7
Juan Diego Flórez... Quote. Unquote.
T. Hashimoto in the San Francisco Examiner on Semiramide (Nightingale Classics)...
"It was recorded live in Vienna in 1998, and it not only boasts the Czech diva in supreme voice, but was one of the first to snag Juan Diego Flórez for the tenor part. He has an exclusive contract with Decca now, which means lots of single albums, à la Bartoli, and few of these complete sets. Too bad, because he is "the" current bel canto tenor of choice, with amazing fluidity, a beautiful sound and a virile edge that few bel canto tenors command."
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Stephen Mudge in the November 2002 issue of Opera News on Flórez's performance in La donna del lago, Montpellier...
"Flórez proved himself to be the finest Rossini tenor of our time, not only clean in matters of coloratura but with a thrilling upper extension well linked to a juicy middle range, with just a hint of fast vibratoadding to the excitement."
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Brian Hunt in the Evening Standard (9 January 2003) on Flórez in La Cenerentola at the Royal Opera House...
"Her Don Ramiro (Prince Charming) is the rightly fashionable Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez. In common with many light-voiced tenors he has an occasional tendency towards sharpness, but his phrasing seems miraculously unhindered by normal breathing requirements and his colouring is delicate and precise. The Act I duet between Kasarova and Flórez is ravishing."
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Robert Levine, in ClassicsToday (October 2002), on Flórez in La Cenerentola the Met...
"Best in the cast was Juan Diego Florez as Prince Ramiro. In addition to cutting a dashing figure and actually making us believe that this character is more than a cartoon, he dazzled with his virtuosity, every 16th note in place, ringing high Bs and Cs all clear and easily produced. The faint nasality which some found distressing last year seems to have evaporated, and his sound is bigger and rounder as a result."
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Ank Reinders in The Way to the Tenor, paper presented at The First International Conference on the Physiology and Acoustics of Singing (PAS), Groningen, the Netherlands October, 2002...
"In the voice of William Mateuzzi and a few more of this kind, the high C proved to be not the end of the vocal range. Mateuzzi hit the notes above high C in modal registration. It is not beautiful, it is just interesting. Now he has a successor, it is the young Juan Diego Florez, coming from Peru, who sings the most elegant D5 easily. In modal registration! Here is the new tenore di grazia, performing in Rossini's operas. Probably the composer would not have slammed the door for this singer!"
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Riccardo Chailly on Flórez in the Gramophone supplement - 'The Future of Classical Music', April 2003 issue...
"The first time I heard Juan Diego was when he was studying in Philadelphia, and I was struck by the spontaneous, natural phrasing and by the Latin colour of his voice. The first production we worked on together was Il barbiere di Seviglia at La Scala four years ago. Again it was his musicality that struck me but also his instinctive feeling for the stage. It was very easy - musically - for me to work with him but at the same time very difficult for him to work with the producer. I remember having some fantastic fights! We had two casts and I campaigned so much for Juan Diego that he sang all the performances. It was a triumphant debut. Later, we worked together on his Rossini arias record. I forced him almost brutally to be more daring, to take himself to the limits of his ability. There is a splendid top D flat on this record but I wanted a D natural and even an E flat and he did not want even to try but I knew he had the notes! He's very clever about his choice of repertoire and I hope he'll push himself - I Puritani, the Fisherman in William Tell he could do beautifully. These are the sorts of extreme roles he'd excel in."
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This page was last updated on: February 28, 2007
