Jan Peerce
Jan Peerce was known as "Toscanini's tenor," with his clean, incisive singing, exceptional breath support, and immediately distinctive timbre (though some considered his vibrato overly rattling). Peerce did not always record well in the studio, his voice often becoming harsh with a microphone and his technique losing some of the nuances contemporary critics praised in his stage singing. However, many of his live performances are now out of copyright, so provide a more accurate overview of his singing and style. While Peerce is often compared to his brother-in-law Richard Tucker (Peerce married Tucker's sister, Sara) -- both were born in New York, both were tenors, both studied to become cantors, and neither was a strong actor -- the similarities were largely superficial. There was a good deal of animosity between the two of them, Peerce feeling his contributions towards Tucker's career were ignored, Tucker feeling Peerce was jealous of his own accomplishments, which he felt were the greater.
Peerce grew up in a musical family, where his mother opened the house to dinner guests and eventually boarders to pay for his violin lessons. He and four friends formed a band, Pinky Pearl and His Society Dance Band (Peerce was born Jacob Pincus Perelmutter and nicknamed "Pinky" at home), which became quite successful. Peerce soon discovered that when he sang, that got as much or more attention than their playing. He favorably impressed Samuel Rothafel, a major Broadway impresario, and sang first on the Radio City Music Hall of the Air and then on stage at the opening of the physical Radio City Music Hall in 1932. He rapidly became one of the most popular radio performers in both popular and cantorial music, and in 1936, first sang "The Bluebird of Happiness," which became his signature tune (and the title of his 1973 autobiography). Arturo Toscanini heard him in a broadcast of Act I of Die Walküre (Peerce's only foray into Wagner, though Toscanini himself suggested that he sing Siegmund on stage), and hired him to sing the tenor role in his broadcast of Beethoven's Ninth, with the legendary NBC Symphony Orchestra. He became Toscanini's tenor of choice, and began to study opera with Giuseppe Borgatti. He made his opera debut at the Philadelphia Opera as the Duke in Rigoletto in 1938, and sang Alfredo in La Traviata in San Francisco, where Lawrence Tibbett pushed him into taking an extra solo bow. 1941 was also the year of his Met debut as Alfredo in La Traviata, and he sang each season with that company until 1968. In the late 1940s, he had a vocal crisis, but studied with Robert Weede (with whom he had sung at the Music Hall), regaining his earlier vocal placement and projection. He made regular tours with the Bach Aria Group throughout the 1950s and early 1960s. In 1956, he toured in the then-Soviet Union, singing a service in the Great Synagogue in Moscow, an overwhelming emotional experience for him, and one that he repeated in 1963. In 1971, he made his Broadway debut as Tevye in The Fiddler on the Roof. He retired from performing in 1982.
© TiVo
Similar artists
-
Récital (Mono Version)
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1958
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Récital Verdi (Mono Version)
Vivian Della Chiesa, Jan Peerce, Nicola Moscona
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1957
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi: La forza del destino, extraits (Mono Version)
Zinka Milanov, Jan Peerce, Leonard Warren
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1956
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
En Italie (Mono Version)
Jan Peerce, Philharmonia Orchestra, Anatole Fistoulari
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1959
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Israeli Lullaby (feat. Joe Reisman Orchestra) (Mono Version)
World - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1958
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bizet: Carmen (Mono Version)
RCA Victor Orchestra, Fritz Reiner, Risë Stevens, Jan Peerce
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 2013
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Jan Peerce Sings Hebrew Melodies
Classical - Released by Living Stereo on 25 Jul 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Lebendige Vergangenheit - Jan Peerce (Vol.3)
Classical - Released by Preiser Records on 19 Feb 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sings Yiddish Folk Songs
World - Released by Vanguard Records on 1 Jan 1963
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Handel Arias (Album of 1963)
Jan Peerce, Vienna State Opera Orchestra, Hans Schwieger
Classical - Released by Casta Diva on 31 Dec 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Fidelio
Classical - Released by Infinity on 28 Oct 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hebrew Melodies
World - Released by Master Classics Records on 1 May 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
You'll Never Walk Alone (Live On The Ed Sullivan Show, August 16, 1959)
Pop - Released by SOFA - AV Catalog DD on 19 Nov 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
La fleur que tu m'avais jetée (Live On The Ed Sullivan Show, September 15, 1963)
Classical - Released by SOFA - AV Catalog DD on 13 Feb 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Serenade (Live On The Ed Sullivan Show, November 12, 1961)
Classical - Released by SOFA - AV Catalog DD on 10 Jan 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Till There Was You (Two Classic Albums)
Pop - Released by Flare Records on 18 Sep 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Jan Peerce Sings Hebrew Melodies (Original Album 1956)
Pop - Released by Jewish Music on 28 Feb 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
La bohème
Jan Peerce, Licia Albanese, Fancesco Valentino
Opera - Released by Past Classics on 6 Nov 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Christ on the Mount of Olives, Op. 85
Otto Wiener, Jan Peerce, Maria Stader
Classical - Released by Past Classics on 8 Jan 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
Great Voices Of Our Time
Pop - Released by Rainbow Media OMP on 11 May 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo