Forbidden Love [Import]

Salvatore Licitra died on September 5, 2011 following a motor scooter accident in Sicily. He was only 43 years old, the age when most tenors' voices bloom and they enter their period of being solid stars. Licitra was born in 1968 in Bern, Switzerland, to Sicilian parents. He grew up in Milan and fell into opera by accident.' As many tenors before him, he was not altogether confident about his vocal capabilities and started working as a graphic artist for Italian Vogue. At the age of 19 he began attending singing classes on a regular basis and enrolled at the Music Academy of Parma and the Corsi Verdiani. After 8 years of studies, initially as a choir vocalist, he left his voice teacher and enrolled at Carlo Bergonzi's voice academy in Busseto.'

Popular in Italy and then in the US after his last minute subsitution for Luciano Pavarotti in May 2002 at the Met in two performances of Puccini's "Tosca" that most believed would be Pavarotti's farewell to the company. The audiences loved him and have continued applauding his performances since that time. Litcitra was a rotund, belting tenor who voice was rich and big and was able to reach the dramatic moments of the high flying arias. His was not a subtle voice and his vocal production tended to remain at the forte level. But he could belt an aria in the Italian roles to audiences' adoration.

This recording, his second solo CD, surveys arias from Verdi, Mascagni, Cilea, Giordano, Ponchielli, Boito, Leoncavallo, and Rossini, he is solidly supported by Roberto Rizzi Brignoli conducting the Giuseppe Verdi Orchestra of Milan. One comes away form this recording feeling that there is not a lot of difference in the sound among these various arias, but then for those who love the big Italian tenor sound, this collection will satisfy. Because of his early demise we will never know if Salvatore Licitra would develop his gift and become more sensitively involved in vocal technique and in character interpretation. But his was a beautiful if brief career and his early passing is sad. Grady Harp, September 11

Let me first say that I own "The Debut" album by Salvatore Licitra and have seen him perform at The Metropolitan Opera in New York, and while I cannot deny that he is good, there was still something that I felt was missing from this tenor. That "something" was lack of dynamics and expression. For that reason I hesitated buying the new cd "Forbidden Love", but I am glad I did! This album is definately better than his first album in many ways after listening to it a couple of times. First, this new recording perfectly captured the essence of his voice, and the production is ladened with choirs and rich strings. The common repetoire on this album are enjoyable and perfectly suited for his voice. Dynamics on his voice are more appearent than ever. This dramatic voice has a nice top in my opinion, and you can hear that he is a verdian tenor. His interpretations are a bit to dogmatic for my taste, but to his defense he does not over embellish, but does exactly what is needed. I will go out in a limb by saying the more I have listened to his new album the more I am getting convinced that the new kid on the block is a strong candidate for the future of opera. He has that retro tenor sound that is reminicient of Del Monaco. He has grown vocally since the last time I have seen him, and I believe that he is here to stay.

The man and his fantastic voice left this world much too soon. I do enjoy listening to this album very much.