Mexican tenor celebrates a career restoration with Mozart rarities.
I fell under the spell of Rolando Villazon almost a decade ago. A video, featuring him singing Massenet in a recording studio, was as close to tenor heaven as one could reasonably expect to get. There was no stress nor strain, just exquisitely spun lines with heady pianissimo that hadone catching one's breath to enter into their world.
More recently, however, disillusionment has set in, through his various appearances on the Arts Channel. We have seen him doing a mariachi turn in the streets of Mexico City and coyly letting us into his shower in Berlin - suddenly one wondered if English comic Rowan Atkinson had a twin brother who also happened to sing tenor.
The ultimate shock came in 2009. A CD of Handel arias was crudely dished out, with too much blast and bluster, and a shadowy lower register. Medical issues were revealed and throat surgery followed soon after. Now, Villazon is slowly clawing back a career for himself, both on stage and in the studio.
His new collection of Mozart concert arias has the benefit of being less than familiar repertoire. The dozen offerings have been rescued from unfinished operas and also include so-called "insertion arias", intended to slot into existent stage works by other composers.
Not surprisingly, all is best when Villazon has the opportunity to be the stage animal that he is. He scuttles around a bridal party, with a range of voices and attitudes, in an aria from Mozart's uncompleted Lo sposo deluso.
The highlight has him as another matrimonial meddler in a piece intended for Piccinni's L'astratto, ovvero Il giocator fortunato. His scampering patter crackles with malicious wit as his character threatens to hurl tritones and other dissonances into the music if there are too many calming unisons.
Antonio Pappano, who conducts the London Symphony Orchestra with his usual verve, sings in his best basso voice to tone down the malevolence.
Elsewhere, unfortunately, zesty dramatics are not enough; arias like Or che il dover, by the then 10-year-old composer, require more vocal lustre for the affectionate performances they deserve.
