Juan Diego Flórez: from laziness to conviction (with tricks)

I confess: I was dreading this recital by Juan Diego Flórez. But, little by little, the Peruvian tenor convinced me of two things: he was genuinely eager to sing, and he gave it his all. That said, the Peruvian tenor has a foolproof trick: he never deviates from the script. Having said that, it's perfectly understandable that the first part, with its undeniable technical difficulty, was the highlight of the evening.

It started strong, without warming up, because Mozart's concert aria Aura che intorno spiri It's already dizzying. Not to mention Titus's two arias from The mercy of Titus, especially the second one (I command it), the purest Da Capo style, complete with ornamentation and agility.

Rossini always puts him on the ropes, but Flórez proved unbeatable with The stone of the paragonAnd to finish, the beautiful Come, gentle lady of the no less precious The white lady by Boieldieu.

With all this material, we could have already gone home, but our curiosity to hear Flórez's current vocal condition live, in service of less lighthearted and much more lyrical pieces, proved stronger. And the singer proved himself a master of technique in three zarzuela pieces by Chapí, Vives, and Serrano.

With the Spanish segment over, it was time for the French lyric drama. And that's where Flórez's trickery and flaws were revealed: Werther (especially) and Splendor They demand genuine passion, not disguised. And Flórez doesn't even flinch, despite putting on a serious face. Why wake me up?Does this mean she sang badly? On the contrary, because her technique is prodigious and works in the register changes, the porting, the emission, the dynamics, and the attacks. But, in the case of Werther We can't believe the boy ended up with a bullet through his skull.

And after the concluding Verdi and the solo piano pieces by Vincenzo Scalera (who wasn't as sharp as on other occasions, despite the virtuosos glissandi of the Masurca (from Lecuona), returned the predictable and tiresome: the nine high C's of The daughter of the regiment, fired into pipes and with –again– calculated precision, and the iconic guitar to draw a Neapolitan, a Peruvian song and two Mexican rancheras, including the ineffable Cucurrucucú, dove.

Conclusion: Flórez continues to convince in the area he feels most comfortable in, that is, the bel canto Romantic and, occasionally, the less lighthearted Mozart. He gives it his all, performs with gusto, and wins over the audience. But the tricks are too familiar, and now he doesn't even try to hide them.