Debut Licitra

Actually, Licitra DOES often sound uncannily like Pavarotti, although the tone is somewhat darker and the high notes don't come with as much effortless ease. Still, his is a beautiful and exciting, often glorious voice. The bad news is that Licitra seems a bit stiff and unimaginative in Puccini - he needs not only more sweetness, delicacy and charm, but also specificity of character as opposed to generalized 'tenoring'. Individually, these arias often come off very well, but together, they're just one big musical clump.

On the other hand, perhaps more importantly, Licitra has potential for genuine greatness in Verdi. The best tracks on the disc, alone worth the price, are the two selections from 'Un Ballo in Maschera' - not much of a surprise since this was also one of Pavarotti's greatest roles. Here Licitra is at his warmest, most passionate and most immersed in character. He even easily manages the octave and a half downward leap in both verses of 'Di tu se fedele', which many tenors avoid. I am also impressed that, again unlike most tenors, Licitra attempts to sing the final phrase of 'Celeste Aida' piano as Verdi wrote it. We also get an a splendidly lyric, deeply-felt Alvaro and a Gabriele with the right mix of compassion and desperation. And on the basis of his 'Ah, la paterna mano', he would be luxury casting as Macduff in any opera house. His 'Ah si, ben mio' could have used a bit more soft singing but is firm and rich. And yes, Licitra sings the high C famously denied him by the tyrannical Riccardo Muti in this 'Di quella pira', dispelling rumors that he was unable to do so. More importantly, he gives the cabaletta a sense of real fear and urgency. He may very well be the tenor of the new generation most qualified to sing the heavier Verdi repertory in the world's largest houses. For all their considerable gifts, I think that both Roberto Alagna and Ramon Vargas should proceed into this repertory very slowly and carefully, limiting their Verdian work to recordings and small theaters.

The main problem with this disc is Sony's 'house conductor' Carlo Rizzi. For once, he does not completely ruin the efforts of his singer's solo album, as he did with Olga Borodina (on Phillips) and Jane Eaglen, but he doesn't help much either. To those reviewers who have complained about Licitra's lack of musicianship, I would really give him the benefit of the doubt and wait to hear him under a better conductor. Certainly Rizzi is no James Levine, who conducted Licitra's Met debut. It is likely a testimony to Licitra's talent that he not only survived working with Rizzi here but by and large triumphs. As usual, Rizzi's conducting is stiff and mechanical, and I suspect that the Puccini arias sounding the same is more his fault than Licitra's. More to the point, if the interviews Rizzi has done are to be believed, his heart isn't in this material - he only does the standard Italian repertory because that's where most of the conducting work is.

The other problem here is that one gets the feeling the whole package was slapped together in a hurry - CDs usually take almost a year between recording and release, and this was recorded in March 2002 and released less than 5 months later. I can forgive the short length of the disc (51 minutes) largely because it is available at budget price, but there should have been more music. Indeed, why didn't they record the 'Che gelida manina' that Robert Levine mentioned? Also I note that the pauses between the selections are a bit too short. I suspect that if Sony had not been trying to capitalize on Licitra's sudden fame, more care would have been taken in the presentation and perhaps some additional selections would have been recorded.

Soprano Mary Plazas, a regular at the English National Opera who has made several English language opera recordings for Chandos, is an excellent Oscar but a bit less ideally cast as Leonora, while tenor Edgaras Montividas, a member of Covent Garden's young artist program, is a somewhat rough-voiced Ruiz. The men of the Covent Garden chorus make fine contributions to the scenes from 'Ballo' and 'Trovatore', although I wonder about the absence of the women from 'Nessun dorma'.

The booklet contains full texts and beautiful, poetic translations, a puffy biography of Licitra and photos of both the tenor and the conductor.

For now, the beauty and thrill of Licitra's voice will carry him far, but in the end what he most needs to do in order to be a genuinely great tenor is to become more INTERESTING - develop an individual style, use more variety of dynamics and mood, and display greater musical and dramatic imagination. Since at the Met and other prestigious theaters (and with luck on records as well), he will apparently working with more talented and singer-friendly conductors than Rizzi and Muti, I hope he will be able to do so. Licitra may not quite be at the top yet, but he is definitely someone to keep an eye on.

Sorry, this guy is a hack!

Good luck to him non the less.