Plácido Domingo, tenor – Pasion Espanola – José María Gallardo del Rey, solo guitar/ Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid /Miguel Roa – Deutsche Grammophon 001098902, 54:00. ****:
Despite what must be one of the most exhausting careers in recorded history, international superstar Plácido Domingo goes on and on, like a tenor’s version of the Energizer bunny. True, he’s got more charm than the rabbit, but his lungs seem like they’re just fading away, very, very, very slowly, rather than being on the verge of suddenly giving out. Domingo continues to be one of the more enjoyable musical addictions you can have, especially if you’re into ardent, and it’s no surprise that he may be as much an international pop star as he is an operatic icon. Bunny or not, this is a must for everyone who can’t have enough of him, no matter what the genre is, and it’s worth sampling for everyone else.
According to Carlos Santos’ passionate booklet notes, the concert features a popular song form called the copla “which, along with zarzuela and flamenco, constitutes the three-pronged spear of recent Spanish popular music. The copla,” Santos continues, “like its close relative, the cuplé, is music written by a composer, but one who draws so extensively on the folk music tradition that his music merges with that tradition and becomes indistinguishable from it. The great composers of Spanish coplas can proclaim with every justification, as did the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos: ‘I am folk music.’”
With its Technicolor sheen and thrilling crooning, the music occasionally sounds like it was written for Zorro (Tyrone Power, not Guy Williams, although the latter turns out to have had as colorful a life as any of the characters Domingo regularly inhabits), but the selection is so expertly varied, with Domingo’s voice framed in a kaleidoscope of anticipatory introductions, that the hour passes very pleasantly. Throughout, Domingo sings magnificently, with just a touch of strain at the top and an occasional wobble here and there. If you’ll check out the cover photograph while listening, you can definitely insinuate that there’s love not only on his lips but in his heart.
Recorded in Madrid, at the Teatro Albéniz, the sound is lusciously flattering to both Domingo and the orchestra, with excellent depth to the soundstage. If José María Gallardo del Rey’s solo guitar sounds a tad forward, as do the occasional woodwind or brass instrumental solos, they are, after all, competing with a legend.
– Laurence Vittes
