Freddie de Tommaso “Il tenore”
A music review by Shirley Politzer
Freddie De Tommaso
Stepping in at a moment’s notice after the first interval in December 2021, to successfully play the lead role of Cavaradossi in the Royal Opera’s production of Tosca (replacing a sick performer), catapulted the career of Freddie De Tommaso well beyond expectation. He became the youngest ever tenor, at the age of 28, to perform the role, having only graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in 2018. Two records of arias soon followed, each making their debut at number one. This is no ordinary performer.
On Sunday afternoon in the Joan Sutherland Theatre of the Sydney Opera House, the stage was set for British-Italian tenor De Tommaso’s concert of Italian and Neapolitan arias. It featured a decorative churchlike dome (from the current Tosca set), providing a backdrop steeped in history.
The colours around the dome changed almost as often as the mood of each aria-light and deep blues, orange and fuchsia pink. In front of the dome was the grand piano, played by Kate Johnson.
The jovial mood to open the concert was set in the introduction by Johnson’s speedy scale runs for Tosti’s “Marechiare” with De Tommaso showing much passion and warmth, especially in the softer slower sections with the story -“When the moon comes out in Marachiaro, even the fish are making love.” The audience loved the upward flourish to finish the song.
This was followed by a richly sung melody composed by Di Capua-“l’ te vurria vasa” and then “Recondita armonia” from Tosca which had brilliance and strength.
The first half of the program spoke mostly of love, including “Amor ti vieta” (Fedora), “Sole e amore” (La Boheme), and “Non t’amo piu” and “Ideale”(both by Tosti) featuring rippling accompaniment.
De Tommaso and Johnson left the stage after each set of 3 or 4 songs, but for the finale of the first half, De Tommaso returned with a beautiful soprano to sing together of the beauty of flowers and spring, in the “Cherry Duet” from L’amico Fritz. Though unannounced in the program, this woman with the sparkling voice who ended the aria by getting “cosy” with her head on Freddie’s shoulder, was actually his new wife Alexandra Oomens, so all good!
Other arias included Verdi’s ”La mia letizia infondere “(from I Lombardi), and the romantic ”Passione” by Valente/Tagliaferri
The audience favourites, judging by the foot-stomping, cheering, and clapping, were Ponchielli’s “Cielo e mar” (La Gioconda), which opened the second half, and Tosti’s waltz “A vucchella,” with its high emotion and pretty accompaniment.
Accompanist Kate Johnson worked for 12 years as repetiteur with Opera Australia and has assisted in preparing a large range of operas. She is a highly respected musician with vast experience. She supported de Tommaso in this concert with flair, never drowning him out, playing with ease and following de Tommaso’s entries to perfection with good balance between voice and piano.
The success of this concert was truly realised after the final aria in the program – Cardillo’s Core ‘ngrato” which nearly brought the house down with even louder cheering and clapping with the audience jumping to their feet with excitement.
Freddie sailed through the concert with a beautiful falsetto, delicate, passionate melody lines, faultless, powerful high A’s and B flats, lyrical passages with well-controlled breathing and strong drama. Despite that, the overall style of the arias was very similar. The program would have benefitted from including more light-hearted, popular audience pleasers and a wider variety of musical styles.
The encore started with De Tomasso speaking emotionally to the audience about his appreciation of the warmth shown by the audience on this, his first tour of Australia. He sang “The Lost Chord” by Arthur Sullivan in English-the language and style is a refreshing change of pace. Here, De Tommaso went full throttle, making a strong and satisfying conclusion from an impressive operatic artist with an unstoppable reach in the operatic world.
Concert 11 August, 2024 3pm at Sydney Opera House
