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36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A climb into the vocal stratosphere, 21 Sep 2007
Giovanni Battista Rubini (1794-1854) was one of the greatest tenors of all times, an Italian who took the tenor's role to a new dimension, adding dramatics, incredible vocal dexterity and beauty to the various operatic parts in a way that none of his contemporaries was able to match. Rubini was alive at the same time as the top bel canto composers of the first half of the 19th century: Donizetti, Bellini and Rossini. His voice inspired them to compose many operatic roles specifically for him, which, after his death, have been almost impossible to cast. Therefore any project where a tenor is singing arias that were written with Rubini's voice in mind is an extremely ambitious project indeed. Few would dare to attempt it and even less would actually manage to do it. Juan Diego Flórez belongs undoubtedly to this last category.
The difficulty of execution of the arias included in Juan Diego's latest CD "Arias for Rubini", meant as a tribute to the great tenor, can only be described as fiendish. It requires ringing, expressive coloratura, extreme high notes, sustained beautiful legato and an impeccable technique. Amazingly, it's all there. Flórez delivers all arias in his trademark fresh, pure, crystalline sound, clearly pronouncing all words, singing with immaculate precision and beauty. He told me once that he believes bel canto should be virtuosic and beautiful at the same time, and that this is what he always tries to do. He certainly achieved it here with brilliance and style.
It is a joy to listen to his singing all throughout the record but there is more to it than that. Flórez's colourful, luminous voice dazzles the ear, especially in its highest register, exuberantly displayed in this work, truly exploding in sparkling, acrobatic vocals. If the aria Ah! Mes amis...", with its nine consecutive high Cs, from Donizetti's La Fille du Régiment is often defined as the Everest for tenors, then the arias that Juan Diego sings in this CD can only be described as a climb into the vocal stratosphere. He does it to perfection from the first moment we hear him in Bellini's Il Pirata, continuing throughout the other tracks on the CD, many of which are little known gems, like Donizetti's Marino Faliero, to the end where he finishes with a real vocal fireworks display in the piece from Rossini's Guglielmo Tell.
One could be forgiven for thinking that significant manipulation by the sound engineers was required because nobody can naturally sing such fiendishly difficult pieces so beautiful and effortlessly, without the technical wizardry present in a modern-day recording studio. But, if like me, you have seen and heard Flórez live, you will know that his voice is the real thing.
Finally, to end on a high note, if Rubini was the stuff of legend, with a voice out of this world, then we certainly have in Juan Diego Flórez a rightful, perfect successor.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful singing - but a slightly gimmicky idea, 10 Nov 2007
I yield to no-one in my admiration for this Peruvian tenor superstar; his singing gives unalloyed pleasure to us canary fanciers whether live or on disc. I last heard him in the famous Royal Opera "Fille du Regiment" with Dessay, and he was terrific.
But let's be objective: the title of this CD is a tad misleading; in truth several of the arias here were either not specifically written for Rubini, or he was only tangentially or belatedly associated with them, singing them perhaps only once long after the premieres. We have little idea whether Rubini sounded anything like Florez though there's no reason why he should not offer this tribute to so influential a singer and I'm certainly not moaning about the singing; it's breath-taking for us, if not for Florez whose ease of production is a thing of wonder. Nor is it the result of recording patchwork; Florez is just as capable of tossing off those fiendish roulades and stratospheric top notes in one recorded take as he is of doing them live. I don't really understand those reviewers who complain about pinched tone; the voice occasionally sounds a tad strained but how could it be otherwise when Florez is singing in his lower register at the upper limits of male human performance - and without the mixed falsetto sound which marred Kraus' top notes and made him sound whiney.
Perhaps listening to this admirable CD in one sitting is a little too much to take; better to listen to a few tracks at a time to avoid auditory fatigue. Some have complained of a lack of characterisation in Florez' interpretations, especially when he is hopping from one opera to another, but I'm afraid I neither notice that nor really care; in any case just listen to the tenderness and variety of the third item, Donizetti's "Marino Faliero" (which was most certainly written by Donizetti expressly for Rubini and Florez sings it complete with a whopping full-voiced E flat), and you'll hear plenty to refute the accusation of sameness. That hint of strain which others can hear creeping into the highest notes is perhaps the price of the voice having acquired some darker colour of late. One or two top noters are not quite perfect, but to me he still sounds miles better than any other similarly voiced tenor around today. His is not the largest voice I have ever heard but it has such total concentration and purity of tone that it really carries in large spaces and I do not accuse the engineers of much knob-twiddling to enhance artificially the resonance of his voice production; his tenor really is cleanly focused and penetrating and in no need of boosting.
In many ways the first and the last items are the best, from the melodic genius of Bellini to the thrilling mastery of Rossini in "William Tell", in which Florez rises to all he demands of this most heroic of Rossini's tenor roles. The orchestra, chorus, supporting singers and conductor are exemplary. As for the solo singing, the elegance, the thrust, the plangency of the quieter passages, the sense of style and the pyrotechnics combine to make this a truly great recital album.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Juan Diego Florez - a Big Step Forward, 5 Nov 2007
When people are arguing out who is Pav's successor, the answer readily comes in the form of this most recent album of Juan Diego Florez.
True that JDF has been singing bel canto repertoire for more than 10 years on stage. True that his success, though well noted, has been limited to the strictly bel canto repertoire.
Even so, this tenor has proved in this album that his bel canto is gradully moving towards the more heroic genre. When Pavarotti recorded his studio William Tell with R. Chailly in the early 1980's, he once remarked that Tell was his most satisfactorily recorded bel canto opera. His version of Arnoldo is probably the best since the opera's premiere in Rossini's days.
What about JDF's version? Well, JDF's version of the opera's last Act is nerve-racking. His lyrical tenor, hitherto termed 'tenore di graze', sounds piercing and menacing, with top notes exploding on metallic edges that this aria requires so badly, and yet unable to be delivered by other tenors.
Ringing high notes aren't enough for dramatic effects. JDF's tenor had been suffering from a slight defect of being monochromatically high. His middle and lower registers are relatively weak by comparison.
Such problems are no longer there in this album. He timbre is much more juicy and full.
All in all, there are plenty of good signs in this new recording by the most promising tenor of this generation.
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