The new CD of Chamber Arias by tenor Emanuele D'Aguanno.
Review by Natalia Dantas © dibartolocritic —
I heard the tenor Emanuele D'Aguanno for the first time in December 2013, on his debut as Edgardo in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor at the Teatro Massimo Vincenzo Bellini in Catania and I wrote about it in the review of the show. I could already glimpse that "hero" forming young and expressive romantic, full of impetus and passion, with a remarkable singing line and legate", the "thousand vocal promises for the future" which, following a brilliant career, he is pursuing and still pursues, with tenacity, passion and talent.
Three years later, listening to him recorded on his new CD released in 2016 for the Austrian record company Capriccio makes me notice how that young man has matured in experience and ability, in a sequence of Chamber Arias, which includes eight arias by Vincenzo Bellini, including the very famous “Malinconia, ninfa gentile” and “Vaga luna che inargenti”, five arias by Donizetti and four by Gioachino Rossini, concluding with the famous “L'orgia” by the great composer from Pesaro.
The Roman tenor is accompanied on the piano with absolute competence by Maestro Charles Spencer. The British pianist, who deserves particular praise, is capable of capturing the vaguest colours, especially in Bellini, offering a varied palette from the keyboard and interpreting each author to perfection, in a skilled and contained expression.
Listening to Emanuele D'Aguanno's sung interpretation in the sequence proposed by the unfolding of the songs, his impetus for Bellini's Fillide seems a little’ too bright. The pearly and iridescent vocation of Bellini's chamber arias, a little more’ cold compared to romantic canons, it does not seem to lend itself fully to the vehemence of D'Aguanno's vocal temperament. His voice, in fact, has strengthened over time and at the same time rounded out. The beautiful color has remained and the high register now needs, apart from the high notes, to express greater strength and power.
Emanuele D'Aguanno is a tenor with a theater voice and temperament. He needs the Work to give his best. In fact, he subsequently explodes in the first Donizetti aria of the collection, “E’ dead", in which the progression of the piece is truly tragic and theatrical, permeated with pathos, interpretation of pain and transcendence. Even the Aria “Love and Death”, again by the Donizetti group, only underlines what was expressed above.
Apart from the interpreter's natural vocation for melodrama, the choice of Donizetti's arias, which constitute the central part of the recording, is certainly thoughtful in this sense: due to their more "theatrical" nature they allow him to express himself with greater vocal authority and interpretative; However, his voice also needs an operatic-narrative base and as soon as he finds it, as in "Il pescatore", he feels more at ease, culminating in "Il Barcaiolo", the last aria of the Bergamo genius on the CD.
Change again, with Rossini's arias, richer in agility and embellishments than the others, of which the last "L'orgia", despite its title, is precisely the most salon-like. At this point, precisely what was mentioned about Bellini is determined. D'Aguanno's voice and character, despite the different stylistic approach of the two authors, transcend the living room and go beyond it. Rossini's Nice, in "The Departure" is treated like Bellini's Fillide, with the restrained impetus and heart of a romantic hero.
A "transitional" album, therefore, the one in question, in the production of Emanuele D'Aguanno, which in my opinion was made at a time in which his voice can still "afford" itself to return, over the course of an entire recording, in the canons of chamber singing.
In fact, it seems to me that the tenor has come to be able to turn with positive feedback to an operatic repertoire that places him clearly in the expression of romanticism or in any case in a more lyrical and frill-free flow of singing. If it's about toasts, as in L'orgia, then today the one in La Traviata is especially good for him.
Without prejudice to the fact that the marvels of Donizetti's Edgardo still fit him perfectly, the young protagonist of Scott's memory heard and seen in Catania in 2013 today has a voice that has become such that it can be, in my opinion, as well as that of Alfredo, also that of Don Carlo and, as then, at the time of the aforementioned Lucia, I advocated in my review, also turn to the French repertoire, which would suit her very well. The interpreter would certainly find himself at ease, both in terms of quality of color and timbre, both in terms of legate and in terms of potential in expressing the temperament of a Romeo or that of a Werther.
And’ it is legitimate to wait, then, with interest, curiosity and appreciation, for a new, desirable CD by Emanuele D'Aguanno entirely dedicated to Opera, also underlining how a theater voice, with theater temperament, albeit in a solo recording, has need for the orchestra; and also of an important orchestra.
Natalia Dantas © dibartolocritic
PHOTOS © Roberto Recanatesi, © Rosellina Garbo, © Giacomo Orlando, AA.VV