MARCELO ALVAREZ
The Tenor’s Passion (Opera Arias)
Marcelo Alvarez (tenor), Dresden Staatskapelle, cond Marcello Viotti
Sony SK 92937
The face has filled out — or the airbrushers have been sacked — since the Argentinian tenor’s first Sony album was released in 1998. Luckily, the voice has too, very handsomely, and as Alvarez prepares to sing Massenet’s Werther at Covent Garden, he gives a foretaste of future dramatic roles: Cavaradossi in Tosca (ROH, 2006) and Don José in Carmen (Toulouse, 2007-08). One hopes he won’t tackle the tenor part of Turandot just yet — if at all — well though he sings Nessun dorma. Richard Strauss’s parody Puccini showpiece from Der Rosenkavalier is a nice gesture to the orchestra, and the Caruso hit M’appari, from Flotow’s Martha, and an aria from Lalo’s Le Roi d’Ys are welcome selections. Four stars