Sometimes promoted as the successor to Luciano Pavarotti, Peru's Juan Diego Flórez is actually a very different kind of tenor, and one of a sort that has not been seen much in recent years: his voice is light, extremely athletic, and suited above all to the bel canto tenor roles of the early nineteenth century. Among the accomplishments of his young career was the restoration to its proper place of a difficult passage, long considered unsingable,Read more in the role of Almaviva in Rossini's Il barbière di Siviglia. His primary vocal model is not Pavarotti but Spanish tenor Alfredo Kraus -- a performer less well known to the general public but equally well admired among opera cognoscenti.
Born in 1973 in Lima to a folk guitarist father, Flórez sang when he was young in a rock band that specialized in Beatles and Led Zeppelin covers. What set him on the road to an operatic career was a free voice course he took in conjunction with membership in his high school choir. He enrolled at the Lima Conservatory when he was 17, moving on from there to Philadelphia's Curtis Institute on a full scholarship. One mentor was Peruvian tenor Ernesto Palacio, who became Flórez's manager.
At the 1996 Pesaro Festival in Italy, Flórez was booked to sing a minor role in Rossini's Ricciardo e Zoraide but took over the lead role in a newly unearthed Rossini opera called Matilde di Shabran after the scheduled tenor had to cancel. Rhapsodic praise from hard-to-please Italian opera fans led to a debut at La Scala in Gluck's Armide and then to the rest of the world's major opera houses over the next several years. His Metropolitan Opera debut in New York came in 2002 as Almaviva in Il barbière -- a role that has emerged as one of his specialties.
Possessed of good looks and trademark curly hair that have elicited nearly universal comment among music writers, Flórez faced pressure to assume the mantle of opera megastardom. He has won praise from close observers of the operatic scene, however, for taking account of the unusual nature of his voice and sticking to the repertory to which he is best suited, avoiding for the most part the heavier roles of Verdi and reintroducing audiences to something of the full fire that might have been heard on an Italian stage of the early nineteenth century. "I think I know my limitations," Flórez told The Economist in 2002. "I have been offered Mozart's Mitridate. I looked at the part, but it's all just a little low, and he's just a bit too angry all the time. It's not for me." An accomplished singing actor with a gift for comedy, Flórez has excelled in roles such as Tonio in Donizetti's La fille du régiment and the title role in Rossini 's Le Comte Ory.
Flórez has released three solo albums on the Decca label: one of Rossini arias, one (Una furtiva lagrima) including arias by Bellini and Donizetti, and 2004's Great Tenor Arias, which in the words of London's Observer newspaper "confirms his growing reputation as one of the most exciting vocal talents around." He has expressed an interest in exploring the repertory of Peruvian song. Read less
Label: Accentus
Catalog: ACC20427
Release Date: 01/26/2018
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Jules Massenet
Performer:
Juan Diego Flórez,
Anna Stéphany
Conductor:
Cornelius Meister
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Zurich Opera House Orchestra,
Zurich Opera House Chorus
Label: Accentus
Catalog: ACC10427
Release Date: 01/26/2018
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Jules Massenet
Performer:
Anna Stéphany,
Juan Diego Flórez
Conductor:
Cornelius Meister
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Zurich Opera House Orchestra,
Zurich Opera House Chorus
Label: Decca
Catalog: 002503602
Release Date: 06/03/2016
Number of Discs: 6
Composer:
Giacomo Puccini,
Georges Bizet,
Giuseppe Verdi,
Umberto Giordano
...
Performer:
Luciano Pavarotti,
Marilyn Horne,
Dame Joan Sutherland,
Mirella Freni
...
Conductor:
Zubin Mehta,
Henry Lewis,
Richard Bonynge,
Herbert von Karajan
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
John Alldis Choir,
Wandsworth School Boys' Choir,
London Philharmonic Orchestra
...
Label: Decca
Catalog: 002464702
Release Date: 03/25/2016
Number of Discs: 2
Composer:
Franz Schubert,
Gabriel Fauré,
Johann Sebastian Bach,
Andrew Lloyd Webber
...
Performer:
Luciano Pavarotti,
Renée Fleming,
Bryn Terfel,
Anna Netrebko
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Cambridge King's College Choir,
Voces8
Label: Decca
Catalog: 002459302
Release Date: 03/25/2016
Number of Discs: 75
Composer:
Giuseppe Verdi
Performer:
Violeta Urmana,
Stuart Neill,
Maria Guleghina,
Samuel Ramey
...
Conductor:
Sir Neville Marriner,
Lamberto Gardelli,
James Levine,
Richard Bonynge
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields,
London Voices,
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
...
Label: Erato
Catalog: 552754
Release Date: 12/04/2015
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Gaetano Donizetti
Performer:
Felicity Palmer,
Juan Diego Flórez,
Donald Maxwell,
Natalie Dessay
...
Conductor:
Bruno Campanella
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Opera House Covent Garden Orchestra
Label: Erato
Catalog: 552753
Release Date: 12/04/2015
Number of Discs: 7
Composer:
Gioachino Rossini
Performer:
Joyce DiDonato,
Pietro Spagnoli,
Juan Diego Flórez,
Ferruccio Furlanetto
...
Conductor:
Antonio Pappano
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Opera House Covent Garden Orchestra
Label: Decca
Catalog: 002375802
Release Date: 09/25/2015
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Ernesto De Curtis,
Gioachino Rossini,
Ruggero Leoncavallo,
Stefano Donaudy
...
Performer:
Juan Diego Flórez,
Avi Avital,
Ksenija Sidorova,
Massimo Jean Gambini
...
Conductor:
Carlo Tenan
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Gioachino Rossini Philharmonic
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Catalog: 002262702
Release Date: 02/24/2015
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Antonio Vivaldi,
Traditional
Performer:
Avi Avital,
Mahan Esfahani,
Ophira Zakai,
Patrick Sepec
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Venice Baroque Orchestra
Recommendation
Label: Decca
Catalog: 002030702
Release Date: 04/15/2014
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
François Boieldieu,
Georges Bizet,
Gaetano Donizetti,
Hector Berlioz
...
Performer:
Juan Diego Flórez,
Sergei Artamonov
Conductor:
Roberto Abbado
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Bologna Teatro Comunale Orchestra,
Bologna Teatro Comunale Chorus
Label: Decca
Catalog: 001895059
Release Date: 09/17/2013
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Gioachino Rossini
Performer:
Paolo Bordogna,
Juan Diego Flórez,
Olga Peretyatko,
Anna Goryachova
...
Conductor:
Michele Mariotti
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Bologna Teatro Comunale Chorus,
Bologna Teatro Comunale Orchestra
Label: Decca
Catalog: 001718209
Release Date: 09/25/2012
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Gioachino Rossini
Performer:
Alex Esposito,
Juan Diego Flórez,
Marianna Pizzolato,
Kate Aldrich
...
Conductor:
Roberto Abbado
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Bologna Teatro Comunale Chorus,
Bologna Teatro Comunale Orchestra
Label: Decca
Catalog: 001675702
Release Date: 05/08/2012
Number of Discs: 2
Composer:
Georges Bizet,
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi,
Francesco Cilèa,
Giacomo Puccini
...
Performer:
Andrea Bocelli,
Anna Netrebko,
Jonas Kaufmann,
Renée Fleming
...
Conductor:
Myung-Whun Chung,
Antonio Pappano,
Marco Armiliato,
Daniele Callegari
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
I Fagiolini
Label: Decca
Catalog: 001675802
Release Date: 05/08/2012
Number of Discs: 2
Composer:
Giuseppe Verdi,
Vincenzo Bellini,
Umberto Giordano,
Antonio Vivaldi
...
Performer:
Andrea Bocelli,
Anna Netrebko,
Jonas Kaufmann,
Cecilia Bartoli
...
Conductor:
Zubin Mehta,
Fabio Luisi,
Antonio Pappano,
Giovanni Antonini
...
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Catalog: 001598702
Release Date: 09/20/2011
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Vincenzo Bellini,
Sergei Prokofiev,
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,
Gaetano Donizetti
...
Performer:
Anna Netrebko,
Ekaterina Sementchuk,
Dmitri Hvorostovsky,
Juan Diego Flórez
...
Conductor:
Patrick Summers,
Valery Gergiev,
Sylvain Cambreling,
Maurizio Benini
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra
Recommendation
Label: Decca
Catalog: 001515102
Release Date: 01/11/2011
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
George Frideric Handel,
Antonio Vivaldi,
Geminiano Giacomelli,
Antonio Caldara
...
Performer:
Cecilia Bartoli,
Bryn Terfel,
Juan Diego Flórez,
Luigi Piovano
...
Conductor:
Marc Minkowski,
Giovanni Antonini,
Claudio Abbado,
Myung-Whun Chung
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Les Musiciens du Louvre,
Il Giardino Armonico,
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
...
Recommendation