By Michael Redmond, Sunday Star-Ledger, April 19, 1981 — Thank you to Katalin Petroczy for providing this article, which was written right before Franco Corelli appeared at a gala concert in Newark, New Jersey on April 25, 1981
<aside> 🎧 **Listen to the concert here**
</aside>
<aside> 🇮🇹 Clicca qui per la traduzione in italiano 🇮🇹
</aside>
*Comment on Facebook*NEW YORK — When opera lovers talk about the great romantic tenors, a name that looms large in the art's recent. history is that of Franco Corelli, star of La Scala, Covent Garden and the Metropolitan Opera. A number of superb recordings — especially "Turandot" with Birgit Nilsson, in which Corelli sang an unsurpassed Calaf — have kept the tenor's legend alive and well for a new generation of singers and listeners.
After years of nearly virtual silence, Corelli is singing again a few hand-picked engagements, here and there. Upcoming are two appearances in New Jersey. On Saturday at 7:30 p.m. in Newark Symphony Hall, the tenor will make a special guest appearance singing Neapolitan songs as part of New Jersey State Opera's Gala Benefit Concert. On July 9 in the Garden State Arts Center, Corelli will have a program all to himself.
"My idea is gradually to begin singing again, and I hope only that the singing will be good." Corelli said, taking a break from rehearsal in his Manhattan apartment. His English — expressive and musically accented — fails him on occasion, but he always managed to get the point across.
Photo by Richard Chu Operatic tenor Franco Corelli rehearsing in his New York apartment... 'People ask me every day to return to the stage, and it has always been in my mind to come back.’ The tenor sings Neapolitan songs Saturday in Newark Symphony Hall as special guest in the New Jersey State Opera's gala concert
The tenor, who was 58 [60] this month, has aged gracefully. In his prime, Corelli's noble features and impressive bearing were as important to the ladies in the audience as his ringing high Cs. The passage of time has only added distinction to Corelli's aristocratic looks.
Why did you stop singing?
"When I stopped, it was only for six months, for a physical rest: after that, I postponed and postponed. I found that I enjoyed life without singing. I wouldn't say that I found peace, but at least I haven't had to worry how good I sound night after night. Singing is a great sacrifice, you know; you must give the public something to remember. The public wants the best you can do every time. This is a sacrifice, especially for a tenor."
Why have you decided to start singing again?
"People ask me every day to return to the stage, and it has always been in my mind to come back. When you have a career and you stop, you always think about it. Then my friend Jerry Hines (the Metropolitan Opera basso) kept say ing to me, ‘Franco, why aren't you singing?’, and it's true, I never really decided to stop. Jerry, you know, is a strong-willed man, very clear-thinking: he's fantastic. He was saying. 'Try some concerts, Franco, because you have the voice.' And sometime I would sit and watch TV, or listen to my records, and I wouldn't say I was sad, but I would think, 'You aren't doing anything.'"
(Corelli sang with Hines during last year's New Jersey State Opera Ball in Fairleigh Dickinson University, Madison. The event made opera news worldwide.)
What has changed in opera during the past 20 years?
"Many things, many things. The tenor voice is disappearing. I don't know why. Maybe there are some around, but they're involved with rock 'n' roll, I don't know. There are three tenors around today. When I was singing, there were 30; in Caruso's time, maybe 100. But the really big voices of 30 or 40 years ago, you don't hear them. You used to think, 'What did the composer want?,' and then choose the right singer, but this has changed because we don't have enough singers."
Why have you chosen to sing Neapolitan songs?
"They are a part of Italy's great lyric repertory, they are something more than songs, they are closer to arias. They were sung by lyric singers all the time, you know, before Caruso."
Will you one day perform arias for which you are well known?
"When I feel I am ready, yes, but there's the public to think of. I don't want people thinking. 'He's good, but the volume.' 'He's good, but the breath' — but, but, but, you know. And others tell me it isn't important what I sing, just as long as they can hear me. It would make me nervous for people to start yelling for 'Nessun dorma.'"
The tenor does manage to keep busy. He appears as a personality on TV in Italy and Germany, and he enjoys travel.
"I have so many friends in New York, many things to do. New York is the best city for whatever one likes. And I have photography as a hobby," he said.
Ticket information for Saturday's performance is available by calling New Jersey State Opera at 1020 Broad St., Newark. The concert will pay tribute to Licia Albanese and Jerome Hines, who starred in State Opera's first Symphony Hall performance in 1968, and will feature Klara Barlow, Ferruccio Tagliavini and Virginia Zeani with the State Opera Orchestra conducted by Alfredo Silipigni. In addition, concert violinist Erick Friedman will perform.
The concert will be followed by a "Crystal Ball" (supper party and dance) in the lobby of Public Service Electric & Gas Co.'s new corporate headquarters on Park Plaza, Newark.