Power Lungs 2
The Fat Man

You may think, from that first offering, that women dominate the world of opera. While they do get a lot of the great tunes, the males don't fare so badly either, as you will hear.

Male singers usually go under the alias of tenor, although the odd baritone and bass appears from time to time. These names are descriptions of the range of notes that they can most easily sing, and the tenor is in the higher end of the spectrum, the bass, the lower.

Tenors have been doing very well in the charts in recent years, often appearing in groups of three, ten, or even blind. The rise of the "popular" tenor is testament to the quality of many of their opera songs.

Here are some of the most "popular" classics:

1. Bizet – Carmen – ‘Votre toast’ (Toreador Song, Your Toast, Act II)
2. Bizet – Les Pêcheurs de perles (The Pearl Fishers) – ‘Au fond du temple saint’ (In the depths of the temple)
3. Donizetti – L'elisir d'amore (The Elixir of Love) – ‘Una furtiva lagrima’ (A furtive tear, Act II)
4. Gluck – Orfeo ed Euridice – ‘Che faro senza Euridice’, or ‘J'ai perdu mon Eurydice’ (What shall I do without Eurydice?, Act IV)
5. Leoncavallo – I Pagliacci (The Clowns) – ‘Recitar!... Vesti la giubba’ (Put on the costume, Act I)
6. Mozart – Don Giovanni, K527 – ‘Là ci darem la mano’ (There we will give each other our hands, Act I)
7. Mozart – Le Nozze di Figaro, K492 (The Marriage of Figaro) – ‘Non piu andrai, farfallone amoroso’ (No longer shall you go like an amorous butterfly, from flower to flower, Act I)
8. Rossini – Il Barbiere di Siviglia (The Barber of Seville) – ‘Largo al factotum’ (Act I)
9. Verdi – Rigoletto – ‘La donna e mobile’ (Woman is fickle, Act II)
10. Verdi – Il Trovatore – ‘Di quella pira’ (That funeral pyre's flames burn through me, Act III)