José Carreras: The Golden Years
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Music CD Cover Performer: Domenico Trimarchi Composer: Giacomo Puccini Composer: Gaetano Donizetti Composer: Giuseppe Verdi Composer: Ruggero Leoncavallo Composer: Georges Bizet Composer: Jules Massenet Composer: Franz Lehar Composer: Giovanni Giacomo Gastoldi Composer: George Frederick Handel Composer: Giuseppe Giordani Composer: Ariel Ramirez Composer: Paolo Tosti Composer: Eduardo di Capua Composer: Salvatore Cardillo Composer: Luigi Denza Composer: Ernesto de Curtis Composer: Agustin Lara Composer: Gioachino Rossini Composer: Guy d' Hardelot Edition: Music CD CD Release Date: 1999-06-15 Music Label: Philips Soundtracks: Music CD 1
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Free Music Notes for José Carreras: The Golden Years Album
Free Music Review: A few missed opportunities, but pretty good nonetheless
Hit: 4 Stars
This is an interesting collection, and a fine introduction to Jose Carreras. His ravishing timbre and effortless high notes on the 70s recordings, in particular, will come as a big surprise to those who see him as the weakest of The Big Three. For in his heyday, Carreras was the finest tenor of his generation, and there is plenty of evidence here to back up this assertion. Sure, Pavarotti may have had push-button high Cs, but his timbre lacked the wonderfully velvet quality of Carreras' middle register. Worse still, Pavarotti has never had an ounce of Carreras' passion, preferring to sing notes rather than words. Carreras is the exact opposite. "Singing from the soul" is his stated musical philosophy, and fittingly the words mean everything to him.Just listen to what he does with the two Tosca arias on Disc One. This is Carreras at the tender age of 29. His voice has a wonderful freshness and beauty, a breathtaking legato and complete commitment to the words. In the aria E Lucevan Le Stelle he really does sound like a man about to face the firing squad. His singing here brings to mind the great interpretation by Mario Lanza, a tenor whom Carreras deeply reveres. (Both tenors shared the same conviction that opera IS musical drama, a fact that seems to be lost on the Bocellis and Alagnas of the present crop of tenors.)
Other operatic highlights include lesser known arias from Werther and La Battaglia di Legnano, as well as the more familiar Vesti La Giubba. One reviewer has commented on the changes in Carreras' voice between 1978 and 1981, and yes, there is a certain tiredness on the arias from Rigoletto and Ernani, both recorded at the same session in 1981. Fortunately it was a temporary blip, and Carreras went on to record a magnificent recital album of Spanish lieder in 1984 for Philips, as well as a sensational West Side Story for Deutsche Gramaphon. Unfortunately, this collection does not include those gems, but we do have an exciting Tonight from his 1983 album of Broadway and movie standards.
My biggest regret about this album is that Philips have overlooked (with one exception) all of the tenor's arias from his first - and landmark - collection of arias, recorded in 1975, as well as the best of his second operatic recital from 1979. Instead they have opted (on Disc Two, in particular) for an assortment of his lighter material - all of it pleasant to be sure, but not in the same class as the neglected arias. Equally surprising is the complete absence of arias from his superb 1977 Zarzuela album.
On the positive side, this collection should at the very least whet newcomers' appetites for more of the younger Carreras.