Verdi & Donizetti: Opera Arias

This album dedicated to Verdi and Donizetti is the first album of the exclusive partnership sealed last July between tenor Michael Fabiano and the Pentatone label. From Poliuto and Maria di Rohan by Donizetti to the Verdian operas Oberto and Il Corsaro, the recording includes some little heard tunes including the "Sparsi bloody qual" and the original version of La Forza del Destino St. Petersburg in 1862.

The title of the album puts the two composers side by side, but the heart of the tenor is obviously towards Verdi, who is taking the lion's share here, thus marking the will of Michael Fabiano to invest more and more. in the future the lands of the Busetto Master.

If Verdi represents for Michael Fabiano the future, Donizetti remains none the less the pedestal on which passion has become a vocation. And it is perhaps in this repertoire that the tenor best finds here the ideal balance between power and elegance.

Languorous and fiery, he gives us an Edgardo di Lucia di Lammermoor of great intelligence with the text and an equal voice over the entire length. The show knowing perfectly marry the nuances of the score with a touching lyricism. In Poliuto, he opts for a song that is both heroic and romantic. He finds the half-tones necessary for the elegance of the writing in a balance between Adolphe Nourrit, who was the intended role, and Gilbert Duprez who created it in the French version.

Under the baton of Enrique Mazzola, head of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the music is heard with an Italian but with French elegance. There is in this direction permanent jubilation which is a real listening pleasure.