Presto Recording of the Week
11th November 2022

Presto Recordings of the Year
Finalist 2022

Gramophone Magazine
January 2023
Recording of the Month

Javier Camarena (tenor), Gli Originali, Riccardo Frizza

Donizetti: Ah!...È desso cospetto…E fia ver tu mia sarai (from Betly)
Donizetti: Una furtiva lagrima (from L'elisir d'amore)
Donizetti: Talor nel mio delirio (from Maria de Rudenz)
Donizetti: Roberto Devereux. Ed ancor la tremenda porta, A te dirò negli ultimi singhiozzi, Bagnato il sen di lagrime
Donizetti: Servi, gente, non v'è alcuno (from Il giovedì grasso)
Donizetti: Don Pasquale. Povero Ernesto!, Cercherò lontana terra, E se fia che ad altro oggetto
Donizetti: Marino Faliero. Notte d'orrore, Io ti veggio, Quest'è l'ora
Donizetti: Caterina Cornaro. Misera patria, Io trar non volgio campi ed onori, Guerra… Su, corriamo concordi
Donizetti: Rosmonda d'lnghilterra. Dopo i lauri di Vittoria, Potessi vivere com'io vorrei

Star tenor Javier Camarena makes his Pentatone debut with Signor Gaetano, together with Gli Originali under the baton of Italian opera specialist Riccardo Frizza, presenting a carefully-curated exploration of Donizetti's greatest tenor arias. Besides famous excerpts from L'elisir d'amore, Don Pasquale and Roberto Devereux, this project focuses on hidden gems from rarely-recorded works such as Betly, Maria de Rudenz and Il giovedì grasso. Camarena and Frizza's exceptional sense of style is enhanced by the period instrument playing of Gli Originali. The recording took place at the Teatro Donizetti in the composer's hometown Bergamo, as part of the yearly Donizetti Festival, of which Frizza is the musical director. Javier Camarena is one of the most in-demand tenors of his generation, and one of the world's leading bel canto specialists. Riccardo Frizza frequents major opera houses, was awarded the Best Conductor prize at the International Opera XXI Awards, and returns to Pentatone after having featured on The Three Queens (Donizetti) with Sondra Radvanovsky and Lyric Opera Chicago (2022). Gli Originali was founded within the context of the Bergamo Donizetti Festival, and aims to revive the sound world of early nineteenth-century opera with period instruments and a historically-informed approach.

"With his sweet, warm timbre (rounder and less astringent than that of his slightly older contemporary Juan Diego Flórez) and endearing stage-presence, Camarena is ideal casting for Donizetti’s wide-eyed comic heroes - but it's a thrilling shock to the system to hear him unsheath the vocal steel that lurks within the velvet in the more dramatic roles here, especially once the high Cs, Ds and even E flats start flying." - Katherine Cooper, Presto Music, 11th November 2022.