ANYONE for tenors? According to tee Cork impresario Barra O Tuama, five of the brightest and best, if not yet best known, of the species are headed for Ireland over the next nine months to sing in his forthcoming series of Opera Gala Plus concerts in Dublin, Cork and Limerick.
And if none of those famous names is to be found among his list of scheduled artists, well, that's no problem, for the Argentinian tenor Jose Cura has already been hailed as the next Domingo, and the Chilean Tito Beltran would cut a suitably stylish Latin dash as the new Carreras.
As for Roberto Aronica, he took turns in a run of performances of Puccini's La Boheme with Pavarotti in Turin earlier this year, and was consistently praised by the entries as the better singer of the two.
"Though to my mind," mused Mr O Tuama, introducing his 1996-1997 programme in Dublin last night, "he sounds more like a young di Stefano. I've just heard him sing at the Macerata festival in Italy, and his voice just soared over that huge crowd. He's marvellous."
An enthusiast whose passion for Italian opera knows no bounds, Barra O Tuama began his concert, promoting career 12 years ago with the aim of presenting value for money performances by singers' who are either at the top of their profession or heading there fast, and his concert programmes are heady cocktails of the best loved arias and duets in the operatic repertoire.
This year's Opera Gala Plus season opens on September 26th with the principal tenor of the Israeli Opera, Gabriel Sade. Sade will visit Ireland en route to the US, where he is to appear in a UN peace concert. The season ends on Wednesday, April 9th, with the return of Jose Cura.
