United Kingdom Various: Juan Diego Flórez (tenor), Vincenzo Scalera (piano). Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles, 23.1.2023. (JRo)
Gluck – ‘O del mio dolce ardor’ from Paride ed Elena
Caccini – ‘Amarilli, mia bella’
Carissimi – ‘Vittoria, mio core!’
Rossini – ‘L’esule’, ‘La lontananza’, ‘Danse sibérienne’ from Péchés de vieillesse, ‘Pièce pour piano No.12’ (piano solo), ‘Deh, tu m’assisti amore’ from Il signor Bruschino, ‘La speranza più soave’ from Semiramide
Donizetti – ‘Linda si ritirò’ from Linda di Chamounix, ‘Innosservato penetrava… Angelo casto e bel’ from Il Duca d’Alba
Verdi – ‘Romanza senza parole in Fa Maggiore’ (piano solo), ‘Questa o quella’ from Rigoletto, ‘Je veux encore entendre’ from Jérusalem
Lalo – ‘Vainement, ma bien aimée’ from Le Roi d’Ys
Gounod – ‘Ah, lève-toi soleil’ from Roméo et Juliette
Puccini – ‘Foglio d’album’ (piano solo), ‘Torna ai felici dì’ from Le Villi
In a program that spanned the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, Juan Diego Flórez sang touchingly of affection: love in bloom, thwarted love, jealous love and love deserted. Flórez is that uncommon artist whose style, refinement and appeal mixed with an instrument of vocal magnificence turns a recital right into a mesmerizing expertise.
Accompanied by Vincenzo Scalera on piano, the 2 labored seamlessly collectively to create a world removed from the noise of latest life. With subtlety and management, Flórez projected his bel canto tenor with ease. The huge Dorothy Chandler Pavilion grew to become a small theatre because the artists, surrounded by flowers and heat wooden paneling, drew us into their intimate circle.
Flórez is undoubtedly the reigning king of the excessive Cs – his fame secured by his position as Tonio in Donizetti’s La fille du regiment with the aria ‘Mes amis’ and its 9 consecutive excessive Cs. But it was his delicate floating notes, his restraint in passages that might have simply turned bombastic and flowery, that illustrated the depth of his intelligence and artistry.
This was on full view within the first half of this system. In Gluck’s poignant ‘O del mio dolce ardor,’ piano and voice had been in dialog with each other – a type of classical name and response. Caccini’s ‘Amarilli, mia bella’ illustrated Flórez’s capacity to caress a word, sending it floating from on excessive and sustaining it like a chicken’s feather turning slowly because it makes its technique to earth. With the rousing ‘Vittoria, mio core!’, he playfully rendered a suitor’s launch from his base servitude to a deceitful girl.
Next got here a bunch of Rossini arias. ‘L’esule’ was a change of tempo – a darkish and brooding piece. Flórez walked a fragile line, neither extreme in conveying the emotional import of the music nor overly restrained. It was an ideal instance of his intelligence at work. ‘La lontananza’, a lyrical love music from an absent husband to his spouse, opened with the piano hinting on the name of a chicken. What adopted was a young music of devotion that displayed the tenor’s very good musicality and Scalera’s sensitivity. Scalera had an opportunity to chop free on his personal with ‘Danse sibérienne’ from Péchés de vieillesse. It was succeeded by the discreet class of the tenor’s rendition of ‘Deh, tu m’assisti amore’ from Il signor Bruschino. Before the intermission, Flórez concluded with ‘La speranza più soave’ from Semiramide, producing electrical energy along with his lustrous gildings.
With depth of feeling, impassioned musicality and impeccable phrasing, he sang Donizetti’s ‘Linda si ritirò’ from Linda di Chamounix and ‘Innosservato penetrava… Angelo casto e bel’ from Il Duca d’Alba, placing me in thoughts of that different marvel of bel canto singing, the legendary Alfredo Kraus.
After Scalera’s sleek enjoying of Verdi’s ‘Romanza senza parole’, the Verdi operatic picks included the well-known ‘Questa o quella’ from Rigoletto and ‘Je veux encore entendre’ from Jérusalem, each attractive additions to this system. Flórez’s French was impeccable within the latter. With bewitching lyricism, he sang Lalo’s charming ‘Vainement, ma bien aimée’ from Le Roi d’Ys. I savored each second of Flórez and Scalera’s interpretation.
French arias continued with Gounod’s stirring ‘Ah, lève-toi soleil’ from Roméo et Juliette. With his charisma, beauty and dramatic abilities, Flórez was completely plausible because the ardent lover, even wearing a tasteful, dark-navy tuxedo.
Scalera lovingly interpreted a Puccini piano piece, ‘Foglio d’album’, adopted by the ultimate providing: ‘Torna ai felici dì’ from Le Villi – a hovering melody sung by Flórez, notable for the heat and shade he dropped at the decrease registers.
No Juan Diego Flórez live performance could be full with out his beloved encores, accompanying himself on guitar and singing Spanish songs. Of the 4 he selected, none is extra acquainted than Quirino Mendoza y Cortes’s ‘Cielito lindo’. Flórez inspired us to sing alongside and sing we did, erupting into cheers and hoots. When Scalera re-entered, presumably for a ultimate spherical of operatic encores, it grew to become extra rock enviornment than staid opera home, with viewers members shouting out requests for his well-known ‘Mes amis’. Though he didn’t oblige with that one, he sang a spirited ‘La donna è mobile’ and the perennial showstopper, ‘Nessum dorma’.
Flórez’s recital will linger in my thoughts indefinitely. The purity of his artistry was and is a balm for the soul.
Jane Rosenberg