Talk:Antonio Paoli

message: One of the most scary, fawning, self-centered, nationalistic, unbalanced things I have ever read. Even the most obsessive admirers of singers such as Callas or Del Monaco will at least admit that SOME people have their comments about their idols. The Paoli people, however, will not have ANYTHING said about their God. This article is biased and obsessive. Perhaps it is a Puerto-Rican nationalist thing - after all, is Puerto Rico even regarded as a real country?; I can understand their lack of identity and need to promote anyone who makes an international career. But this article is just hagiography and hyperbole. Very sad.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.196.233.25 (talk) 20:06, 25 October 2014 (UTC)
replies: text: Who is this? 2600:381:FEE0:1CA2:AC63:6F:D4ED:CC2B (talk) 08:04, 2 January 2024 (UTC)

text: Please reach out 2600:381:FEE0:1CA2:AC63:6F:D4ED:CC2B (talk) 08:05, 2 January 2024 (UTC)

text: His house in PR is a museum now and I’ve been there 2600:381:FEE0:1CA2:AC63:6F:D4ED:CC2B (talk) 08:07, 2 January 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  This article is hilarious 

message: This article is once more protected because the same user that in 2010 and 2011 removed content without any justification is doing so again. The user has returned with the only intention of removing content of this article and, with what maybe considered as POV, to criticize and downgrade the subject. Please read what Mercy11 wrote above in 2011. Thank you, Tony the Marine (talk) 06:33, 9 October 2014 (UTC)
thread_title: Here we go again

message: Looking at this article, I was surprised to find that Antonio Paoli was allegedly considered better than Caruso in his time, and wondered what the source for this and many of the other seemingly grandiose claims made about this tenor's fame and ability could be. Compared to contemporaries like Caruso, Bonci, Zenatello, Martinelli, Anselmi, Viñas, etc. etc... Paoli isn't mentioned much at all in opera literature. He did make 53 recordings for the Gramophone Company, of which 24 were later reissued by the Gramophone Co. on 12 double-sided records in the HMV "DA" and "DB" series. Only a few of his records appear to have been repressed on double-sided discs by Victor in the United States. Conversely, all of Caruso's Gramophone Co. records were continuously in print for decades after his death. Paoli's recordings seem to be quite  rare today, indicating that they were not great sellers. Searching on Google Books, one struggles to find mentions of Paoli in books about opera that aren't footnotes or numerical listings from discographies. The part about Paoli being placed 20 ft. away from the gramophone on the recordings of "I Pagliacci" is very dubious. Much documentation of the acoustic recording process exists and it simply didn't work in such a way that would permit someone standing so far from the horn to be properly heard. This is easily verifiable.
European opera houses also did not close en masse during WWI. A quick google search reveals that the San Carlo in Napoli appears to have remained open for the entirety of the war. La Scala remained open until the end of the war, though from early 1918 productions were limited to three nights per week. According to this peer-reviewed article, the situation in Italy can be summed up thusly: "Alcuni teatri vengono chiusi, pur se in momenti circoscritti, la maggior parte dei quali nella fase conclusiva del conflitto." (Some theaters are closed, albeit for a limited time only, and mostly in the final phase of the conflict.)
The main source for most of the claims made about this tenor is not a history - it's an application to have Paoli's house in Puerto Rico declared a National Historic Site. The application in turn primarily cites a book entitled Antonio Paoli, El león de Ponce by Jesús M. López - also used separately as a reference in this article - which  according to this review is outright fiction. Apparently it cites opera publications that never existed, puts Paoli in opera houses that were not yet built and alleges that he sang with performers who were still toddlers at the time. Is there another secondary source that can support the claims made here? Wannabe rockstar (talk) 14:05, 13 August 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Dubious sourcing