Search - Domenico Cimarosa, Gaetano Donizetti, Christoph Willibald Gluck :: Great Tenor Arias [Hybrid SACD]

Even better on Hybrid SACD - Florez in another dazzling disc

Grady Harp | Los Angeles, CA United States | 12/03/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Juan Diego Florez is definitely on a spin and that well-deserved journey is the product of fine training, excellent coaching, and a keen sense of pacing in a career that tends to push the gifted ones too quickly. Though Florez' crowning gifts are in the bel canto repertoire, with this recording he just starts there and pushes into the range of more lyrical arias, and to these ears he succeeds in demonstrating how special is this beautiful voice.



Even the decision about lineup of arias on this fine recording is intelligent: Florez moves from Gluck, Cimarosa and Rossini into Donizetti, Verdi and Puccini with great ease. Here is a tenor who can belt out the high notes to please the balcony but who is equally sensitive to the diminuendos and barely audible phrases that mark the true artist.



Dashingly handsome, and physically as well as vocally a fine actor on stage, this CD simply further demonstrates that Juan Diego Florez is one of the brightest tenors before us today. It is interesting to see how many Latin American tenors are suddenly becoming so important - Villazon, Calleja, Alvarez, Florez, etc. Refreshing! Grady Harp, December 06"