DAME NELLIE MELBA,SOPRANO, MAY 19TH 1861

The famous Nellie Melba, who was born in 1861, was a woman on a mission. After a modest start to her career as a lyric coloratura soprano in her home town of Melbourne Australia, she packed herself off in 1886 to pursue her career in London. She made…

GIULIETTA SIMIONATO, MEZZO-SOPRANO, MAY 12TH 1910

Born in Forli, the city once ruled by the so-called Tigress of Forli, Caterina Sforza, Giulietta Simionato’s singing talent was recognised…

Episode Number Three of The Voice Detective Show with Ken Laing AM Music Manager, Event Producer, Artistic Director and Musical Coordinator

Over his distinguished career, there is virtually no international touring artist whose Australian tour Ken hasn’t organised and coordinated.

MONTSERRAT CABALLÉ, APRIL 12TH, 1933

No diva in memory has sung such an all-encompassing amount of the soprano repertory, progressing through virtually the entire range of Italian light lyric, LIRICO-SPINTO and dramatic roles…

FRANCO CORELLI, APRIL 8TH, 1921

the days before there were “Kings”, Franco Corelli was hailed “The Prince of Tenors”. There were good reasons for this epithet – he possessed a dazzling clear timbre, a powerful spinto voice capable of spinning the finest and longest diminuendo on a top Bb, (just check out his Ah, leve toi soleil! from Roméo et Juliette) or listen to his Bb morendo on the last note of Celeste Aïda). These  remain unsurpassed. His charismatic…

Episode Number Two of The Voice Detective Show with Mimmo Matania, Accordionist, Musicologist and Co-Founder of Napulitanata

Mimmo Matania is the co-founder of Napulitanata, a group of musicians dedicated to researching and performing traditional Neapolitan music and songs.

Beniamino Gigli, March 20th, 1890

Beniamino Gigli, whose surname translated into English means Lilies has his birthday today. Certainly his lirico-spinto voice was as perfect, sweet and beautiful as his namesake.
Gigli’s career took on super-stardom in the English speaking world, when he was hired by the Metropolitan Opera New York and had the unenviable task of following in footsteps of Enrico Caruso after Caruso’s untimely and sudden death. Comparisons were inevitable; but it didn’t
take long for the honey voiced Gigli to win over his audiences with his flexible, lyrically ringing voice and masterful implementation of mezzo voce.

Dame Eva Turner, March 10, 1892

Remembering today the legendary British dramatic soprano, described by Arturo Toscanini as “a beautiful voice, beautiful pronunciation and beautiful appearance.” (1) Dame Eva Turner sang the dramatic Italian soprano repertoire as well as the Wagnerian heroines to great acclaim. Today she is most closely identified…

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa March 6, 1944

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Today we celebrate Dame Kiri Te Kanawa: the beautiful, full, warm voiced lyric soprano associated and celebrated for her opera roles ranging from Purcell, Handel, Mozart, Puccini to Richard Strauss and Leonard Bernstein.
Dame Kiri is an acclaimed recording artist and recitalist covering…

LAUNCHING OF THE VOICE DETECTIVE SHOW ON 151ST ANNIVERSARY OF ENRICO CARUSO’S BIRTH – Copy

FEBRUARY 25, 2024

The Voice Detective aka Gyaan Lyon is excited to launch today The Voice Detective Show on the 151st Anniversary of Enrico Caruso’s birth.

FEBRUARY 25, 2025

On this day in 2024, The Voice Detective aka Gyaan Lyon launched The Voice Detective Show as a free monthly vodcast where interviews with experts from all walks of life about anything and everything to do with the Voice and the Art of Bel Canto aka beautiful singing, are presented by Gyaan. The day of the launch of the show was selected as it’s also the birthday of the great Italian tenor Enrico Caruso.
Enrico Caruso was a once in a lifetime voice; one which captured the imagination of generations of opera and popular music fans and performers alike. And it is fair to say in doing so, he became a household name and an inspiration to every tenor past and present. The Voice Detective humbly pays homage to him on this day.
Enrico was not just a great singer, but a great colleague. Recordings of his voice in duets, trios, quartets and the famous sextet show how he used his vocal skill to enhance the whole effect, generously enabling his co-singers to shine at their best. Quoting just one of many examples noted by music connoisseur and critic J.B. Stearne, when recording with Melba, ‘how gallantly (he) softens his notes so that the unearthly beauty of her high C can rise, free, like Ariel, to the elements.’
Contemporaries of Caruso, who were fortunate enough to witness his performances speak of not just the power of his voice, but above all, ‘it was a matter of quality and style, the natural beauty, the manliness of it…..They speak of the sweetness of his tone, the naturalness of his art and its sincerity.’ We can only wonder at what it would have been like.
Caruso died all too young. In his excellent article on Caruso, Stearne acutely remarks that ‘Caruso’s fate was a tragic portent. The new phenomenon of mass-media was largely the cause. Caruso’s records sold throughout the world, and in the brilliance of their forward, full-bodied tone, they led people to expect the impossible, most particularly a voice of ear-splitting volume. Caruso knew what was expected of him, and gave prodigiously to meet the expectations…. He gave it – the gift of song, and also a rich bounty of his generous nature – but became a victim of his own fame. The undermining of his health would nowadays be seen clearly as stress-induced, a large part of it derived from the unprecedented sale of his voice on records.’
The remarkable consistency of the ‘impossible’ in Enrico Caruso’s vocal performances can be attested by none other than Giacomo Puccini, who in a letter to Tito Ricordi was able to write, ‘Caruso is the usual marvellous Des Grieux,…’ Just like that – how could Caruso be anything less!