Jean De Reszke was a polish tenor born into a well to do family in warsaw, and was one of if not the biggest male opera star of the late 19th century. He started out at a university studying but not for long as he switched and went to milan to study singing, where he made his first appearance as a baritone.
He did not quite make it as a baritone and so went into a period of further study, where he emerged as a tenor. his first reappearance at Madrid in 1879 it was as a tenor, in the title-role of Robert le Diable. he also reappeared in drury lane as radames in aida.
He went to london, paris and of course america, where from 1893 - 1899 he sang yearly at the metropolitan opera house. In 1904 he was forced to retire from the stage due to illness, where he travelled between nice and paris training voices.
Enrico Caruso (23 years his junior) took up the mantle of the worlds number one tenor, There is two very bad recordings of his voice and i have included them here despite the awful sounds. in parts you can still hear the quality of Jean De Reszke,s voice, but be warned you have to be patient and really want to hear him.
Although the recordings are very hard to listen to, i had patience and im glad i did, because here and there the beauty of his voice shined through.
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