There are many famous male opera singers in the world, who have made history with their fantastic voices and their fabulous concerts. Some of the most famous male opera singers are Enrico Caruso, José Carreras, Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, Andrea Bocelli, Modest Menzinsky and José Carreras. While all these famous male opera singers are renown worldwide, José Carreras is definitely one of the most talented and successful ones.

José Carreras was born on December 5, 1946, in Sants, a working class district from Barcelona. He was born Joseph, the Catalan version of José. Even since early childhood his talent was noticed and it made José Carreras one of the promising tenors of the world. It came as no surprise thus that he constantly felt the need to express himself through music. He used to sing to passengers, customers of his mother’s shop, to his family, to basically everyone he met. When he was only 8 years old José Carreras gave his first public performance, on the Spanish National Radio. Then, at the early age of 11, he made his debut in Barcelona’s opera house, singing a boy soprano role. In that moment, the entire audience knew that José Carreras was about to become one of the most famous male opera singers in the world.

After that he continued to study music and his career progressed rapidly. By the age of 24 he had already sung the tenor lead in 24 different operas, both in Europe and North America. The 90s turned out to be José Carreras’ best years and there was no longer any doubt that he had become one of the most famous male opera singers. Together with two other famous male opera singers, Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti, he formed the Three Tenors concept, which brought them a fame that no one could have ever imagined. José Carreras performed with other important artists of our times, like Diana Ross and Sarah Brightman, and even though in 2009 he announced his retirement from the opera world, José Carreras remains one of the most famous male opera singers and his legacy will linger forever.

There’s no denying Placido Domingo’s talent. Not only does he have a long legacy as a tenor, but he is also an accomplished conductor.

Placido Domingo’s Roots

Domingo was born in 1941. He jumped into the professional opera world at the ripe young age of 16. One of the reasons his talent was identified at such a young age is because his parents ran a zarzuela company. Over the next 5 years, not only was Domingo accepted into Mexico’s National Opera, but he also played the lead in an opera and undertook multiple performances in the United States.

Placido took the stage at New York’s Metropolitan Opera at the age of 27. He has now opened this opera an astonishing twenty-one times, which is more than any other opera singer.

Transitioning to a Conductor

While Domingo has continued as an opera singer, this alone wasn’t enough to keep him occupied. He conducted for the first time in 1973. Less than a decade later, Placido’s career took another leap when he collaborated on a song with John Denver.

The 90s saw his status continue to rise. He performed at events such as three different World Cup Finals through the 90s.

Placido also performed during the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. He would once again perform at the Olympics in 2008.

Domingo has produced an extensive catalog of CD and DVD recordings. These recordings have played a part in securing 9 Grammys.

Although Placido had to undergo colon cancer surgery in 2010, the future seems bright given his LA Opera contract is slated to run through 2013.

There are many famous male opera singers as well as talented singers who are not quite as famous as they could be just yet. In life and in culture there is only room enough to have a few of the best people at any one subject otherwise if everyone was a great opera singer then opera itself would no longer hold the same meaning. Andrea Bocelli is one of these singers who has strived to be one of the greats and his fan base will tell you first hand that he is somebody who makes a great opera singer from is passion and his soulful singing.

Born in 1958, Andrea is an Italian opera singer which in many countries may be a little bit of a stereotype however after hundreds of years of producing great opera singers Italy is famous for just that reason, plus a few other irrelevant reasons. Some interesting facts about Andrea is that he was born with poor eyesight however this was made worse later in life at the early age of twelve years old. After the accident he lost the permanent use of his site and became totally blind.

One of his biggest selling albums was the Sacred Arias album that became his biggest seller in 1996 selling over five million copies worldwide. These sales alone were a terrific feat for one opera singer alone and this in itself helped his career to rocket past the point of the average opera singer who was just another one of the crowd.

Luciano Pavarotti was an exceedingly well-known opera singer over the last century, and many people would consider his name synonymous with opera. He was born in Italy in 1935 and began his career in 1961 as a tenor in Italy, before making his first international experience in Serbia. From here, he went from strength to strength and sang in opera houses in Barcelona, Budapest, Ankara, London, Vienna and the Netherlands to name but a few. He became famous for what is described in music as the ‘upper register of his tone’ which allowed him to sing beautiful notes.

Interestingly, opera singing, and especially as tenors, was something that ran in the family as his father was an amateur tenor. Pavarotti has always described his dad as having a ‘fine’ tenor voice, but apparently couldn’t make it as a professional tenor due to ‘nervousness’. Pavarotti also had a humanitarian side to him and has seen him raise large amounts of money for several UN causes. Every year he hosted the ‘Pavarotti and Friends’ annual charity concert in his home town of Modena, Italy. He invited singers from all over the world such as Bryan Adams, Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Elton John, Sting, Bono, Queen, the Spice Girls and Bon Jovi who all helped to raise money for charity with him. He also worked a lot with Diana, Princess of Wales on the topics of trying to eliminate land mines and was appointed the UN Messenger of Peace in 1998 where he used his international fame to raise awareness for many UN causes.

There are so many cultural activities that you can do when you are traveling or even when you are staying at home because just about every country in the developed world has some kind of opera theatre or place where you can go to see such as event. Singers like Pavarotti and his friends the Tenors were spectacular in their day and are still loved by many people who enjoy the sounds of the opera on their stereos each day. Live music is said to always be the best however when the record companies make remakes of the old classics so that the voices and instruments can be clearly heard then it is worth paying the extra money to buy this quality. Jose Carreras is another vey famous opera singer who like the others has reached his fame from pure talent. These men have such unique and toned voices that they will go down in history as the greats of our age.

The opera itself is generally a story that is told by the singer where the music brings mood and soul into the song. Through a complicated mixture of rhythm and melody the magic that is opera comes out for everyone to enjoy. From the humble beginnings in Italy the opera singers of all countries now strive to be the very best including those new comers from Ireland. Their music and voices are enough to inspire great crowds of people to listen to the journey that they are telling. Not every man has the talent involved to be one of the best opera singers in the world which is the only way you will make a decent living out of this career choice. On the other hand there are may amateurs who do it for the pure pleasure rather than striving for the big dollars at the top.

Male voices of opera singers are classified into the following; Countertenor, Tenor, Baritone, and Bass. Countertenor refers to the highest male voices. Most singers that are called countertenors sing in the falsetto register and sometimes use the modal register for the lowest notes. There is evidence that countertenor is also designated for very high tenor voices. This is similar to the leggiero tenor or tenor altino. Historically, until around the 1830′s all male voices used some falsetto type voice production in their upper range. The sub types of countertenors including Sopranist or male soprano, Haute-contre and the modern castrato.

A Tenor is the highest male voice that is within the modal register. The tessitura of the tenor voice lies above the baritone voice and below the countertenor voice. The Legggiero tenor has the highest tessitura of all the sub types of tenors. Tenors are divided into different sub categories based on their range, vocal color, and the weight and dexterity of their voice. The sub categories are; Leggiero tenor, Lyric tenor, Spinto tenor, Dramatic tenor and the Heldentenor.

Baritone is the most common type of male voice, and although this voice overlaps both tenor and bass voices the tessitura of a baritone is lower than the tenor and higher than the bass. The subtypes for Baritones are Lyric baritone, Bel Canto baritone or Coloratura baritone, kavalierbaritone, Dramatic baritone, Verdi Baritone, Baryton-noble and Bariton Martin. The Bass is the lowest male voice. The bass has the lowest tessitura of all the voices in Opera. The subtypes for those in the bass range include; Basso Profondo, Basso Buffo or Bel Canto Bass, Basso Cantante, Dramatic Bass and the Bass-baritone.

Classifying a voice is very important. Classification is used as a guiding tool for the development of the voice. A misclassification can be responsible for damaging the vocal cords. This can shorten a singing career, and more importantly lead to the loss of free vocal production. Damage may takes months or years to appear. Singers can develop bad habits that can cause irreparable damage to their voices based on a misclassification.

Opera is like musical production where the singers and musicians perform dramatic works that combine works, libretto and the music. Opera is a classical music performance style that is from the West. Opera includes acting, costumes and scenery props and will sometimes include dance. Opera is usually performed in an opera house. Opera’s usually require an orchestra.

Opera first originated in Italy in the sixteenth century. It became a popular entertainment and spread all around Europe. Many forms of Operatic production sprung up with countries trying to establish their own styles. Italian opera continued to be the most popular, dominating the opera houses of Europe during the eighteenth century. France was the exception, with composers like Handel making the local opera more popular. The most well known of the late eighteenth century opera composers is Mozart; he is most famous for his comedies in the opera.

The nineteenth century saw the pinnacle of the bel canto style of opera. Many of the works created are still regularly performed today. It was also the beginning of the Grand Opera, and the golden age of opera. Operas from this time are dominated by Wagener and Verdi. Opera continued to be popular. In the twentieth century we see many experiments with modern opera styles. Atonality and serialism, nieoclassicism an minimalism all impact on opera styles and trends. With the advent of recording technology more people can now enjoy opera and even those who with never go to the opera can appreciate its wonderful powerful sound. These days’ operas are written with television and radio as a main focus to the writing and set design so that the audience will gain the best experience from home.

We all like to listen to the classics now and again to really get away from life for a while; and why not when we work so hard and deserve a relaxing break of Bach or Opera depending on your likes and dislikes. Some of the more famous opera singers are modern day talent that has unraveled from centuries ago. There is even a thought that these men have been chosen to represent their god given talent through unifying together like the Three Tenors or the traveling seven Irish Opera Singers. Mozart was one of the great opera singers but even he could not do what was necessary without the help of the band or orchestra which played for the opera singers.

Thousands of years ago during the darkening part of the cooling evening the Roman people would gather at the Coliseum for the evening entertainment which would often be an opera or play of sorts. Depending on what the mob liked would determine who would last and who would be the next feed for the lions. Pavarotti is one Tenor that made it famous in the 21st century although unfortunately died in 2007 leaving some very upset fans behind. Being a big man he died of a heart attack however he was able to touch the hearts of many people all around the world.

Pavarotti was one of the three tenors until his untimely death leaving Domingo and Carreras behind to fill his place. These three men traveled to dozens of countries around the world to sing for vast audiences in opera houses and other concert halls which seated just a small personal crowd or thousands of people in a stadium style opera. The opera singers where featured in one of the many Seinfeld TV shows where one of Seinfeld’s friends is trying to get Carreras autograph. It was a great way to advertise for the opera singer as well as making another great episode for Seinfeld.

The three tenors are probably the most famous opera singers of today however there are a few contenders for the top position as a 5 star line up of Irish opera singers has recently hit the touring scene. There are male opera singers all around the world which is not an uncommon thing to be however there seems to be a slight decline in the opera singing for men in the last few centuries as women discover their deep and bellowing lungs. Male opera singers are not said to be everywhere but there are amateurs here and there that do go on to be one of the greats, now and again.

The fact that the entire species of opera singers in declining compared to the population growth could indicate a trend that opera is becoming a past recreational activity to go and see as well as one that the masters themselves adhere to practice. Only time will tell what is going to happen to the future of male opera singers around the world but in will not be in our lifetime that they die out or even in the next. Popularity of certain fashions of entertainment always has their ups and downs and opera unfortunately cannot be left out of the mixture.