Jose Maria Guerrero – London Recital; Posted by David Conway

Two invitations I have recently received have reminded me that not all of London's concerts – and not all the most interesting ones, at that – are featured in the listings pages.

The first was to a soirée organised by supporters of the young Spanish tenor Jose Maria Guerrero. Guerrero, born in Pamplona to a family of flamenco musicians, has studied in Barcelona, London and Milan. He has given recitals in London and his first recording, of Italian arias by Mascagni, Respighi and others was issued by Warner earlier this year. On this occasion Guerrero, accompanied by Richard Pearce, offered us a programme of songs from his native country ranging from de Falla, Ginastera and Rodrigo to popular ballads and songs from, I would guess, the first half of the last century.

I am not a connoisseur of this repertory, but Guerrero completely won me over and convinced me – and his audience - of its charm and passion. His performance simply radiated authenticity and commitment. The voice has both warmth and focus. Moreover, Guerrero is a natural communicator, not only with his song but also with his eyes, hands and the inclination of his head, all of course essential in flamenco. For some of his songs we were given the bonus of the participation of the elegant Mila Soler as dancer and although I am as hard-hearted as music critics are required to be to enter the profession, I admit to having been enchanted.

But the major honours must go to Guerrero. I particularly admired the songs 'Princesita' by Padilla, 'Te quiero' by Serrano and a piece of echt-flamenco, the 'Zorongo' of Lorca. In two Italian encores, a Neapolitan popular song and the (I suppose) inevitable 'Vesti la giubba' Guerrero showed us that he can evoke a supple and mellifluous Italian tone as well as the more hard-edged colourings of flamenco, and he came back, for a third encore, with a magnificent performance of 'Granada'.

Mr. Guerrero's rather saturnine good looks were warmly commended by the ladies of the audience, and when my wife discovered in conversation with him that he was also a trained masseur and could repair computers, a number were ready to marry him on the spot. I recommend any opera producers to snap him up quickly before any covetous females remove him from the music market. We all deserve to see and hear him. In the mean time I earnestly hope that we may have a recording soon which will include the songs we heard (or indeed a DVD with Ms. Soler as well).

... y ahora me matará ALMAVIVA, sigo diciendo que Blacke es un grandisimo rossiniano, quizás el mejor que he oido, aunque Florez le iguale. Y para un docto en la materia, que omito el nombre, pone a Blacke como ejemplo de lo que no es un tenor o un tenor malisimo

Chicas! El es guapo?!

Chicas! El es guapo?!

Si eso va por mi......pues va a ser que no, mal informado andas si piensas que a mi no me gusta.

si coges dos criticas distintas parece que uno de los dos no ha estado en el concierto (esto que pongo no es muy raro que pase, hay criticas que se hacen sin ver ni oír a nadie, desde el despacho).

Y para un docto en la materia, que omito el nombre, pone a Blacke como ejemplo de lo que no es un tenor o un tenor malisimo

Estas cosas hasta que no se observan "in-vivo"

Pero dónde él canta? ¿Cuándo? Kraustex, sabe usted?