Nikolai schukoff biography of albert

‘Endowed with a voice which for power, quality, richness and warmth, range and volume, has seldom been equaled, he displayed the highest art in the use of it.  His acting also was artistic, and dignified, and his impersonation was in every respect a regal one.’  It was thus that an unidentified correspondent for the New York Times described the Metropolitan Opera début of Polish tenor Jean de Reszke as Wagner’s Lohengrin in Chicago on 9 November 1891.  De Reszke was an uncommonly versatile artist even by the standards of his time, his repertory including lyric rôles, dramatic Verdi parts, French rôles, and Wagner heroes—even the most daunting of the last of these, Siegfried.  It was for De Reszke that Jules Massenet conceived and composed the title rôle in his opera Le Cid, in which Wagnerian power is combined with the high tessitura typical of French tenor rôles.  The balance of stamina with consistency and proper projection