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List Price: $16.98
Our Price: $9.80
Your Save: $ 7.18 ( 42% )
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Manufacturer: Decca
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Product Description
Juan Diego Flórez is THE tenor for bel canto operas, the first choice for any new production at the world's greatest opera houses. Flórez recently performed the first aria encore at La Scala in 74 years. On Voce d'Italia, he pays tribute to an extraordinary predecessor who inspired some of his greatest stage roles and became the first `superstar tenor': Giovanni Battista Rubini. Like Flórez today, Rubini was loved as much for the touching pathos of his slow singing as for the thrilling power of his fast, high roulades. Roles the two singers have shared include the Prince in Rossini's La Cenerentola, Elvino in Bellini's La sonnambula, Arturo in Bellini's I puritani, Uberto in Rossini's La donna del lago, and the title role of Rossini's Otello. Many of the arias by Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti on this new recording with the Orchestra of the Academy of Santa Cecilia, Rome under Roberto Abbado, are unknown gems which show the tremendous range of Flórez's vocal and dramatic art. Flórez thrillingly tosses off those high Cs which have brought him so much fame, and ventures further into the stratosphere with a few high Ds and his first high E-flat on record.
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Customer Review(s)
Customer Rating: Summary: By now, a known quantity Comment: After flirting with other repertoire and recording a crossover disc or two, the reigning Rossini tenor Juan Diego Florez returns to what he does best on this album: the florid, high-lying music of early nineteenth-century bel canto opera. The concept here is to evoke comparison with Giovanni Rubini, the tenor for whom this music was written, and it's hard to believe that Florez' predecessor was more facile or could negotiate the numerous coloratura runs with greater accuracy and ease. Florez doesn't actually go as high as Rubini was reputed to have done (high F)--he touches one E-flat above high C, but otherwise reaches "only" high D. On the other hand, he sings his high notes in full voice, something Rubini would not have done.
For fans who know what Florez is all about and have enjoyed his live performances (and I certainly am one) this album will certainly confirm their high opinion. The tenor's voice seems to have grown in size, and occasionally there is a hint of unsteadiness in sustained notes--perhaps fatigue due to his frantic international career? As I have noted before, with vocal gifts of such magnitude it seems almost churlish to wish occasionally for more differentiation of character or vocal color, since all of the music is so much of a piece. Did contemporary audiences demand the vocal acting abilities of a Callas from Rubini? My guess is not. Let's wish Florez a long career and continued vocal health--he's certainly become an indispensable fixture on the international operatic scene.
FOOTNOTE: As is the case so often with the bel canto composers, a listener can amuse him/herself by identifying music in the more obscure operas that was later re-used to greater fame. There's a big chunk of "Norma" in one of the tracks, for example.
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