Villazón, Rolando - Verdi CD

Dear Listener,  Welcome to this musical journey through some of the many beautiful works that Verdi wrote for tenor.

We start with an aria from his very first opera, Oberto. Then you will listen to other arias from his early years, from his most popular operas and from his mature period, as well as to a selection of songs orchestrated by Berio, to the solo tenor part from his great religious oratorio, all the way to the very last aria he composed for tenor.

To perform Verdi is to perform variations on the eternal melody of the human soul. Verdi was a man who came from the people and composed for the people, a genius who never lost contact with the basic forces of the human heart. Verdi was indeed the least pretentious of all composers. When critics of his time said that he who thinks that great music is an expression of love, pain etc, is wrong, he simply replied: “And why should one not believe that music is the expression of love and pain and etc?” For Verdi, “art that misses simplicity and naturalness is not Art. An idea must stem from the simple.”

It has been an immense joy to sail through Verdi’s rich musical sea – with its limpid blue waters, tremendous tempests, caressing waves and sunsets red as blood – in the company of the Orchestra Teatro Regio Torino and the great Gianandrea Noseda. It is also a pleasure to welcome my dear colleague Mojca Erdmann on this wonderful musical odyssey. We hope you enjoy the journey with us and that, after having listened to it, you feel an absolute need to dive into the vast ocean of the great Maestro Verdi’s complete works.

Rolando Villazón

 
1.  Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio - Ciel, che feci! … Ciel pietoso
2.  I due Foscari - Qui ti rimani alquanto … Brezza del suol natio … Dal più remoto esilio … Odio solo, ed odio atroce
3.  Brindisi
4.  L’esule
5.  I Lombardi alla prima crociata - La mia letizia infondere
6.  In solitaria stanza
7.  Il corsaro - Eccomi prigioniero!
8.  Rigoletto - Questa o quella
9.  La donna è mobile
10.  La traviata - Lunge da lei … De’ miei bollenti spiriti
11.  O mio rimorso
12.  Un ballo in maschera - Amici miei, soldati! … La rivedrà nell’estasi
13.   Don Carlo - Fontainebleau! foresta immensa e solitaria! … Io la vidi e al suo sorriso
14.   Messa da Requiem - Ingemisco tamquam reus
15.   Falstaff - Dal labbro il canto estasiato vola

Mojca Erdmann  soprano (12, 15)
Vicente Ombuena  tenor (2)

Coro Teatro Regio Torino, Claudio Fenoglio chorus master

Orchestra Teatro Regio Torino, GIANANDREA NOSEDA 2012

Running Time: 56:37