San Francisco Classical Voice

Beethoven's “Adelaide” (op. 46), one of the composer's youthful hits, was much better material for Florez. The music's ardor and urgency suited the singer's natural delivery and he and Scalera pushed the piece along even in the Larghetto section. Scalera expertly molded the accompaniment's triplets to the singer's line and the song took off as they worked to a strong climax. Though Flórez' voice type won't win over longtime lovers of the Jussi Björling recordings of the song, his interpretation had the same dramatic arc and satisfying tautness.

"Ridente la calma" by, or perhaps arranged by, Mozart, made a lovely, lyrical interlude before the evening's highlights. First came Alexander's aria from Mozart's Il re pastore, "Si spande al sole in faccia," a heroic piece in D major with some striking musical imagery and flashy runs. Flórez made short work of the challenge, although his manner fell short of the imperious certainty of a conqueror.

A rousing account of "Che ascolto!" from Rossini's Otello closed out the first half. Rodrigo's second-act aria is a featured item on the tenor's first recording. It's a beautiful composition, with a melting opening melody, animated by a triplet accompaniment and imaginatively harmonized. The allegro, where Rodrigo promises action if Desdemona refuses his love, veers from B-flat to the darker D-flat and is harmonically even more adventurous. The aria is also fiendishly difficult, especially in the allegro, where numerous high B-flats are approached by leap and the climactic high C is reached by the jump of an octave-and-a-fifth! Throw in coloratura melismas that work up to the B-flat at high speed and you have the reason these operas don't get staged so often. (Otello requires three of these guys.) Of course, tenors in Rossini's day were not required to have either the volume of sound or the vocal heft of a modern tenor (they often used a head voice or a mix of head and chest to hit high notes, whereas today high Cs are almost all "from the chest.") It's undeniably thrilling to hear this music performed not just accurately but with panache, each note in the runs perfectly formed and audible, and without any sacrifice in tonal richness.

The second half was not as compelling, but the singing was still excellent. Flórez began with two folksongs by the Peruvian composer Rosa Mercedes Ayarza de Morales. He obviously has an attachment to these songs and the feeling came through, despite less than idiomatic translations. Two French songs, by Massenet and Bizet, followed and the short program finished with a Donizetti aria from a rarely performed opera buffa, Rita. The aria is a jolly thing in which a husband rejoices in the (supposed) death of his wife. Flórez sang it well but didn't put much of the humor across. He sang two encores, a beautiful account of "Una furtiva lagrima," from L'elisir d'amore, and a catchy dance tune ("Jota") from a zarzuela, Il Trust de los Tenorios.

A tenor with a voice like this one can usually count on an international career, given that most opera houses are not overburdened with star members of that species. But Flórez is also tall, dark and handsome and becomingly modest. So maybe superstardom is around the corner for him. If such success will insure that we get to hear more of his Rossini repertory in the opera house, I'll start weaving his laurel wreath myself.