Tosca hero Freddie: I want to be Katherine Jenkins
NewsThe English tenor Freddie de Tommaso who saved last night’s Tosca at Covent Garden has been answering a few collegial questions for Edinburgh Music Review.
The answer that caught our eye was this:
For now, I will be sticking to the operatic and classical repertoire. No one knows what the future will bring, but I am not particularly interested in veering from that path at present.
I am going to try very hard to bring opera into the same limelight as the Katherine Jenkins/Alfie Boe world, but avoiding the tacky crossover aspect, and keeping true to the traditions and values of proper classical singing. I am very happy to remain in the world of opera. This is the music I love, and I want to share it with as many people as possible!
Read on here.
Not exactly what he said…I often wonder at this inclination to go with redtop (and inaccurate) headers.
He only does it to annoy, because he knows it teases.
That header is borderline actionable.
I had to google both Katherine Jenkins and Alfie Boe. You can’t know everyone. And I seriously doubt that they are household names outside the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
You may be right. They have no general currency here in Canada.
I cannot reconcile your headline with the quote.
The headline is misleading. He quite clearly does not want to be Katherine Jenkins
That job is already taken.
Good luck to him! Great little money-earner to be like KJ.
“I want to be Katherine Jenkins”
That is not what he says. It’s clear that he doesn’t think much of crossover.
or crossdressing.
Presumably.
Clickbait headline considering what he actually says is that he wants to raise the profile of opera without doing tacky crossovers.
Katherine Jenkins, the famous opera singer who has never sung an opera.
I admit I didn’t know who Katherine Jenkins is. I quickly misread the title to say that he wanted to be Florence Foster Jenkins…which would’ve been a real headline, don’t you agree?
Clickbait, sure. Clicks is what makes the world go ’round.
At least this time you don’t have to actually follow through to the link (which might have a paywall) and read the article (which might be in another language) to find out what he’s actually talking about. Not one of his worse ones.
Freddie de Tommaso wishes to avoid
“the tacky crossover aspect”. For him, is all crossover somehow “tacky” or is some crossover acceptable to him?
I heard him on Radio 3 yesterday, never having heard of him before . He should do very well round the pubs
Come on, Mr Lebrecht, that is such a stupid and misleading headline – you should be ashamed of yourself for that kind of primitive clickbait. Mr de Tommaso says rather the opposite.