Málaga-born
baritone Carlos Álvarez has been
around on the international circuit
for more than a decade and a half by
now, having made his debut in 1990 at
Madrid’s Teatro de la Zarzuela. He has
appeared in all the important opera
houses and participated in recordings
but this is his first solo disc, recorded
six years ago at a concert during the
International Festival of Santander.
The orchestra is a
fairly new one, founded in 1991 and
located in Valladolid. Miquel Ortega
I Pujol belongs to the younger generation
of Spanish conductors, born in 1963.
They open the concert with a well-played
and springy performance of the orchestral
suite from Carmen, atmospherically
recorded but slightly marred by a too
prominent harp in the interlude before
act 3, where the flute soloist almost
plays a secondary role. They also open
the second part of the concert with
a riveting version of the overture to
Jiménez’s zarzuela Las bodas
de Luis Alonso, one of the most
infectious pieces in the repertoire
with lively rhythms, catchy tunes and
colourful orchestration. It may seem
mean to mention the orchestral music
before the soloist in what after all
is an opera recital, but I think it
is only fair, since there is such excellence
in their playing.
Carlos Álvarez
can’t quite muster such excellence,
even though there is a lot to admire.
He has a powerful voice with darkish
timbre and virile delivery. He tends
to chop up the musical line sometimes
when trying to be expressive, noticeably
so in the Toreador aria, but he has
the right voice for the part and he
has lyrical qualities too. His voice
can best be described as similar to
the young Tom Krause’s, who also was
a great Escamillo, though he never pressed
the voice too hard, which Álvarez
sometimes does.
One can also hear an
annoying beat in the voice on sustained
notes and he is not always steady enough.
Still he delivers a well sung and sensitive
reading of Posa’s death scene from Don
Carlo, which is the best of the
Italian arias on this recital. Il
balen from Il trovatore is
sturdy enough but he misses the lyrical
qualities in what is after all an impassioned
love song and he presses too hard. He
phrases sensitively in the Favorita
aria but this is far from true bel canto
singing. I took out the old Donizetti
recital with Renato Bruson, once available
in Decca’s "Grandi Voci" series,
and the two singers are worlds apart.
It should be pointed out that these
three arias are all preceded by the
recitatives and in the case of La
favorita also a quite substantial
orchestral introduction.
The second half of
the concert, devoted to Spanish zarzuela
music, presents Álvarez in a
much more positive light. The tone is
more concentrated, the beat less noticeable
and he sings with greater freedom and
lightness. In the Guitarrico
aria he scales down to a true pianissimo
and he has more ebb and flow in his
phrasing here than in the Italian section.
I believe that we are faced with that
old phenomenon that singing in one’s
mother tongue liberates the voice. The
aria from Serrano’s La canción
del olvido has brilliance and tonal
beauty to match even Domingo’s recording
and the two arias from Luisa Fernanda
are in the same league. The aforementioned
unsteadiness is not wholly absent in
all the zarzuela arias, but by and large
he produces singing here in a higher
division. If I want to go back to this
disc it will be primarily for the zarzuela
arias and, pace señor
Álvarez, the Jiménez overture.
There are no texts
in the booklet and no notes on the music;
just a short essay in Spanish on the
Festival Internacional de Santander,
which celebrated the 50th
anniversary in 2001, and bios on Álvarez
and Ortega I Pujol in both Spanish and
English.
Göran Forsling
for details
Carlos Álvarez (baritone) 
