Juan Diego Florez ~ Rossini Arias

Amazon.com This disc by the rising young Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez is a winner. He has a light lyric tenor of quality, stunning coloratura technique, and a real feeling for the Rossini style. He shines in these bravura arias, scattering high Cs and Ds with abandon. There aren't many tenors these days who can fearlessly negotiate the perils of arias like "Cessa di piu resistere" from The Barber of Seville with such aplomb. Nor are there many who can capture both the pathos and the fevered intensity of "Oh fiamma souave" from La donna del lago. Even those who might wish for a warmer, sweeter sound in the bel canto repertory than Flórez's brighter, more brilliant tones should welcome this auspicious solo debut. He's helped by the sure hand of Riccardo Chailly at the helm, ensuring stylistically sympathetic performances. --Dan Davis Product description FLOREZ JUAN DIEGO / CHAILLY / Review The Rossini tenor is a bird of curious plumage indeed, considering where he's coming from, 'neither fish nor flesh nor good red herring'. The voice's tightrope-walking tessitura has something about it of the castrato this type of singer was called upon to replace. Roles written for it are lyric in the traditional sense, but only up to a point. Rossini's audiences in Venice and Naples (and later in London and Paris) wanted their tenor to execute the same showy coloratura scales, trills and arpeggios as the soprano. A sinuous, no-frills cantilena of the sort we enjoy in the mature Donizetti or early Verdi was still only half the story during the years around 1820 when Rossini was king of European opera stages. Thus five of the eight arias on this disc are cast in the form of a short slow-tempo opening, followed by a faster, more expansive second section, designed to exhibit the tenor's skill in a climactic display of vocal fireworks.On this disc the pyrotechnician is the stellar Peruvian Juan Diego Florez, a singer with the advantage, remaining rare among tenors, of looking as good as his voice sounds. The instrument in question possesses impressive agility and strength, and the bravura passages in each number are accomplished with the kind of fearlessness we have a right to expect if this music is to be properly realized. In itself, what's more, the Florez sound is an engaging one, full of steely brilliance for the heroic attitudinizing, more pliable and varied in moments of amorous reflection. For a most stylish example of the latter, try 'Oh! fiamma soave' from La donna del lago. Florez holds the line expertly in a punishing number from Otello, that paradise or minefield for the Rossini tenor, and makes a feisty Ramiro setting his heart on Cenerentola in 'Si, ritrovaria io giuro'.As well as displaying the soloist's easy mastery of what was once thought a lost operatic technique, the programme is absorbing for its range and rarity value. Even the Pesaro Festival, that magnet for Rossinians, hasn't yet handled Zelmira, while La gazza ladra is still, for most people, an overture with an unknown opera attached. Riccardo Chailly's conducting allows a suitable space for Rossini as wizard orchestrator in the context of a generous acoustic. The booklet includes texts and an appreciation of the singer, but nothing about the operas themselves. Otherwise, this is a stimulating and attractive tour of one of the tenor repertoire's most challenging areas. Jonathan B. Keates -- From International Record Review - subscribe now
ASIN: B00005UT5H
VSKU: DBV.B00005UT5H.G
Condition: Good
Author/Artist:Gioachino Rossini|Riccardo Chailly|Juan Diego Florez|Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro di Milano Giuseppe Verdi
Binding: Audio cd