CD Choice:Opera

GITANO: ZARZUELA ARIAS Rolando Villazón (Tenor). Orquesta De La Comunidad De Madrid. Direction: Placido Domingo Virgin Classics 365474 2 8 *****

This wonderful tenor continues to develop his voice and art to a point where his singing is now a delight vocally and artistically. The vocal similarity to the young Domingo is still there, particularly in Villazón's shining upper register, but he is a different artist with his own uniquely warm temperament and musical sensibility.

Zarzuela, a musical theatre form somewhere between opera and operetta, has been popular in Spain for a few hundred years and by general consent reached its apex of popularity and creativity in the first half of the 20th century. Within an operatic form, its melodies and harmonies are evocative of what we consider traditional Spain, with plots encompassing (among other things) dark-haired maidens and swaggering toreadors. The libretti are generally romantic in character and the music, while operatic in form, is national in style, with a special melodic richness that is uniquely Spanish.

These fine arias deserve to be better known, and this recital - which contains many of the most popular songs from what has come to be known as the golden age of Zarzuela - should introduce this music to many who have not heard it before. Villazón is an ideal interpreter, singing this repertoire with style and passion without ever falling into sentimentality. His identification with the words is idiomatic and his fabulous top register can rarely have been heard to better effect than on this disc.

With Placido Domingo providing a sympathetic orchestral accompaniment, this disc should give great pleasure to opera lovers and those who enjoy the wider romantic crossover repertoire associated with the late great Luciano Pavarotti - and, of course, Richard Tauber of immortal memory. COLMAN MORRISSEY

Download tracks: No puede ser, Mi aldea, Madrilena bonita