Album: Il Tenore by Freddie De Tommaso
Readers of the Edinburgh Music Review will remember that, before he became a superstar, singing at all the great opera houses of the world and having No 1 Classical records, I conducted an interview with Freddie De Tommaso on this website in May 2021, and gave notice to all our readers to look out for this young Anglo-Italian tenor. I had sung at Covent Garden in Wagner’s ‘Die Meistersinger’ when Freddie was a member of the semi-chorus of apprentices, and we had all noticed that there was one voice dominating the semi-chorus, a nice young lad from Kent called Freddie De Tommaso. The fact that he was De Tommaso, like Da Vinci, was an early indicator that this was no ordinary tenor, and, in a remarkably short period of time, he has become one of the most coveted singers in the world. That ‘Mastersingers’ production was in March 2017, and in 2018 Freddie won the First Prize, the Placido Domingo Tenor Prize and the Verdi Prize at the Viňas International Singing Prize in Barcelona, and was soon back at Covent Garden, singing Cassio in Verdi’s ‘Otello’.
Even since my interview with Freddie in May 2021, the career has gone from strength to strength. Taking over at short notice the role of Cavaradossi in Puccini’s ‘Tosca’ at Covent Garden brought instant media fame, and his agent and Decca Records have exploited that early success incredibly well. He has made debuts at Vienna, The Bolshoi (in happier days), La Scala, Milan and has appeared again at Covent Garden.
The release of his first album, ‘Passione’, of Italian songs with orchestra, was enormously successful, and brought him to the attention of a wider public. This was a clever compilation of mainly Neapolitan songs, some famous, some less so, which showed off Freddie’s wonderfully expressive Italian style, and a whole host of top notes as well. As a bass myself, this notion of going for high notes and holding them until the audience goes wild, is a concept unknown to us, but for a tenor, this is the be all and end all of life. The clever marketing by the record company, with a mean and moody Freddie wandering Italian streets looking romantic, was a master-stroke, and has clearly put this image in the minds of his growing audience. It’s as far removed from the overweight Pavarotti in white tie and tails, and his enormous hankie, than one could imagine. I’m not knocking Luciano, for he had one of the great voices of the 20th century, but as an image for a young audience it was sadly lacking. It is more than refreshing to find Freddie emerging in the same year as we are seeing too much of Andrea Bocelli on our screens. In the absence of Pavarotti, Bocelli has become the Italian tenor of our times, and for those of us who work in opera, this is a travesty. The man has done well for himself, but in reality, it is his blindness which stands out, rather than his voice, which is distinctly average. He obviously works hard and has some charisma, but to be the voice that everyone thinks of as Il Tenore is nonsensical. Thankfully, the appearance of Freddie will show the public at large what a real primo tenore can do, and so far he has managed to avoid the dreaded crossover market. By being personable and singing the right repertoire, he has shown what a fine voice, allied to a warm personality and a good sense of style, can do.
We are lucky at the moment to have some really fine tenors on the circuit in a variety of styles, and many of them are British. In Scotland, we have Nicky Spence and the ever reliable Jamie MacDougall (who I sang with way back in the early 1990s in many recordings and concerts), and in England, David Butt Philip and Allan Clayton are sweeping all before them. Young Josh Lovell from Canada is another one to watch. (He’s singing at Glyndebourne this summer in ‘Don Pasquale’.)
I’m writing here today to welcome Freddie De Tommaso’s second album on Decca, imaginatively entitled ‘Il Tenore’. First, we had ‘Passione’ and now ‘Il Tenore’! I suppose it does what it says on the tin, and it has already zoomed to the top of the Classical charts!
Whereas the first album eschewed operatic favourites, this one unashamedly presents us with track after track of great tenor arias and duets. I was complimentary about his circumspection in ‘Passione’ in not competing with the big names, but now he has set himself up to be compared with Pavarotti, Domingo, Corelli, Cura and Kaufmann. Obviously, a not yet thirty-year-old tenor is in his infancy, compared to these world famous stars, but I must say that already Freddie sounds fabulous. The voice is thrilling, stylish, nuanced and appealing, and in excerpts from Puccini’s ‘Tosca’, ‘Turandot’ and ‘Madama Butterfly’ and Bizet’s ‘Carmen’, with stunning contributions from sopranos Lise Davidsen and Natalya Romaniw, mezzo Aigul Akhmetshina, Apollo Voices and the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Paolo Arrivabeni, this is a very good album indeed.
It was a clever idea to match him up with three of the new generation of female star singers, and three quite different voices at that. Norwegian Lise Davidsen has made an early reputation as a peerless singer of the German repertoire, with stand-out performances at major houses of roles such as Leonore in ‘Fidelio’ and Elisabeth in ‘Tannhäuser’. On this recording, she presents a Tosca with plenty of fire and amplitude of voice. This is one of the most exciting voices in the world, and she is well matched by Freddie as Cavaradossi. In the excerpts from ‘Madama Butterfly’, he sings with the splendid Welsh/Ukrainian soprano, Natalya Romaniw, whose plangent and warm voice complements the sound of the romantic but rather amoral character of Freddie’s Pinkerton. Finally, the fiery Russian, Aigul Akhmetshina proves an overwhelmingly ardent Carmen in excerpts from the eponymous opera.
In all of these tracks, it is remarkable to think that Freddie De Tommaso was completely unknown as recently as 2017, and, as I remarked in our interview last year, there must be a danger in this extraordinary rise to fame. I have been at pains to point out over and over again, in my articles for the EMR, how important it is that singers have a chance to learn their art and to develop their stagecraft and stage personality over a period of time. Freddie’s startling success has not afforded him this luxury, and I do hope that the obviously superb quality of his voice doesn’t lead to overuse and exploitation. To learn these major tenor roles in the full glare of world attention is tricky and dangerous, and he will need to be well-advised in the short and medium term. I have not yet seen him on stage, so I am not in a position to know how good an actor he is, and it is true that for these particular roles, superior acting skills have not been expected in the past (think Pavarotti!), but modern opera productions now require all singers to be able to act sympathetically, and the advent of video streaming means that close-up shots are now extremely common. Random stage acting, which works at a distance of 100 feet in a theatre but not on camera, is no longer acceptable. I’m not implying that Freddie is not a good actor, but the experience most of us have had of developing our acting skills in less public places is not something which he will be allowed to do. As I have said in the past, managements and agents are not really interested in committing themselves to the long haul with singers. If one crashes and burns, another will come along. Yet, this young man has something extraordinary, and I hope he is given time to mature like a good wine rather than a Beaujolais Nouveau.
I have a small recommendation for his voice at the very top of the scale. The sound is so well controlled generally throughout the range, the breath control so excellent, the phrasing so stylish, that I would love him just to rein in his sound on the climactic notes of an aria at times. Clearly the big thrilling tones, like “vinceró” in ‘Nessun Dorma’ and “Tosca, sei tu” in ‘Recondita Armonia’ need to be sung with full throat and con brio, but I would love him to release the sound rather than push it out. Fine margins, and this is purely a personal opinion, but I find it more thrilling if you hold even a tiny percentage back. Listening to my and Freddie’s favourite tenor, Franco Corelli, one is always conscious of something in reserve, even at his most ardent. A thought for the future.
For the present, we have a brilliant new recording, available on Decca, through all the usual channels at a very reasonable price. It’s hard to choose highlights, as it’s all wonderful, but my favourites are the duet from Tosca, ‘Qual’occhio al mondo’, the splendid aria from Turandot Act 1, ‘Non piangere, Liu’ and the beautiful rendition of the Flower Song from Carmen, in excellent French, and with a pianissimo B flat at the end in authentic mezza voce.
I hope it’s not too long before we can hear Freddie in Scotland.
