It was only a matter of time before the world’s most popular tenor would record the opera with the world’s most famous tenor aria, and here it is. The story of the clown, betrayed by his wife, who must laugh through his tears and who finally loses it and kills her onstage is great fodder for big-voiced tenors with great temperaments. Sadly, Bocelli is a small-voiced tenor whose temperamental outbursts do not sound particularly menacing or moving; you never get the feeling of a strong man brought to his knees, and his effort on some exposed high notes is uncomfortable. And the close miking, while attempting to “feature” his voice, unfortunately allows us to hear every flaw and every gear shift.
As his wife Nedda, soprano Ana Maria Martinez is terrific, and she and baritone Roberto Accurso as Silvio deliver a sensual duet–indeed, their singing is the best in the performance. As the villain Tonio, Stefano Antonucci sings well, grand interpolated high notes and all–but he is small-voiced. In fact, the whole cast appears to have been chosen for their light sounds so that the balance between grander-voiced singers and Bocelli would not be too pronounced. Conductor Steven Mercurio leads somewhat slowly and without the mania needed for the final moments, but he and Bocelli make the most of the big aria, “Vesti la giubba”, its expansive tempos just right for the emotional content. Fans of Bocelli will require this; others would do better with the performance with Jussi Bjoerling (now on EMI) or Pavarotti’s first (Decca).
