SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Juan Diego Flórez in Madrid: Juan Diego Flórez (tenor)  Vincenzo Scalera (piano  Teatro Real de Madrid.2.6.2009 (JMI)

Part I.

Gioachino Rossini 

La Cenerentola: “Si, ritrovarla io giuro”
Pechés de vieillesse. La Lontananza and Le Sylvain.
Les Soirées Musicales: L’Orgia.
Zelmira: “Terra amica”

Part II.

Charles Gounod
Romeo et Juliette: “Ah, lève toi soleil”
José Serrano.
La Alegría del Batallón: Guajira.
Agustín Pérez Soriano
El Guitarrico: Serenata (Jota de Perico)
Rafael Calleja/Tomás Barrera
Emigrantes: “Adiós a Granada”
Gioachino Rossini.
Guillaume Tell: “Asile Héréditaire”,  “Amis, amis”

Encores:

Gioachino Rossini.
Il Barbiere di Siviglia: “Cessa di Più resistere” (Cabaletta).
Gaetano Donezetti
La Fille du Regiment: “Pour mon âme”
Francesco Paolo Tosti
“L’alba separa dalla luce l’ombra”
María Grever
“Júrame”
Chabuca Granda
“La Flor de la Canela”

There is no doubt that Juan Diego Flórez is one of the very greatest singers nowadays: in his own repertoire, he is literally incomparable with any other singer. What I have discovered  in the last two years however is that the Peruvian divo has become a singer who shines in a very special way in concerts and inrecital. For an artist to attain such excellence it is necessary not only to be a great singer, but also to have a very special capacity for  communication with the audience. This capacity demands a natural manner and friendliness which is getting ever more accentuated. There have been many singers who have been admired by all their audiences, but it is more than difficult for a singer to be loved as well as the subject of admiration. This aspect of Juan Diego is most evident with  in his concert and I have rarely  witnessed such an evident love affair between a singer and his public as this time in Madrid.

This recital and the one that will take place next Sunday are a kind of a debt of gratitude that Juan Diego Florez is paying to the Teatro Real public after he cancelled his appearance in Rigoletto there. I am sure that the particular close friendship between the opera house's Artistic Director Antonio Moral and the Peruvian tenor had much to do with his decision to go ahead with these concerts.

Accompanied at the piano by the equally excellent Vincenzo Scalera, this recital was not an  easy programme for Florez, although he makes everything seem easy,  even the more than difficult. To open the recital with  Prince Ramiro's aria from La Cenerentola was a bold decision, unless like Florez a singer is fully confident of his abilities. He sang all the Rossini pieces with genuine taste and musicality ending the first part of the concert with the “Terra amica” from Zelmira which is  full of difficulties, including several high Ds. Judging from what I could hear, his Zelmira at Pesaro next August is going to be something not to be missed.

I have always thought that Juan Diego Flórez shines particularly brightly in Rossini, whereas in Donizetti and Bellini he is not  at quite the same extraordinary level. Even so,  in the second part of the recital I was incredibly impressed with the way he sang the four Spanish pieces, where there are no stratospheric notes, but just  singing pure and simple. It is surely not possible to sing these songs better than  he did here. No fireworks, just a very sound artist at his best.

In this second part of the program he offered two more pages from opera, one to open an the other to finish. The aria from Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette was excellent, even though I prefer a different kind of voice for this music. Finally, the aria “Asile heriditaire” from Guillaume Tell was simply  outstanding, including all the high notes and  the following cabaletta “Amis, amis” was excellent too, but a more heroic voice probably is needed for that one.

The audience was already at Juan Diego’s feet and it was not difficult to understand why. He had made the gesture of dedicate the whole concert to the memory of Alfredo Kraus, a singer who his constant model. Offering four very different and difficult encores would have been  complete madness for anyone else singing to a a Teatro Real audience since everybody knows that he is the best at singing 'Cessa di piú resistere' or the nine high Cs from La Fille du Régiment, but again he was marvellous, especially  in the last two pieces, one by Tosti and “Jurame”, a beautiful bolero. 

The audience filled the house and showed their admiration and affection to this great artist as enthusiastically as anything I can remember.  Outside of the Teatro Real thousands of people were following the concert on a giant screen. After the concert, Juan Diego took the microphone from the terrace of the theatre, addressed to the public, and in homage to the many Peruvians there he sang “a capella” La Flor de la Canela. A true apotheosis  an evening to be remembered for years. 

Jose M Irurzun

Pictures © Javier del Real

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