In the middle of a short, uneven recital in Berkeley's Zellerbach
Hall tonight, Juan Diego Florez hit his stride, and sang with delicate,
elegant, affecting beauty.  The song was Massenet's "Ouvre tes yeux
bleus," and the performance, except for the unconvincing final note,
was glorious.

Florez, at 31, is among the finest lyric tenors in the world today.  He
is also coveted to excess, too much in demand for his own good, and -
judging by tonight's recital - spread way too thin.

After singing virtually nonstop over the holidays at the Met and coming
off a transcontinental flight, he was understandably tired.  The voice
held up, mostly, through a 25-minute first half, a 20-minute second half
(both including brief rests between songs), but by the time the encores
rolled around, the fatigue was audible, and - uncharacteristically but
wisely for him, although to the audience's disappointment - Florez sang
only a (superb) "Una Furtiva Lagrima" and "Serrano," from the zarzuela
"El Trust de los Tenorios."

The opening of the recital was simply alarming.  Schubert's "Guarda che
bianca luna," Beethoven's "Adelaide" and Mozart's "Ridente la calma"
came and went, all pretty and near-unrecognizable, three very different
works concatenated into one charming and yet totally inappropriate segment
from "The Sound of Music." More precisely, "Sound of Florez," but certainly
not of Schubert, Beethoven and Mozart.  Same sound, same gestures, same
bland and pleasant phrasing.

There was some improvement with a Mozart aria from "Il re pastore,"
some differentiation, a bit of an edge, getting away from the homogeneous
opening trio.  "Che ascolto?" from Rossini's "Otello" and "Allegrio io
son" from Donizetti's "Rita" closed the first and second halves of the
concert, respectively, well sung and reminding the listener more of the
"real Florez," the fascinating, promising singer, who ought to take
better care of himself.

Vincenzo Scalera was the supportive, self-effacing accompanist.

Janos Gereben/SF
www.sfcv.org
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