Listeners to “Opera Fanatic” on WKCR-FM recently voted for Favorite Tenor of the Century. With 47 singers receiving a grand total of 600 votes, the results were:
First place: Corelli, with 185 votes or 30.8% of the vote
2nd: Björling 177 (29.5%)
3rd: Caruso 69 (11.5%)
4th: Gigli 50 (8.3%);
5th: Vickers 17 (2.8%)
6th: McCormack 14 (2.3%)
7th: Carreras and Melchior 7 (1.2%) each
9th: Bergonzi, Del Monaco and Zucker (host of “Opera Fanatic”) 5 (0.8%) each
12th: Kraus and Pavarotti 4 (0.6%) each
14th: Di Stefano, Gedda, Lanza, Tauber and Tucker 3 (0.5%) each
19th: Domingo, Lauri Volpi, Rosvaenge, Schmidt, Shicoff, Slezak and Urlus, 2 (0.3%) each
26th: Bonci, Consiglio, De Lucia, De Muro, Fleta, Koslovsky, Leech, Lemeshev, Mann, Merli, Pears, Peerce, H. Price, Ralf, Schipa, Schreier, Simoneau, Tamagno, Tagliavini, Thill, Wittrisch and Wunderlich 1 vote (0.2%) each.