Juan Diego Florez in Madrid

From SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL OPERA REVIEW
By: Jose M Irurzun

There is no doubt that Juan Diego Flórez is one of the very greatest singers nowadays: in his own repertoire, he is literally incomparable with any other singer. What I have discovered in the last two years however is that the Peruvian divo has become a singer who shines in a very special way in concerts and inrecital. For an artist to attain such excellence it is necessary not only to be a great singer, but also to have a very special capacity for communication with the audience. This capacity demands a natural manner and friendliness which is getting ever more accentuated. There have been many singers who have been admired by all their audiences, but it is more than difficult for a singer to be loved as well as the subject of admiration. This aspect of Juan Diego is most evident with in his concert and I have rarely witnessed such an evident love affair between a singer and his public as this time in Madrid.

This recital and the one that will take place next Sunday are a kind of a debt of gratitude that Juan Diego Florez is paying to the Teatro Real public after he cancelled his appearance in Rigoletto there. I am sure that the particular close friendship between the opera house’s Artistic Director Antonio Moral and the Peruvian tenor had much to do with his decision to go ahead with these concerts.

Accompanied at the piano by the equally excellent Vincenzo Scalera, this recital was not an easy programme for Florez, although he makes everything seem easy, even the more than difficult. To open the recital with Prince Ramiro’s aria from La Cenerentola was a bold decision, unless like Florez a singer is fully confident of his abilities. He sang all the Rossini pieces with genuine taste and musicality ending the first part of the concert with the “Terra amica” from Zelmira which is full of difficulties, including several high Ds. Judging from what I could hear, his Zelmira at Pesaro next August is going to be something not to be missed.
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Verdi, Requiem

by: Paul Duclos

Verdi, Requiem: Heidi Melton (soprano) Stephanie Blythe (mezzo) Stefano Secco (tenor) Andrea Silvestrell (bass) Ian Robertson (Chorus director) ; The San Francisco Opera Chorus and Orchestra conducted by Donald Runnicles, San Francisco Opera House, San Francisco, 30.5.2009 (PD)

It was supposed to be all about Donald Runnicles, the outgoing artistic director of the San Francisco Opera conducting his own gala concert for an adoring audience eager to make it known that he would be truly missed. Leave it to a diva, however, to steal some of the anticipated thunder.

Due to a sudden onset of illness, soprano Patricia Racette withdrew on the eve of the performance. That left Heidi Melton, a third-year Adler Fellow, to step in at the 11th hour. And step in she did, rising to the occasion and demonstrating that she has a voice of her own to be reckoned with. Not that SFO subscribers were completely unfamiliar with her: Melton made her debut here in 2007 as Marianne in Der Rosenkavalier, sang Diana in Iphigénie en Tauride, and created the role of Mary Todd Lincoln in the world premiere of Philip Glass’s Appomattox. In other words, Heidi Melton has been on a fast track for some time now, and she was not about to break pace.

Nor could she afford to do so on this rare occasion, when the San Francisco Opera Chorus and Orchestra was staging a one-night only performance. Sharing the stage with her was the renowned mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, making her SFO debut. Both singers exchanged cheerful, if somewhat jittery, greetings as the chorus intoned the Requiem and Kyrie.
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