Search - John Treleaven, Richard Wagner, Ivan Anguelov :: John Treleaven- A Wagner Portrait

Oh la la, the rare breed of heldentenors...

Abel | Hong Kong | 11/18/2007

(2 out of 5 stars)

"In searching for such a rare breed, producers and managers have to hunt far and wide.

Mr Treleaven has the good prognostics of being one such - the voice is beautiful in the upper register in a gleam that sounds golden.

But alas, I deeply regret to say: that is about all there is.

I see from the CD inlaid that Mr Treleaven has good stage presence, and his onstage portrayals of Wagner's knights and heros undoubtedly are visually convincing. That said, having heard at least three generations of heldentenors, I hate to admit that this one is not a choice for such repertoire.

The selections tend to stay away from those of the almost simultaneous album of another true colored heldentenor, Ben Heppner. However, from the opening pieces from Lohengrin right to the end in Meistersinger, the singing is neither heoric nor ear-pleasing. The timbre is good - it is just that the singing is not properly intoned most of the time, especially in the upper register, that's causing me great problem in enjoying this album. Track after track I tried to find a piece that has sufficiently well-maintained pitch, but alas, almost 80 percent of the phrases come across as flat. Not glaringly flat, but flat nonetheless. When such occurs at such high frequency, the result is devastating.

A good endeavour, though, for such difficult repertoire.

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