His operas are wonderful to sing, says Ian Bostridge. But why do the tenors always get such short shrift?

[The Guardian, 13 January 2006]

All over the world, opera houses, concert halls and professional and amateur musicians are celebrating Mozart: this month marks 250 years since his birth. Particularly ambitious is the Salzburg festival's plan to perform every one of his operas over a single summer season. As a classical singer I am, inevitably, making my own modest contribution to the celebrations: singing Mozart arias in a recital in Hamburg, and appearing in a production of Don Giovanni at the Vienna State Opera. I don't perform a great deal of opera but, having the sort of tenor voice that suits Mozart rather than Verdi, the former figures largely in my career as a theatrical performer.