By Brad Balfour
If anyone possesses the voice of authority when it comes to the Irish songbook, it’s the Celtic Tenors — classically trained and schooled by 20 years under fire touring, recording and teaching. Now consisting of Nelson, Matthew Gilsenan, and Daryl Simpson, the group brings its talent and knowledge to The Theatre at Westbury on March 7th, 2019, showcasing “The Celtic Tenors Present: The Irish Songbook.” In order to increase awareness, Nelson got on the phone to elaborate on how these guy overcome the tenor cliche and become masters of the voice.
He explained his origins in Operatic training in Ireland.” At the time we were training, Ireland only had a population of about three and a half million and now it’s about five million. We had the Irish National Opera Company and Opera Ireland but it died; still, there are opportunities for us. All the music colleges would have opera courses. But a lot of people go away to London, Manchester, Germany or Italy to study opera. I went to London and studied before I embarked on my pre-Irish Tenors operatic career.
As for the opera audience in Ireland… “There’s very much an audience for opera in Ireland for years because a contemporary of Enrico Caruso was John McCormack who traveled in the late 1800s and early 1900s. He sang at the opera in Melbourne, and the Met in New York and in London’sCovent Garden. Mozart’s favorite tenor was a guy named Michael Kelly who sang in some of his original productions in Austria.
“Opera’s big in Ireland, even with only a limited population. There have been Irish singers since the 1700s and we have a famous festival called The Wexford Opera Festival near where I live. It happens every September and they put on three operas that are usually never performed and one’s always a hit. And there’s always Irish singers at the Met.”
Having grown up in Sligo, and now a resident in Baltinglass, West Wicklow, Nelson got himself extensive schooling and experience from all over. He’s performed more than 50 roles in opera and operetta include Tichon (Katya) for Opera Theatre Company in Portugal, Josef (Wiener Blut) and Cecco (Il Mondo della Luna) also for OTC, Basilio (Figaro) for the Scottish Opera under the baton of Raymond Leppard, Pinkerton (Butterfly) at Hever Castle in Kent, Snout/Wall (Midsummer Night’s Dream) for Singapore Lyric Opera, Cavaradossi (Tosca) and Calaf (Turandot) for Opera in the Open, Lensky (Onegin) in Russia, Alfredo (Traviata) at Como in Italy, and roles for Opera Ireland, Opera Liceu, New Israeli Opera, and the Wexford and Buxton Festivals. So he, like his mates, is well-schooled and experienced.
Launched as the Three Irish Tenors in October,1995, James Nelson, Niall Morris and Paul Hennessey started out by performing for RTÉ’s Theatre Nights. Dubbed the best classical crossover act to come out of Ireland, The Tenors continued to build international audiences singing a mix of Celtic, operatic and re-worked popular songs. They officially became The Celtic Tenors when Matthew “Gilly” Gilsenan (from co. Meath) replaced Henessey in 2000 and they signed to EMI. Traveling extensively they pursued many tours in Australia, The USA, Canada, Germany, China and the Netherlands. The group has performed with some of the world’s leading orchestras including The Toronto Symphony, the Cincinnati Pops, and the Vancouver Symphony orchestra. As well as performing for president Bill Clinton in the White House.
In June 2006, Niall Morris left and Daryl Simpson BEM (from Omagh in Northern Ireland), came on board; since Simpson was the founder and director of The Omagh Community youth choir, it was featured on the songs “Better” and “Westering Home.”
The Tenors have released seven records with Decca, EMI, Telarc and the Dara labels. Their first album, “The Celtic Tenors” (released in 2000) went on to achieve double platinum status in their homeland, No.1 in Ireland and Germany, Number 2 in the UK, and won them the “Echo Award” for “Best Classical Crossover Act” in Germany. Over the next 10 years, they released “So Strong” and 2002’s “The Irish Album,” including their single which became the Irish national anthem, “Ireland’s call.” Then came “We Are Not Islands,” 2005’s “Remember Me” and 2009’s “Hard Times;” ”Feels Like Home” then was released in September 2011.
As for the Tenors’ recent album, Explained Nelson, “We just recorded this new album as part of our 20 year career. It’s only the second all Irish album we’ve done. We do an eclectic show, meshing the Opera world in a production of Strauss’ ‘Die Fledermaus.’ We sing some spiritual music and obviously Celtic, Irish, and Scottish music as well. This is all irish album is a little bit mad for an Irish act touring the world. We’re going to Australia after America and the Australians have asked for an all Irish album, so we obliged them with an Irish songbook and a Celtic tenor [laughs].”
As for the Celtic part, Nelson added, not everyone in the group speaks Gaelic. “They don’t teach it in school in Northern Ireland, but in the Republic, from the age of four right up until 16, we take lessons in Irish and English. There’s Irish and Gaelic TV channels, radio channels, and the signs are bilingual. It’s confusing for some but we’re proud of it. Technically, it’s a dying language so we’re trying to keep it alive. We sing at least one song in Gaelic every show. People don’t realize Ireland has two languages. It’s good to learn two languages at a very young age.”
Was there ever a fear that being called Celtic would overshadow the Tenor part? “We often thought it’d be better if we were called Bananarama or something. Sometimes people see the name ‘Celtic Tenors’ and think, ‘I don’t like opera’ or see the word Celtic and think ‘I don’t like all that Irish music,’ but it belies what we actually do in the show. People see us sing operatic pieces but there’s also Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘The Boxer’ and John Denver’s ‘Calypso’ as well as ‘Danny Boy’ and ‘Whiskey in the Jar.’
“There’s such a huge mix. We have three very different solo voices. Daryl went to Queen’s University. I went to the College of Dublin as did Matthew. Matthew’s early training was much more folky. He then delved into Opera. Daryl was like me, into classical opera and became a tenor and went to Switzerland and trained at the Zurich Opera House. He’s a light tenor singer who can do Rossini and Mozart. The roles I did at the end of my operatic career were like Puccini and Verdi, quite physically heavy tenor. Matthew is somewhere in between, high and light but can do heavier stuff too. So there are three different solo voices but in harmony, we sound like one voice. In ‘Danny Boy,’ we sing solo lines and then hopefully it comes together as one.”
Besides the singing, James also wrote a column for the “Sligo Weekender” – “Nelson’s Column”— for 13 years. He’s also been part of an ongoing building project in Kenya, helping AIDS orphans get a second chance, upgrading their accommodation and education facilities, as well as teaching music and performing in concerts with the kids.
As for their benchmark tenor songs, Nelson listed several. “Because of the 1990 World Cup, there’s ‘Nessun Dorma,’ though we don’t always do that. And there’s ‘Time to Say Goodbye’ by Andrea Bocelli. And we do ‘Danny Boy’ because John McCormack would sing that every single show. We do a three-part a capella version of that. We do ‘La donna è mobile’ from ‘Rigoletto’ as well. Aside from that we try to vary up the program quite a bit. Those would be the most obvious. We mix in an Irish drinking song and Gaelic. Around St. Patrick’s Day it’ll be more heavy in the Irish. There’s one or two songs we do with guitars as well.
As for the songs’ arrangement. “It’s mostly us with our musical director. We write our own harmonies and I’ve done the template for all our vocal arrangements. We know our own voices. I know Daryl can’t sing a B flat. Matthew and I are more flexible because we have some baritone in our voices.
“We’re tenors, we have no brains, supposedly.People are terribly rude about tenors. But in The Celtic Tenors there couldn’t be egos when we’re traveling together in the US and Australia and China, you can’t have divas. Pavarotti was an amazing voice with a legacy that will go on, but a lot of people will say he just stood there. Whereas Domingo was an incredible actor. You can tell Pavarotti is intelligent but there are jokes about tenors just standing there and opening their mouths and just caring about their voice.
“Years ago we did a show about the great tenors with Caruso and McCormack. Then moved into Pavarotti and crossover tenors like Bocelli, and then the pop tenors like Roy Orbison, John Denver, Freddie Mercury, even Elton John has a very high pitch male voice. It was a lovely show. Tenors aren’t just in the opera world — they’re everywhere… And then there’s The Celtic Tenors.”