Vittorio Grigolo follows his 2010 debut solo recital album for Sony of arias by Verdi, Puccini, and Donizetti with a broader mix of arias and a healthy selection of Romantic and post-Romantic Italian songs. It's an old-fashioned kind of program (with the addition of a few more recent songs in a similar style) that would have been characteristic of the repertoire of early- to mid-century Italian tenors like Beniamino Gigli and Tito Schipa. It perfectly reflects Grigolo's identification with the aesthetics of an earlier ...
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Vittorio Grigolo follows his 2010 debut solo recital album for Sony of arias by Verdi, Puccini, and Donizetti with a broader mix of arias and a healthy selection of Romantic and post-Romantic Italian songs. It's an old-fashioned kind of program (with the addition of a few more recent songs in a similar style) that would have been characteristic of the repertoire of early- to mid-century Italian tenors like Beniamino Gigli and Tito Schipa. It perfectly reflects Grigolo's identification with the aesthetics of an earlier Golden Age of Italianate singing; his singing, like those of his heroes, is intensely emotional, earnest, suavely seductive, and passionate, and it comes with some of their mannerisms, like bending pitches and lingering on important notes slightly more than is standard for the early 21st century. His voice is light and doesn't have anything like the weight of Pavarotti's, but it's easy to see why he's being hailed as a bright new hope for Italian opera by fans of Pavarotti's popular style...
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