Although tenor Arturo Chacón-Cruz’s concert on Friday in Escondido was billed as a San Diego Opera recital, it was clear from the first minute that it wouldn’t be a starchy formal affair.
The joyous, charismatic and immensely talented opera star didn’t start the show with a challenging aria, but a sing-along performance of the playful Neapolitan song “Funiculi, Funicula.” The 812-member audience happily and loudly obliged in their vocal accompaniment, which set a spirited tone for the evening. Throughout the 2-1/2-hour concert, Chacón-Cruz rarely left the stage to rest, shared personal insights on every song and thanked his accompanist and longtime friend Jeremy Frank with hugs, rather than handshakes.
Born in Sonora, Mexico, and now based in Miami, Chacón-Cruz is a specialist in the Verdi and Puccini repertoire, but on Friday, he performed a diverse program that reflected both his musical roots and his present and future career as a global opera star and concert artist. In the first half of the show, the tuxedo-clad singer performed popular Italian songs, opera arias and Spanish zarzeula numbers with fine pianist Frank. In the second half, he returned in a charro suit and performed nearly a dozen mariachi songs with the 10-member Mariachi Continental de México band. Chacón-Cruz started his singing career as a teen mariachi on the streets of Sonora, and he has recorded three albums of Mexican music.
Tenor Arturo Cruz-Chacon performs with pianist Jeremy Frank at a San Diego Opera recital on Dec. 3 at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido.
(Karli Cadel)
Now in its 56th year, San Diego Opera continues to reinvent itself. This fall, it invited three famous opera stars to create their own non-opera recital programs, two of which were presented outside its longtime home in downtown San Diego. The concert at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido was the company’s first-ever season event in North County and many in the audience rose their hand when asked if they were first-time San Diego Opera ticket-buyers.
Chacón-Cruz seemed at home in every genre of music he sang. As an opera singer, he has perfect pitch, a warm sound, a seamless passaggio between his upper and lower vocal registers and easy and seemingly unlimited access to his high C note. As a mariachi, he has the swagger, sense of humor, crooning ability, emotional delivery and vocal sweetness. And even the onstage mariachi players seemed delighted to hear traditional mariachi songs performed with the robustness that only an opera singer can muster.
Among the concert standouts were the Neapolitan song “O sole mio,” performed with melismatic grace, and “No puede ser,” the emotional Spanish romanza that helped Chacón-Cruz win the Placido Domingo zarzuela prize at the 2005 Operalia competition in Madrid. He also showed his future promise as Calaf — the famous tenor role in Puccini’s “Turandot” that he’ll debut in 2023 — with a stirring performance of “Nessun Dorma.” But the biggest crowd-pleaser was a multihued encore performance of “Granada.” The 1932 song was made famous by Domingo, but now Chacón-Cruz has made it his own.
"crowd" - Google News
December 07, 2021 at 01:02AM
https://ift.tt/3Io53Vj
Review: Chacón-Cruz's hybrid mariachi-opera concert draws festive sing-along crowd to Escondido - The San Diego Union-Tribune
"crowd" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2YpUyMI
https://ift.tt/2KQD83I
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Review: Chacón-Cruz's hybrid mariachi-opera concert draws festive sing-along crowd to Escondido - The San Diego Union-Tribune"
Post a Comment