem, er ist bemerkenswert schön!

Sehr genau phrasiert, schöne Technik (von den drei erwähnten Tenören hat Fleta eine noch bessere) und eine tolle Kontrolle!

Ich wünschte ihm mir heute, er wäre ein Superstar!

[mozzrt]

Sadly, that's the truht, although his voice was beautiful.

[Brenthia]

EL TRIDENTE ESPAÑOL