OPERA CHOICE
A deft portrait of Puccini’s leading men
Alexandra Wilson enjoys Jonathan Tetelman’s distinctive take on classic arias
The Great Puccini
Arias from Il Tabarro, Manon Lescaut, La bohème, Madam Butterfly etc
Jonathan Tetelman (tenor); Prague Philharmonia/Carlo Rizzi
DG 486 4683 51:09 mins
This album, released ahead of the composer’s centenary next year, features all the predictable Puccini tenor standards (plus a few less-well known arias from La fanciulla del West, La rondine and Le villi), as anyone buying a recording called The Great Puccini would expect. The fact that standalone recordings of ‘Nessun dorma’, ‘Che gelida manina’ and ‘E lucevan le stelle’ must run well into the hundreds makes it challenging for any tenor recording this repertoire for the first time to make an original statement.
Tetelman has already impressed onstage in the signature tenor roles from , and , but this album sets out his stall for what he could also do with the rest of the repertoire. Explaining in the sleeve notes for the CD release that he is fascinated by the multidimensionality of Puccini’s men, he adopts a nuanced approach to characterisation, bringing a vocally distinctive tone to each role. His Cavaradossi is as languid and heroic as you could wish for; his Luigi edgy and sombre; his Ruggero youthful. But it is in the role of Des Grieux that he particularly captivates. ‘Donna non vidi mai’ (an enticing album opener) is ardent and expansive, vowels strikingly warm and open, strings effectively foregrounded. The easygoing ebb and flow of Carlo Rizzi’s conducting allows the Prague Philharmonia to luxuriate in the music. An accomplished group of supporting artists, led by soprano Federica Lombardi’s soulful Mimì, join Tetelman in making this album of potentially over-familiar numbers really say something new.
