The labels are looking for the “new tenor”. The breeding ground, with Bernheim and soon Tetelman at DG, Spyres, Brownlee and Pati at Warner is nevertheless good. With De Tommaso, Decca has found an Italian-British, which since chef John Barbirolli epitomizes the ultimate island fantasy mix. Its launch in 2021 with a Neapolitan recital in tribute to Franco Corelli says a lot about the current meaning of realities, since there are not two more dissimilar voices: bright and open for Corelli, baritone and covered for De Tommaso. The tenor approaches his essentially Puccinian recital, built around scenes with partners (rather than a succession of tunes) as the baritone Ludovic Tezier approached his CD Verdi (Sony), in the muscular genre “I’m going to show you that’s- who-the-best”. We like it or not this athletic song, not free from faults (cover on “L’ora è fuggita” in E lucevan le stellepassage register on “Risi” in Non piangere, Liù, etc.). Impressive, but not enough to climb the curtains.
To see in video