Once you get used to the idea that your favorite tenor (in my case Björling) isn’t singing “Torna a Surriento”–or any other of these 17 popular Neapolitan songs, you easily can settle into an enjoyable hour with one of the world’s great baritones, a certain Siberian opera star who knows as much or more about Italian songs than even some native singers we’ve all heard. Dmitri Hvorostovsky’s rich, smooth voice, whose qualities have been aptly described as “warm”, “liquid”, and possessing a “burnished beauty”, adapts well to these characteristically full-throated revels in romanticism. Although he tends to cover upper-register soft notes a little too much for my taste, there’s absolutely no quarreling with Hvorostovsky’s expressive instincts–or with the smooth legatos and tasteful interpretive nuances.
You catch the singer’s love of these songs through his ability to project a certain “attitude”–one that he expresses passionately in defense of his performance of music so seemingly far removed from his experience and background: “I have an Italian wife, I’ve sung in Italian all my life, and I’ve worked hard on the Neapolitan dialect. Besides, this repertoire has been in my blood for 25 years, from my early days as a student.” Indeed, although there’s a certain darkness to the timbre that we usually don’t hear in this music, the passion certainly is there, and while the spirit may not be as carefree as that of a more Italianate singer, it carries the same innate, life-loving zest. Hvorostovsky the opera virtuoso is most surely at home in the more operatic-styled songs, such as “Torna a Surriento” and “Dicitencello vuie”, but his “O sole mio” and “Santa Lucia” are every bit as compelling. Constantine Orbelian and the Philharmonia of Russia prove ideal collaborators, and the sound is just fine.
