ROSSINI
AMICI e RIVALI
LAWRENCE BROWNLEE
MICHAEL SPYRES
I Virtuosi Italiani ~ Corrado Rovaris
ERATO
Sergio A. Mims forwards this release:
Two of today's most brilliant tenors celebrate the trailblazing star singers of Rossini's time, with a program of arias, duets, and trios from seven of the composer's operas
The two bel canto superstars are
accompanied by conductor Corrado Rovaris and I Virtuosi Italiani with
guest appearances from Irish mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught and Spanish
tenor Xabier Erraught
Two of today’s most brilliant tenors, Michael Spyres and Lawrence
Brownlee, celebrate the art of the trailblazing star singers of
Rossini’s time. Amici e Rivali – ‘Friends and Rivals’ – comprises arias,
duets, and trios from seven of the composer’s operas, written between
1815 and 1826: the most famous comic opera of them all, Il Barbiere di Siviglia,
and six serious dramatic works Otello, Armida, La donna del Lago,
Elisabetta, Regina d'Inghilterra, Le Siège de Corinthe, and, the rarest
title here, Ricciardo e Zoraide.
If the spotlight is on the two American stars – not least as they assume
the roles of ‘dueling tenors’ – they are in excellent company: there
are guest appearances from the effervescent Irish mezzo-soprano Tara
Erraught and the prize-winning young Spanish tenor Xabier Anduaga, and
the recording was made at the artistic home of conductor Corrado Rovaris
and I Virtuosi Italiani, the Teatro Ristori in Verona.
All the works represented on Amici e Rivali – except for
Barbiere, which was first seen in Rome – have their roots in the San
Carlo opera house in Naples. (While Le Siège de Corinthe was in fact
written for Paris, it derived from Maometto II, premiered six years
earlier at the San Carlo.) Rossini conceived them for specific singers,
several of whom became defining forces in musical history: the tenors
Andrea Nozzari, Giovanni David, Manuel García, Louis Nourrit and Adolphe
Nourrit (a father/son pairing), Giuseppe Ciccimarra and Claudio
Bonoldi, and the baritone Luigi Zamboni, who created the role of Figaro.
Michael Spyres and Lawrence Brownlee first sang together in 2018 at the
Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, where their spectacular program – bristling
with stratospheric top notes and cascades of coloratura – included three
Rossini duets.
As Michael Spyres explains: “Larry and I have known each other for over a
decade but we never had the chance to work with each other until
Amsterdam. I have always admired Larry’s singing and had wanted to do a
program showcasing this amazing music written for the greatest Rossini
tenors. Larry was just as thrilled and so we put our heads together to
come up with a program. Not only does Larry possess one of the greatest
voices and techniques, but he is an amazing performer – you have to sing
your best just to keep up with him! After the major success we had in
Amsterdam we realized just how much the public appreciated our efforts
and we realized that most people don’t actually know about this special
time in the history of opera when two tenors would duel on stage for the
hearts of the music-goers.”
Lawrence Brownlee explains how their vocal chemistry works: “Our voices
compliment each other because they have similar qualities to the voices
that Rossini wrote for – voices which worked together. They are of
similar range, but very different vocal color, though we can both handle
the challenges of high-lying legato and coloratura. My voice has been
characterized as a leggiero or light-lyric tenor, like Giovanni David’s.
Michael’s is a lyric tenor, or maybe more specifically a so-called
‘baritenor’, with a darker character, like Andrea Nozzari’s.” David and
Nozzari sang together in the first performances of Otello, La donna del Lago and Ricciardo e Zoraide.
“The duets that Rossini wrote for very different tenors precisely
highlight our vocal strengths,” affirms Spyres. “Larry’s voice is a
natural tenor voice and the clarity, beauty, and virtuosity of his
singing come through abundantly in this repertoire. Conversely, I began
as a baritone and my natural voice lies much lower – almost everyone
asks if I am a baritone when they hear my speaking voice! The vocal
writing for Nozzari feels like it was composed for me. I have never
found a closer fit to my natural color and technique. It was made to fit
the character of a warrior and it contrasts wonderfully with the
writing for Larry’s voice type. With this program, we have probably set a
record with our myriad high notes, but the music was written for
Nozzari also frequently goes to the lowest reaches of the baritone
range.”
Brownlee and Spyres have impeccable credentials in the bel canto
repertoire of the early 19th century. “I believe that what we are doing
as musicians is not dissimilar from what one might have heard many years
ago in a theatre in Italy,” says Brownlee. “We have both been schooled
in the traditional bel canto style and we have both worked with
conductors, teachers, and coaches who are experts on Rossini.” Spyres
asserts that “Larry and I would not have a career today had it not been
for the singers, conductors, and scholars who have paved the way for us
over the past 50 years, during which Rossini has enjoyed an incredible
renaissance.” He cites his collaborations with Rossini specialists like
tenor Raúl Giménez, musicologist Phillip Gossett and scholarly
conductors David Parry, Will Crutchfield, and Alberto Zedda. The Rossini
credentials of Bergamo-born Corrado Rovaris – conductor for Amici e
Rivali, Music Director at the Opera Company of Philadelphia and
Principal Conductor of I Virtuosi Italiani – were established early in
his career with appearances at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, the
composer’s birthplace on Italy’s Adriatic coast.
“One of the most wonderful aspects of bel canto practice is the
obligation and freedom to improvise and to create your own cadenzas and
variations,” continues Spyres. “No composer wrote more demandingly of a
singer than Rossini did for the tenor – Bellini, Donizetti, and Berlioz
being the only occasional exceptions. In many of Rossini’s operas, there
is no baritone role, and one could even claim that Rossini was the only
composer to exploit so many shades of the tenor voice. In truth, much
of his writing for tenor set the boundaries for what the male voice
could achieve.”
Brownlee points out that “the genius of Rossini is being able to create
such different characters within the same vocal range,” but he also
observes the closeness of tenor and baritone in the duet ‘All’idea di
quel metallo’ from Il Barbiere di Siviglia, in which he sings
the tenor role of Almaviva – written for Manuel García – and Spyres
takes the baritone role of Figaro: “Figaro’s lines are only just
slightly lower than Almaviva’s,” he observes. Michael Spyres expands on
this point: “Before and during Rossini’s reign it was quite common for
singers to perform both baritone and tenor roles, and these include
Giacomo David, Andrea Nozzari and, indeed, Manuel García, who took Paris
by storm when he sang Mozart’s Don Giovanni [a role generally assigned
to baritones, bass-baritones, and even basses].”
The 15 items on the program of Amici e Rivali have been organized to
follow the musico-dramatic structure of a Rossini opera, as Spyres
explains: “Overture, the introduction of primary characters and
secondary characters, presentation of conflict, resolution … We also
chose to suggest a chronological progression through Rossini’s career in
order to show the diversity of his evolution as a composer, and to
reveal how he influenced everyone who came after him.”
Some of the pairs of tenor characters are friends, others are rivals,
but what is the relationship between two tenors when they are striking
sparks off each other?
“We are friends!” asserts Lawrence Brownlee. “Any rivalry is just
sportsmanship and theatrics. Beyond enjoying our musical performances,
audiences at our concerts have praised the way we create a positive and
supportive atmosphere on stage.”
“We are definitely friends,” confirms Michael Spyres. “Though I must
admit that, when singing Otello, I have not come across a mightier foe!
Larry is so good that he forces you to sing on a higher level. Though he
and I are very good-natured, a little rivalry is necessary to raise the
stakes and this is why we are a winning combination. Larry and I won’t
back away from any vocal duel and we will always let the vocal fireworks
fly!” Spyres’ final word, though, is for Rossini. “This music really
gives the listener a sense of the diversity and complexity of the male
voice. I find the symbiosis between the vocal and orchestral components
to be unrivaled. Rossini’s combination of vocal writing, the complexity
of composition, and sheer musical beauty will live on as long as opera
itself.”
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