Juan Diego Flórez Breaks the Silence & Speaks to Corriere, We Listen!

Just when we were starting to wonder what that secksay superstar Peruvian tenor was up to, Juanes sat down with Milan's Corriere della Sera over the weekend, and shared a few thoughts.

He spoke about the phenomenon of being called Pavarotti's heir to the tenor throne ("It made me really happy because he has been my idol forever, and I felt the responsibility of it all."); his new Sonnambula CD with Bartoli ("I admire her enormously."), his admiration of Bocelli ("He was able to open a new venue of music...combining a little bit of pop and a little bit of classical, although it's not really pop nor classical"); and his upcoming Puritani in Bologna.

Here are a few more ~intimate~ details (All translations are Opera Chic's interpretations & property):

The last time you spoke to Corriere, you said that Pavarotti was doing well. However, he died a month later. Were you trying to protect him?

"I remember well that day, I was at Pavarotti's place in Pesaro, it was the last time he ate at his house before he went to the hospital. Maybe I was trying to protect him. You could tell that he was suffering. But not even I would have thought that he would die so quickly. Alice, the little daughter, was running all around him, and was smiling sweetly."

When you were a teen, you sang Led Zeppelin covers in Lima, and you had a band called "Graffiti". But would you also do pop duets like Pavarotti did?

"I like that self-destructive English singer, Amy Winehouse. I would sing with my idols, Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney. It depends on the context. I had to do crossover with unlikely singers, and i asked myself -- what the heck am I doing here?"

You sing frequently with Anna Netrebko: Are you tenors happier singing now with sopranos who are more like top models? [...] What's la Netrebko like?

"Opera has become more and more a visual medium. A new wave of singers from Eastern Europe arrived who were really good and really thin, and their Western colleagues have been forced to follow their example. But it's not easy...anxiety after a show will push you to eating too much, and then you go to bed on a full stomach. If you're not careful, you end up getting fat."

"Netrebko is exactly as she appears to be. We are all normal people. We just want to work and sing well. Once upon a time, you needed to be a diva/divo. If you weren't, people wouldn't take you seriously. Today it's different."

Amy Winehouse? omg 2 kewl 4 skool. They tried to make me sing the Duke again, I said "No, No, No."

Comments

[bach_believer]

"They tried to make me sing the Duke again, I said "No, No, No.""

You light up my day, OC. Grazie mille.

[A Real Cad]

'although it's not really pop nor classical'

Damning with faint praise never sounded so gracious.

[Constantine A. Papas]

Florez Pavarotti's heir? Not in my lifetime!

[Parsifal]

I 'd rather go to rehab honey, than watch those 2 in duet. Ok, i don't think Camden Amy would stand frat boy Juan for more than a second. K, bye, i go Back2Black.

[Aliprando]

OC you could have saved Mr Papas the trouble of commenting if you had reported JDF just a little more accurately. His first comment on this oft-cited business of being Pavarotti's heir was "In effetti e un paragone improprio" - "Indeed it's an inappropriate comparison." And, as I read it, what made JDF happy and gives him a sense of responsibility is not "being Pavarotti's heir" but Pavarotti's comment that if he had to name a tenor for virtuosity (bravura), intelligence and clarity (?) of voice it would be Florez. Wouldn't any tenor be happy to hear words like that from such a source ? Presumably Luciano knew something about singing ;)

[ellie]

Well, opera chic's translation of Florez's comments on Netrebko are (unfortunately) quite accurate. If only the phenomenon could be explained so simply...but in fact, there are plenty of "thin, model-like" sopranos in the west...perhaps the fall of the iron curtain did usher in more rivalry, but one certainly cannot explain the phenomenon by saying that they are in general thinner than their western counterparts! And besides, there have been many diva-looking (i.e. well-rounded) eastern european singers who had big careers in the west before...

[chris]

What I suspect his fans would like, instead of just another interview, rehashing his opinions, is a DVD that would follow him during a typical day at home and allow them to get to know him via a real glimpse into his everyday life. When does he get up, when and what does he eat, what does he do when not singing, and so on and so forth, with commentary from him along the way. It's been done with other celebrities, why not with him?

[Aliprando]

I think Chris makes a good point. Although always filled with the Florez charm and occasionally with some subtly veiled insight into some real opinions, the interviews are getting a bit repetitive. There's another one in Figaro Magazine today ahead of next Monday's Paris recital. Perhaps something different is needed.

[chris]

One amusing "subtly veiled opinion" in the Figaro interview concerns Natalie Dessay. Usually Florez is full of praise for his colleagues, or else he says nothing. But here he let slip that Dessay often "gets into her part" so deeply that she forgets her cues and he has to whisper them to her.

[Crhis]

The Voce di Tenore site seemingly not eager to update reviews, one has to go elsewhere to read them for Florez' recent recitals and concerts. Here are reviews in French and German of his recent appearances in Paris and Vienna. Since I don't read German I cannot comment on those reviews. The French ones both mention his having been indisposed the day before the recital in Paris and the effect this had on his singing at the beginning. Evidently, he excused it all with overwhelming charm, and came into full bloom in the second half of the program, even to the point of joking with the audience. So when his voice lets him down his good nature and charm see him through. Can't beat that.

http://theoperacritic.com/singers.php?singer=juan_diego_florez&mode=2