“Great Voices” at the Linz Music Theater with Juan Diego Flórez

The timeless calm after the storm of great emotions lay over the hall in the Linz music theater when Juan Diego Flórez returned to the stage with his guitar under his arm, accompanied by a storm of applause to start three Neapolitan songs. A personal, heartfelt prelude to the encores, with which the world-class tenor also bowed to his musical roots in Peruvian folk music: Verdi’s “La donna è mobile” lightly paved the way for Puccini’s exuberant “Nessun dorma” to end the evening in the Great Voices series. Juan Diego Flórez knows how to conquer the hearts of his audience, which have long since flown to him.

Richer by an island in the sea of ​​everyday life, they set out on their way home. This was not only due to the 50-year-old’s sophisticated bel canto art, but also to the Bruckner Orchestra Linz, which was in top form under the American Christopher Franklin: Even the prelude to the overture from Cimarosa’s “The Secret Marriage” felt good , as if you were being poured a glass of freshly sparkling champagne that awakens weary spirits. Love sometimes gives people torments, but also the most beautiful arias of the opera world, which the program threaded, but also treasures that were played less frequently, such as those by Domenico Cimarosa and Édouard Lalo. As a subtle quick-change artist, Juan Diego Flórez walks the tortuous paths of the heart with engaging honesty.

Whether as King “Titus”, crushed between duty and emotion, who is supposed to judge his friend, as the broken, death-wishing Edgardo in Donizetti’s “Roberto Devereux”, who feels betrayed by his beloved, as the deeply pleading lover Mylio in Lalo’s “Der König von Ys” or as Bizet’s Henry, who heals his beloved with his singing to the gentle sounds of the harp. Especially in the more reserved Flórez wrapped his audience in velvet and silk and touched with fine art of phrasing, while he was carried on hands by the Bruckner Orchestra.

Conclusion: A concert event with a world-class singer who gives his audience rich gifts.

Great Voices 2024: Rolando Villazón, Jakub Józef Orlinski, Elina Garanca, Joyce DiDonato – now also available as a subscription at 0732 7611-404, landestheater-linz.at