Juan Diego Florez - Articles & Interviews, October 2007

El tenor peruano Juan Diego Flórez, una de las máximas estrellas del panorama lírico internacional, ensalzó en una entrevista con 'Das Opernglas' el 'entusiasmo del público alemán', y aseguró que pese a su madurez musical no variará mucho su repertorio, con Rossini como uno de sus principales compositores.

Enfundado en un traje blanco, el tenor de 34 años es portada del último número de esta revista mensual, donde en una amplia entrevista ensalza las cualidades del público alemán frente a otras audiencias, como la italiana, proclive según él a los abucheos.

El tenor peruano pasará dos veces esta temporada por Alemania. El 7 de diciembre interpretará Lindoro en 'La Italiana en Argel', de Gioacchino Rossini, en la Opera de Colonia (oeste).

En junio y julio de 2008 se estrenará en la ópera más antigua de Alemania, la de Dresde (este), dando voz al duque de Mantua en el 'Rigoletto' de Giuseppe Verdi, una producción nueva que espera ansiosamente, confiesa en 'Das Opernglas'.

El que fuera nombrado por Luciano Pavarotti como 'su sucesor' asegura que, a pesar de sumar a su repertorio algunos personajes de Verdi, permanecerá fiel a sus compositores centrales, como Rossini.

'Siempre volveré a él', explica Flórez, quien considera que 'en esta profesión es muy importante conocer sus límites y no empezar a interpretar papeles que están alejados de las capacidades vocales de cada uno', añade.

El tenor peruano, que cantará el próximo día 8 en Londres, donde cerrará las Proms de la BBC con un festival al aire libre en Hyde Park, destacó que muchos tenores, cuando llegan a mitad de los 30, y se les oscurece la voz, creen que pueden cambiar de registro e interpretar voces más graves.

'Creo que es una equivocación', continúa, y recuerda que entre los tenores hay muchos casos que 'demuestran que cantando más grave acaba sufriendo la voz y uno precipita el final de su carrera'..

El tenor peruano Juan Diego Flórez ofrecerá un recital lírico el próximo 8 de noviembre en Oviedo (España) a beneficio de las víctimas del terremoto de Perú, dijo hoy a Efe Ernesto Palacio, representante del cantante.

Flórez dio anoche un concierto de arias de ópera y canciones napolitanas en la sala Pleyel de la capital francesa y ofreció cuatro canciones fuera de programa como propinas tras las aclamaciones del público que lo aplaudió durante 25 minutos.

El tenor peruano comentó a Efe tras el concierto que la acústica de esta gran sala de conciertos de la capital francesa le pareció "fría" y se quejó de que la voz no "pasaba" adecuadamente, mientras que su pianista, Vincenzo Scalera, destacó que la sonoridad era mucho más apropiada para él porque daba realce al acompañamiento al piano.

El cantante limeño, de 34 años, viajará próximamente de París a Miami (EEUU) para dar otro recital el 17 de octubre, mientras prepara una serie de conciertos que le llevarán a las ciudades españolas de Oviedo y Barcelona, en noviembre, Jaén, en enero de 2008, y Murcia también el año próximo.

"Juan Diego tiene la agenda completa de aquí al 2014", dijo a Efe Ernesto Palacio, quien destacó que el cantante peruano ampliará próximamente su repertorio, sin abandonar los papeles de tenor lírico ligero que "mejor le sientan a su tipo de voz".

El propio Flórez comentó a Efe tras su recital que quiere probar papeles nuevos, pero "poco a poco" y siempre sin intentar abarcar cierto tipo de actuaciones que no son adecuadas para su tipo de voz, con una facilidad pasmosa para los agudos y las agilidades del "bel canto".

Los compromisos de Flórez en los próximos años, además de un largo y merecido periodo de reposo, pasan por novedades en óperas completas como "Linda de Chamounix", de Donizetti, en Barcelona; "Rigoletto", de Verdi, en Lima, Dresde (Alemania) y Madrid; "Zelmira", de Rossini en el festival de Pesaro (Italia); "Cosí fan tutte", de Mozart, en Madrid; "Los pescadores de perlas", de Bizet, en Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (España); o "Roberto el Diablo", de Meyerbeer, en Londres y Nueva York.

Además de estos nuevos papeles, Flórez cantará las óperas típicas de su repertorio como son las de Rossini "La cenicienta", "La Italiana en Argel", "Matilde de Shabrán", "El Barbero de Sevilla", "El conde Ory", "La Dama del Lago" y "Otello", en los principales teatros de ópera europeos y americanos.

También interpretará "La hija del regimiento" y "El elixir de amor", de Donizetti, de quien acaba de grabar en disco su "Don Pasquale", así como "La Sonámbula" y "Los Puritanos", de Vincenzo Bellini, además de "infinidad de conciertos", según el calendario adelantado por su representante.

Ernesto Palacio dijo que Flórez mantiene su concierto en París del próximo 8 de julio, a dúo con el tenor mexicano Rolando Villazón, a pesar de que este último ha anulado sus próximos compromisos.

Flórez interpretó anoche en la sala Pleyel tres arias del "Rigoletto", de Verdi, obra que supone para el tenor un reto y una novedad que espera resolver con éxito en su presentación en Lima el 31 de marzo y 3 de abril.

Será unos días antes de su boda religiosa en la catedral limeña con la que ya es su esposa desde abril pasado en la vida civil, la alemana Julia Trappe.

It's an exaggeration to say that Juan Diego Flórez has single-handedly revived bel canto opera, since the masterworks of Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti have not required much resuscitation in the first place.

But the rapid ascent of the 34-year-old Peruvian tenor has undeniably infused the bel canto repertoire with renewed fire. Flórez's supple lyric instrument possesses a staggering ability to toss off the most spectacular roulades and stratospheric top Cs, Ds and E flats with seemingly effortless agility.

Flórez will make his Miami debut Wednesday night at the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts serving up a concert of the bel canto arias for which he has quickly become internationally renowned.

''I'm very happy to perform in Miami because I know a lot of Peruvians are going to go,'' the singer says from Paris. ``And also I'm happy because my mother lives in Florida and will be there. It's a little bit like singing in Latin America.''

Vocal facility, intelligence and charismatic presence are qualities that Flórez appears to have had almost from the onset of his career.

''What was striking was how confident he was,'' says F. Paul Driscoll, editor-in-chief of Opera News, who saw Flórez in his 2000 U.S professional debut at the Opera Company of Philadelphia in Rossini's L'Italiana in Algieri. ``How elegant, how gifted technically and how appealing he was. The audience ate him up.''

Even in his subsequent success in cavernous houses, Flórez has garnered remarkably enthusiastic responses from audiences and critics.

''The size of his voice is not an issue, even in [a large] auditorium, because his personality fills it,'' says Driscoll. ``Also the strength of his musicianship. He's an unbelievably good technician. His voice can pretty much do everything he wants it to.''

Flórez's acrobatic vocalism is allied to an engaging stage presence that seems to make even the toughest audiences fall in love with the slender, handsome singer. In his Met debut in Rossini's Barber of Seville, Flórez was praised as much for his athleticism as his vocalism, leaping on and off high tables. The tenor's graceful presence and personality are on display in a recent Decca DVD of a Lucerne production of Don Pasquale, in which Flórez lights up an otherwise unexceptional show.

That Flórez was going to become a celebrated opera singer, let alone a specialist in the bel canto repertoire was by no means his intent or plan, growing up in Lima. Young Juan Diego entered the local conservatory ''to learn the technical aspect of music,'' how to read music, play the piano and, perhaps, take some voice lessons.

''My main focus was pop music,'' Flórez recalls. ``I was composing romantic ballads, singing Peruvian music and boleros in piano bars. I had a rock band, and I liked all kinds of rock. We played the Beatles, the Stones, classic rock.''

But it was in the conservatory that Flórez said he ''discovered my voice.'' He joined the national choir of Peru and listened to enthusiastic teachers and professionals who advised him about the unique characteristics of his voice's flexibility and brilliant top range. ``The fact that I discovered that I could do more with my voice made me fall in love with the world of classical music.''

After two years at the conservatory in Lima, Flórez studied for three years at Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. He made his professional debut in Europe in one of those improbable but true situations that seem cribbed from a Busby Berkeley musical.

Cast in a small role in the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, Flórez got his chance when the tenor singing the principal role in a production of the obscure Matilde di Shabran became ill.

''It was a big role and very difficult, and I had to learn it in just a few days,'' Flórez recalls. ``It was a lucky strike because after that I was singing at La Scala, opening the season with Riccardo Muti, and I was just 23 years old.''

Wednesday night, Flórez will draw upon the repertoire that is the keystone of his success on stage and disc with aria of Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti, including items from his new disc Arias for Rubini, to be released stateside early in 2008. He also will perform some selective Verdi (from Rigoletto).

That CD is an homage to Giovanni Battista Rubini, a legendary early-19th century tenor for whom Bellini wrote some of his greatest roles.

''Rubini was this incredible tenor with a very high voice,'' Flórez says. ``The arias, of course, are very high, very difficult, extreme bel canto arias. But it's very beautiful, a lot of long legato lines and very enjoyable.''

Flórez is fascinated by Rubini, whom he sees as a significant historical figure who bridged eras in music history. ''He lived in two times,'' Flórez says. ``He was a Rossini singer and sang a lot of his roles. But he was also contemporary to Bellini and was beginning a new way of singing, a new way of opera, a new way of style.''

Flórez also has his more recent ''champions,'' including Luciano Pavarotti and the great Spanish tenor, Alfredo Kraus who possessed a finely focused, refined style, which suited his high, lyric voice.

''I like the line, the elegance plus the brilliance and clarity of his voice,'' Flórez says. Kraus enjoyed a notably long career, singing with barely diminished resources well into his 70s, a longevity Flórez is keen on emulating by sticking to the light lyric/bel canto rep. In 2008 he will sing his first performances of the Duke in Rigoletto, all the Verdi he ever plans to tackle.

''It's not really a heroic role. It's a very high tessitura role,'' Flórez says. ``I'm not really moving into Verdi. I'm staying in my repertoire. I just consider Rigoletto to be a good role for my voice. There is no danger.''

Married in April, the singer lives in Europe and still visits Lima once a year, though his mother lives near Tampa.

Many singers fantasize about singing other roles far outside their specialty, with lyric sopranos dreaming what it would be like to sing Isolde and Wagnerians imagining what it would be like to sing Handel.

''Not all singers are happy with what they sing,'' he says. ``But I always liked the bel canto, the Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti.

``I really love the simplicity of this music. Beautiful melodies, with the orchestra really at the service of the singer. I consider myself very lucky to be able to sing the roles and the operas that I like.''