The smarter amongst you may have noticed that having done Vaughan-Williams and Walton, I have reached the end of the alphabet of composers.
The even smarter will ask - what of Verdi and Wagner? The answer to that is they are operating in a different thread, because much as I like them, I learnt from my blogging Mozart that having days and weeks of the same composer unremittingly is not conducive to imaginative blogging.
So I now move onto Artist Albums. In strict alphabetical order. So I start with Marcelo Álvarez's "The Tenor's Passion".
I am becoming rather a fan of Señor Álvarez. In the summer I got of video of Rigoletto with him as the Duke of Mantua , and having no previously really noticed him, I just went crazy. Then seeing him in Werther the other week, I went even crazier. And ordered this CD.
It contains many of the showcase tenor arias for compilation CD, but also some less frequent ones. What a voice! Big and sweet, with nuance and volume. A rich tone at the bottom and squillo to spare at the top. I can't wait until March when I see him in Ballo, one of my very favourite operas. His upcoming release of Massanet's Manon is Album of the Week next week on Classic FM
My especial favourites are Donna non vidi mai (From Puccini's Manon Lescaut); O Paradis (from Meyerbeer's L'Africaine); and Vainement ma bien aimée; he even does a bearable version of Nessun Dorma, which is not my favourite tenor aria by a long chalk. In fact there is a not a weak link on this album. Special praise should go to the Staatskapelle Dresden under Marcello Viotti.
All I can say is run don't walk. Get this album and bin your Bocellis.
