FanFaire's CD Rack: vocal works (1)

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ITALIA, TI AMO - Deutsche Cramophone B0005318-02
It's hard to believe, but this is really Placido Domingo's first recording of favorite Italian songs of the tenor repertoire. One of the great tenors of the century, and perhaps the most recorded of all, he waited 40 long years to do it - even if he had been familiar with the songs from his very early years. Being Spanish, he preferred to record the songs of the lesser known Spanish repertoire, saying in an interview with Deutsche Gramophone that "I felt there were already enough Italian tenors singing Italian songs."

Evidently in 2006 he decided it was time to openly declare the love that perhaps he has always felt for the country whose great operas have been the vehicle for the incomparable successes of his career. With "Italia, ti amo" - (Italy, I love you) - Domingo unabashedly waxes sentimental as he sings beloved songs - canzoni - written by little known Italian/Neapolitan composers. They are all love songs - simple, melodious, some more plaintive than others - and Domingo sings them with heart, indeed with the same passion that fires up his operatic performances. The almost symphonic accompaniment provided by the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of frequent Domingo collaborator Eugene Kohn (rather than the usual piano, guitar or a small orchestral ensemble) amplifies the gravitas, so to speak, Domingo accords the selections in this recording.

Purposely skipping over such overly familiar tunes as "O sole mio" and "Santa Lucia" - which he thought were "a bit too simplistic for me" and "better left to the fishermen and pizzeria waiters," Domingo chose relative, though not totally unfamiliar, rarities - the better, perhaps, to underscore the point he wishes to make: that the rarefied world of grand opera shares with the more mundane world of popular song a common emotional depth; thus, no matter how "lightweight" these songs are thought to be, they are as worthy of a great tenor's attention (and vocal exertion) as are Verdi's or Puccini's arias. Point exquisitely made, and very well taken. Listen to some clips and be convinced by Domingo's compelling argument:

Musica proibita            Mamma                        Chitarra romana               Non t'amo piu
    (Stanislao Gastaldon)        (Cesare Andrea Bixio)           (Eldo Di Lazzaro)               (Francesco Paolo Tosti)

Quarant' anni     (Placido Domingo, Jr. - written in celebration of his parents' 40th wedding anniversary)

PROMETHEUS - Orchesterlieder: Mörike-Lieder, Spanisches Liederbuch, Goethe-Lieder harmonia mundi HMC 901837
The last song in Hugo Wolf's song cycle Goethe-Lieder is the title of this beautiful album of Orchesterlieder by the most skillful and prolific composer of Lieder after Schubert. Wolf's superior literary instincts distinctively informed both his choice of poems and the methods he employed in wedding words to music, masterfully rendered here by Los Angeles Opera Music Director Kent Nagano conducting the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, with exceptional performances by Juliane Banse (soprano) and Dietrich Henschel (baritone). There will be more on this work later in FanFaire.

Er ist's Prometheus

THE DEEPEST DESIRE Eloquentia 0504
Bravo to Joyce DiDonato on the release of her superb debut recital CD! The album itself - with excellent program notes, partly by Joyce herself - and the songs were obviously put together with great thought and the deepest love of the American art song - exemplified here by two of the legendary personages in American music, Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland, and by one who may very well be a legend-in-the-making as a composer of song and opera, Jake Heggie. With the exception of Bernstein's "Two Love Songs" which is based on poems by the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke, this is an All-American album of music by American composers and text by American poets, exquisitely sang by one of America's most talented young singers whose beautiful, wide-ranging mezzo-soprano voice is making big waves the world over.

Piano accompaniment is by David Zobel. In the piece by Jake Heggie, the flute is played by Frances Shelby.

What lips my lips have kissed Going to heaven! Love / About THE ARTIST
Poem by: Edna St. Vincent Millay Emily Dickinson Sister Helen Prejean

CLOUDBURST and other choral works by ERIC WHITACRE
Sung by POLYPHONY with STEPHEN LAYTON, Chorus Director Hyperion CDA67543

If pure choral music a capella is not exactly your cup of tea, listen to this CD. Chances are, you'll be mesmerized as we were, and end up giving the genre a good hearing. This CD of his most popular choral works (of very thoughtfuly selected poems set to music superbly sung by the British group Polyphony) is an excellent introduction to Eric Whitacre, a young American composer of choral music whose dream of becoming a rock star evaporated into thin air when in college in Las Vegas he joined the choir (because that was where the "cute girls" were) and began rehearsing the Kyrie from Mozart's Requiem. (He soonafter received a Masters from Juilliard.) Writing for choir has since become a passion and a true calling, which you will surely realize after hearing even only the clips below. The first, as conservative as most choral works go, highlights the uplifting sublimity of the music based on a poem, by E.E. Cummings. In the second clip, the only non-a capella piece among the works, the skillful inclusion of piano and percussion accompaniment imparts a New Age quality to the music (based on a poem by Octavio Paz) so that the listener magically sees and hears the cloud burst.

"I thank you God for this most amazing day" E.E. Cummings (Track 1)

"Cloudburst" Ocatavio Paz (Track 8)

ROLANDO VILLAZON: Italian Opera Arias Virgin Classics 7243 45626 2 4
The up and coming young singer from Mexico showcases his distinctive tenor voice in his first solo album of bel canto and verismo arias. An heir to that other tenor from Mexico, Placido Domingo? A likely possibility, if his recent trail of acclaimed performances at the Met and the world's major houses is to be taken as an indicator. Marcello Viotti conducts the Münchner Rundfunkorchester.
"Una furtiva lagrima" from Donizetti: L'elisir d'amore

"E lucevan le estelle" from Puccini: Tosca

SALVATORE LICITRA: The Debut Sony Classical 089923
If there's a rising Mexican tenor, surely there must be an Italian? Of course! His name is Salvatore Licitra and his star rose like a meteor, making his first bows on the stage of such places as La Scala and the Met. He is often cited as the heir to Luciano Pavarotti, and this album shows why - and more. The voice is unmistakably lyrical and can hit the high Cs without effort, but with a dramatic quality that allows the young tenor to sing the roles that did not find a comfortable place in Pavarotti's repertoire. There will be more on Salvatore later in FanFaire.

"Nessun dorma" from Puccinii: Turandot "E lucevan le estelle" from Puccini: Tosca

SEMPRE LIBERA Deutsche Gramophone Gessellschaft 474-800-2
This recording with the great Maestro Claudio Abbado demonstrates why the young Russian soprano, Anna Netrebko, has thrilled audiences in the major opera houses of Europe and America. She spins off a dazzling coloratura with a beautiful voice that has a flair for the dramatic and unequivocably states that this soprano is indeed a diva-in-the-making. With singers like her coming onto the scene, can anyone still say that opera is a dying art form?

Jonathan Lemalu - opera arias - with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra conducted by James Judd
EMI Classics- #5 57605 2

The 28-year old bass-baritone of Samoan ancestry is the latest sensation to come out of New Zealand - after Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. You can also add his name to the very short list of opera singers with a law degree. Lemalu attributes the career shift to an inborn passion for singing that tells a story, given impetus by his winning a music competition that was soon followed by studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Recorded in New Zealand following a successful concert tour, this CD of opera arias showcases the roles he has sung in staged productions as well as those he hopes to sing in the near and distant future - certainly a bright one for this darkly rich voice that exudes warmth, a certain sweetness and a lot of confidence.

the CD

Click on a title below to listen to a music clip: