MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Juan Diego Florez - Great Tenor Arias

"Another congenial programme for the formidably gifted Peruvian tenore di grazia. He's finely supported by secure and stylistically credible accompaniemnets, and by Decca's bright and forward sound."
***** Five Stars (Pick of the Month) BBC Music Magazine (Dec 2004)

Juan Diego Flórez on top form through 150 years of Great Tenor Arias - from Gluck to Puccini.

In the space of just a few short years Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez has established himself as a thrilling World-class artist and one of Opera's most exciting stars.

Both his previous Decca albums featured works by the three great bel canto composers (Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti) who form the core of his stage repertoire.

Great Tenor Arias sees Juan Diego Flórez exploring new territory, placing the bel canto repertoire within more than 150 years of virtuoso arias for the tenor voice, in both Italian and French - from the classical expression of Gluck to the romantic passion of Puccini.

This new album - recorded with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi under renowned opera conductor Carlo Rizzi - includes popular favourites as well as rarely recorded virtuoso showpieces written for great tenors of the past.

The album includes Verdi's La Donna è mobile and Gluck's Che faro senza Euridice (in the French version Gluck adapted for high tenor), as well as more rarely recorded arias from Halevy's La Juive and Cimarosa's Il Matrimonio segreto, and, of course, Flórez' signature bel canto showpieces - from Rossini's L'italiana in Algeri and Semiramide and Donizetti's Figlia del reggimento and Lucrezia Borgia - all of which he has sung to great acclaim on stage.

The two Donizetti arias are both rarities. The additional aria from Figlia del reggimento (the Italian adaptation of La Fille du Régiment) was originally written for the opera Gianni di Parigi, while the additional aria from Lucrezia Borgia is thought to have been written for performances in Paris by the legendary Nineteenth Century tenor 'Mario'.

NOTE: Cover booklet has a very slight crease