Arias
Jonathan Tetelman; Orquestra Filarmónica de Gran Canaria; Karel Mark Chichon
Deutsche Grammophon 486 2927 (deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/arias-jonathan-tetelman-12721)
Remember in 1990 the famous Three Tenors concert from Rome? An historic occasion that suddenly turned the world’s attention towards opera, especially the tenor voice, the star of just about every opera. Since then there were countless open air concerts with audiences in the thousands cheering wildly in many countries. I just watched one from Sweden, the star being Jonathan Tetelman a rising new tenor. He sang that wonderful love duet from Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera with joy and passionate abandon, a beautifully shaded voice with tenderness and power in all registers.
Tetelman is an American of Chilean origin. Interestingly he was a disc jockey in New York before he found his voice and now, after rigorous training, is a dedicated versatile artist in great demand. This is his debut album – on DG no less! – and we look forward to many more.
The scene is exotic. A gorgeous space-age auditorium with fabulous acousticsin the Canary Islands with a well-respected figure in the operatic world, British conductor Karel Mark Chrichon, as music director. The 16 arias are well selected to show a cross section of the many sided versatility of Tetelman from gentle lyricism (the flower aria from Bizet’s Carmen) to powerful dramatic outbursts (Puorquoi me reveiller from Massenet’s Werther) of the Italian and French repertoire. This would include Verdi and his followers, Ponchielli, Giordano and Cilea, the Italian Verismo of Mascagni and Puccini and the French Romanticism of Massenet and Bizet as mentioned above. The journey ends suitably with the famous stretta, Di quella pira from Il Trovatore with a glorious high C at the end, every tenor’s dream.
