The flowering of Juan Diego Florez
   The Economist

   TWO hundred years after Peru became the first New World country to
   produce its own operatic culture, South America is throwing up a
   fresh generation of impressive young tenors.  Jose Cura and Marcelo
   Alvarez of Argentina, and a Mexican singer, Ramon Vargas, are among
   the best.  But it is Juan Diego Florez, a 29-year-old Peruvian, who
   is regarded as the world's foremost young interpreter of the bel
   canto repertory of Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti.

   When Mr Florez first sang the role of Ramiro in "La Cenerentola" at
   the Pesaro Rossini festival in 1998, Giorgio Gualerzi, a critic at
   Opera magazine, hailed him as "the Rossini tenor of the new century".
   His first solo CD, of Rossini arias, is out this month on Decca.  Mr
   Florez's voice is smaller than that of Roberto Alagna, another tenor
   who came to opera through popular music.  But it is more flexible
   and has an easier top.  There is also a brightness and a fluidity
   easily matched by sprightly charm and good looks.  Less flamboyant
   than some, his rendition of the main aria, with its nine top notes,
   from Donizetti's "La Fille du Regiment" has made him the king of high
   Cs.  "I have the note, so it's no problem," he says.  "There are
   plenty of things much more difficult than that."

     http://www.economist.com/books/displaystory.cfm?story_id=1066741

Janos Gereben/SF
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