The parade of heavily promoted young tenors being signed for solo contracts in the early years of the 21st century smacked of a need to replace the highly saleable and aging Three Tenors with fresh money-making blood. As a result, some of those fine singers have suffered from their own hype. Enter Rolando Villazón, perhaps the most promising heir yet to the legacy of Pavarotti, Carreras, and especially his countryman Domingo, to whom he occasionally bears a striking vocal resemblance. His debut recording, a collection of ...
Read More
The parade of heavily promoted young tenors being signed for solo contracts in the early years of the 21st century smacked of a need to replace the highly saleable and aging Three Tenors with fresh money-making blood. As a result, some of those fine singers have suffered from their own hype. Enter Rolando Villazón, perhaps the most promising heir yet to the legacy of Pavarotti, Carreras, and especially his countryman Domingo, to whom he occasionally bears a striking vocal resemblance. His debut recording, a collection of operatic warhorses by Donizetti, Verdi, Puccini, and others, reveals a supple and distinctive voice, and an impressively mature artistry for someone still at the beginnings of his international career. Villazón is better in some selections than others; the two arias from L'elisir d'amore in particular don't seem to fit him well at the moment. And there are a few vocal mannerisms -- particularly a tendency to scoop, or hook, his way into the beginnings of phrases and large vocal leaps...
Read Less