The Italian Tenor

Sony Classical専属契約！
ロイヤル・オペラ「マノン」プレミエで、オペラ・ファンの度肝を抜いた、ヴィットリオ・グリゴーロ。
イタリアの青い空のようにどこまでも伸びやかで輝かしい美声を堪能ください。
2010年7月にロンドンのコヴェント・ガーデン王立歌劇場で新演出上演されたマスネ「マノン」は、主役のネトレプコの見事さもさることながら、相手役のデ・グリューを歌ったイタリアのテノールが大絶賛されました。その名はヴィットリオ・グリゴーロ。「パヴァロッティの再来」「ヴィラゾンの後継者」などと考えられる限り最大の賛辞を贈られ、その甘いマスクはオペラ・ファンの心をとらえて離しません。ミラノ・スカラ座、ロイヤル・オペラ、チューリヒ歌劇場、メトロポリタン歌劇場、ベルリン・ドイツ・オペラ、ローマ歌劇場、シドニー・オペラハウスなど、世界の歌劇場にその名前を刻みつつ、様々な音楽祭にも出演しています。欧米では既に熱狂的なファンも存在するほどで、まさにカリスマ性は充分。またドミンゴが主役を務めるオペラ映画「リゴレット」にマントヴァ公爵役で出演することが決まっており、それは2010年9月4日と5日に全ヨーロッパへ向けてロケ地のマンドヴァから生中継放映される予定です（指揮はズビン・メータ）。ソニー・クラシカル専属第1弾となるオペラ・アリア集はその名もずばり「The Italian Tenor」。ヴェルディ、プッチーニ、ドニゼッティの名アリアをたっぷりと収録。このアリア集は、まさに声の見本市のような1枚。その初々しい歌声に是非耳を傾けてください。
ソニー・ミュージック

It takes some promotional presumptuousness to name a debut classical album The Italian Tenor, but Vittorio Grigolo is a singer whose career has always generated considerable hype. (He was only 13, singing the Shepherd in Tosca, when he was hailed as "Pavarottino," and Pavarotti himself proclaimed "You're going to be Number One.") He had made a crossover recording and was already something of a media celebrity when Sony released this album of operatic solos, timed to coincide with his Metropolitan Opera debut in La boheme in October 2010. Grigolo is certainly a considerable talent, but the exertions of his attempts to dazzle can be a little off-putting. He is clearly trying to be spectacular and the strain sometimes shows: his vibrato can veer out of control and his fortissimos can be pushed to the point of being ugly. That being said, these seem like the miscalculations of a young artist trying to live up to stratospheric expectations, and once he relaxes and achieves a little more maturity, he could be truly spectacular. His is a generous mid-weight lyric tenor that is naturally warm but he can also ring out heroically. He has the flexibility and secure technique to negotiate the bel canto, Verdi, and verismo repertoires with ease and naturalness. He uses his colorful voice expressively, if a little histrionically. It's clear that he's acutely aware of the subtleties of the texts and if he is able to rein in the dramatics a little he could become a powerful interpreter. He's at his best when he's not pushing, as in Una furtiva lagrima and the excerpt from Le Villi. This is where it is not a stretch to imagine that he could someday be known as THE Italian Tenor. One of the strengths of the album is that, in addition to the obligatory standards like E lucevan le stelle and Che gelida manina, Grigolo includes some very appealing, more obscure repertoire, like scenes from Luisa Miller, Il corsaro, La favorita, and Le villi. The sound is generally good, if a little boomy. The balance is predictably weighted toward the voice, and the engineering isn't consistent. There are phrases and individual notes in "Ella mi fu rapita! … Parmi veder le lagrime" that are so inexpertly spliced in that they sound like they were produced by a different tenor singing in a different room.