This is the second CD Naxos have issued featuring
this singer. In the previous issue he was singing duets with the
baritone Igor Morozov. On the back of the jewel case are quotations
from a review extolling his tone, even line and incisive high
notes. Given these virtues and the interesting repertoire I approached
this disc in eager anticipation. The repertoire presented is such
that I expected an open toned lyrico-dramatic tenor with good
extension and vocal heft with the capacity to hit, and hold, some
of the highest notes in the fach. The first track features the
aria from the original, 1862, St. Petersburg version, of Verdi’s
‘La Forza del Destino’. This is the one omitted when he revised
the score in 1869, substituting the ‘Rataplan’ in a revised Act
3. Lotric reveals a strong, rather tight, slightly nasal tenor
with a touch of baritonal hue. There is a certain thrill in the
sound but the choppy phrasing and rather monochromic tone soon
began to tire my ears. These failings are even more clearly evident
in tr.2, an extended scene from Act 3 of ‘Il Trovatore’ concluding
with ‘Di quella pira’ with its notorious, if unwritten, high note.
At this point, with Lotric’s voice being squeezed to give a bleating
tone and with an ungainly near wobble, I knew that at least some
of the repertoire featured here is at least a couple of sizes
too heavy for his voice. This is confirmed by his inability to
add weight to the tone in the ‘Otello’ extracts that follow. However,
in Otello’s death scene in tr.4, he starts more promisingly and
his first cries of ‘Desdemona’ have real feeling whilst in the
reprise of the call he does try to soften the tone a little. His
rendering of the final act aria from ‘Ballo in Maschera’, tr.5,
confirms my earlier feeling that this should be the heaviest role
on this disc. It is where Lotric sings with a more varied tone
if without any great palette of colour or grace of phrasing.
By far the longest extract is on tr. 8. This
is over 13 minutes. The prelude is followed by Arnold’s ‘Non mi
lasciare’ from Act 4 of Rossini’s ‘William Tell’. Here Lotric
uses a distinctly lyric tone with ease, fluency and altogether
better line than he exhibited in the heavier roles. However he
does not have the beauty of tone or the free concluding high note
that Pavarotti gives in his portrayal in the complete opera (Decca).
I was also reminded of another renowned tenor of yesteryear as
I moved to tr.9, Adam’s ‘Mes amis’, notorious for its stratospheric
vocal demands. Using his lyric voice, Lotric’s slight nasality
suits the French repertoire. He shapes the start of the aria well,
actually using some near ‘mezza voce’ head voice, but his approach
to that infamous high note, and its execution, are crude, particularly
to one introduced to the aria, and opera, by Gedda’s open voiced
rendering on an EMI vinyl LP of long ago.
The ‘supporting cast’ of soprano, orchestra,
chorus and recording are all up to the high standard that Naxos
demands, and regularly gets, from its east European sources. The
booklet is a model of its kind for this price category, and much
better than often provided elsewhere at double or even triple
the price, with full libretto and English translation in addition
to a brief essay on the extracts in English and German.
Recognising that this disc does not portend another
contender in the ‘4th tenor stakes’, it features a
real opera singer with the vocal capacity to sing at least some
of these roles in a staged performance. Given that the selection
of arias is more varied and interesting than many, then at the
modest investment involved it is worth hearing and may tempt purchasers
to extend their operatic horizons a little way from the standard
fare.
Robert J Farr
Robert Hugill has also listened to this
disc
Before I had listened to a note of this recital,
I was rather puzzled (and fascinated) by the wide scope of items
chosen. A selection of arias that ranges from the high-wire antics
of 'Le Postillon de Lonjumeau' to the heavy-weight dramatics of
'Otello' might conceivably represent a greatest hits album. But
to have this range in one recital seemed to be both unlikely and
possibly foolhardy, though it is true that in the recording studio
a number of 'portmanteau' artists can be made to have a repertoire
far wider than would be possible in the natural acoustic of the
opera house. One of the few artists who would seem to have been
capable of recording this repertoire naturally would be Nicolai
Gedda.
On listening to the disc, Gedda is not too wide
of the mark. Janez Lotric, a Slovenian tenor who made his operatic
debut in 1980, has a clean, Northern-sounding voice, neither Slavic
nor truly Italianate. He has already garnered plaudits for his
disk of Tenor and Baritone duets recorded for Naxos. This is his
first complete recital. Some idea of his strengths and weaknesses
may be gained by listening to the aria from Glinka's 'A Life for
the Tsar'. With his mixed vocal character, Lotric would seem to
be ideal for this aria. Glinka's music lives in a world mid-way
between Italian and Russian opera and needs Italianate-Russian
singing. The more dramatic opening section is a little disappointing,
Lotric sounds uncomfortable in Russian and his vocal production
is uneven. But the top of his voice is clean and gleaming and
comes into its own in the more relaxed middle section with its
stratospheric notes which Lotric seems to take in his stride.
This impression is reinforced by the following item, the Tenor
Aria from "Der Rosenkavalier". Lotric's voice is not ideally Italianate,
but you cannot help but admire its bright ease and he concludes
with a stupendous held high C sharp.
But the clinching item is the aria from Adam's
"Le Postillon de Lonjumeau" (an opera famously recorded complete
by Gedda). This (in)famous showpiece needs a free, easy top with
a stupendous range. Lotric provides all of these. You could perhaps
imagine a more ideal performance, lighter with more of a sense
of humour. But faced with such vocal pyrotechnics I cannot really
complain. This aria is followed by a fine performance of Arnold's
Act IV aria from William Tell. Given Lotric's perfectly acceptable
French in the Adam item, it is a shame that this number was recorded
in Italian. Arnold seems to be one of Lotric's calling cards,
he has just been performing the role at the Paris Opera. Given
the performance here, this is perfectly understandable. There
was still sometimes a hint of the uneven quality in Lotric's vocal
emission, but quality of his top register again makes you forgive
him.
By now, a curious reader will be wondering why
I have said nothing about the first five items, all by Verdi.
Verdi's tenor parts, particularly in the later operas, require
a tenor to possess something of a baritonal quality (Domingo,
after all, sang as a baritone in his youth). This is something
that Lotric lacks. He seems to be aware of it and I think he is
trying to over-compensate. So, particularly in the Verdi items,
the lower register sounds effortful and his vocal emission uneven
with the addition of a number of aspirates. This is a shame, because
when he relaxes he can produce some lovely music. Though sometimes
a bit generalised emotionally, his opening aria from the St. Petersburg
version of 'La Forza del Destino' creates a credible dramatic
portrait and has fewer faults than the other Verdi arias.
Given my strictures above, the 'Otello' items
are remarkably successful. They are well chosen in terms of the
dramatic weight required. If we had to have 'Otello' then these
are the most suitable bits, I could not imagine Lotric having
the correct vocal heft for the opening 'Vittoria'. His version
of 'Di Quella Pira' from 'Il Trovatore', of course includes all
the traditional high notes in quite stunning form, even though
Lotric does not quite convince as a spinto tenor in the rest of
the aria.
On repeated hearing, I began to wonder about
this issue of vocal heft. On this recording Lotric's voice is
rather spot-lit and closely recorded. This over closeness of recording
might, in reality, be the cause of the vocal 'problems' described
above. Recorded in a more natural way, Lotric's voice might have
a far smoother emission. I began to wonder whether the recording
engineers had been attempting to help Lotric along a bit. If they
were doing so, then I am afraid they have failed. This impression
is reinforced on re-listening to Lotric's 1994 duet recital for
Naxos. This disc gained quite a few plaudits and it seems to have
been recorded in a rather more naturalistic, sympathetic manner.
On the 1994 disc Lotric's voice has similar qualities (positive
and negative) to this recording, but on the 1994 disc the sympathetic
recording does not highlight the negative qualities the way this
one does.
The final two items must be counted more successful
than the Verdi items. Neither seems to highlight Lotric's lower
register. His Andrea Chenier is a bit stolid, lacking that Italianate
quality which is needed to render the poet sufficiently impetuous,
but the performance is creditable. And the disk concludes with
a fine performance of 'Nessun Dorma'.
Johannes Wildner, Kyiv Chamber Choir and the Ukrainian National
Opera Symphony Orchestra give Lotric sterling support.
This is rather a mixed recital. There is so much
to admire in Lotric's voice that I cannot help feel that he was
badly advised when planning the repertoire. Surely we could have
had fewer items from the standard tenor repertoire and more of
the lesser known items which exploit Lotric's spectacular upper
register.
Robert Hugill
Kiev Chamber Choir