Sir Thomas Beecham Talks About the Decline of "Good Singing" (1959)

Part of an interview with Wynford Vaughan-Thomas for "People Today"
(Broadcast by the BBC Home Service on 26th April, 1959)
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Sir Thomas Beecham (29th April, 1879-8th March, 1961) was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic orchestras. From the early 20th century until his death, Beecham was a major influence on the musical life of Britain.

[@CSK84]

What this great maestro said is now more true than ever before. The modern opera world has unfortunately fallen to the service of these small voices that do better in the studio and need amplification on the stage. Anyone who has worked in a professional theatre knows this. There are no true dramatic tenors singing today, no true dramatic sopranos, no true Verdi baritones, no true basso profondi etc... because true dramatic voices take a longer time to develop than smaller lyrical ones, so the true dramatic voices are never given a chance because by the time that they're ready they're deemed "too old". So you have a modern opera world full of essentially light lyrical voices who are artificially darkened with modern sound technology both in the studio and on stage.

[@michaeldslipp1078]

Flagstad and Tebaldi! I applaud this.

[@jasonmorris858]

Aehy really wanted Monty Python's "The Thumpian Theory Song" from The Big Red Book on pipe organ.

[@ingold1470]

So as usual, it declined because it lost the status that drew all the talented, ambitious people to it?

[@douglasskinner]

Would that he had heard Rap and Hip Hop! If he had had problems with the advent of radio Imagine his view of streaming?