Talk:Douglas Stanley

Verification of Douglas Stanley's page

An encyclopaedia should consider the reliability of sources; Stanley's first book contains his own pitch to become a vocal pedagogue with a scientific angle on singing. He had no experience of singing or teaching singing when he embarked on that career. Its account therefore needs testing before including in this or any encyclopaedia. However, this page establishes Stanley's credentials precisely from that account.

Here are a few examples of why Stanley is an unreliable narrator:

1. How is he Italian? Born in England, with — from his family name of Zossenheim and mother's name Joseph — Jewish origins, educated at Rugby, emigrant to USA.

2. He describes singing lessons when he was 16 with Immanuel [sic] Garcia. Manuel Garcia was long-retired and aged 101 at the time, so, even if we are charitable, Stanley could have had only the briefest contact — if any at all — with the great man before Garcia's death, which was 3 months after Stanley's 16th birthday. Nonetheless the article emphasises the significance of his 'lessons' with Garcia.

3. He also claims the De Reszke singing method was in the 'mask' and came from the nasality of their native French language: the brothers and sister were native Polish (not a nasal language).

I think this is worth discussing and the article should be revised to show that it reflects Stanley's account of his beginnings which should not be accepted uncritically. RiverStreet (talk) 10:02, 7 December 2023 (UTC)