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Editorial Reviews

Hailed as one of the most promising tenors of the moment when he released The Debut in 2002 -- close on the heels of his equally promising Metropolitan Opera debut -- Salvatore Licitra has kept us waiting for a follow-up recital on disc for a few years now, though his full calendar of performances has allowed operagoers to track his career's progress. Perhaps this added stage experience has led to the richer characterizations and the more consistently compelling drama on Forbidden Love, an album that finds Licitra delivering abundantly on his initial promise. As on The Debut, Verdi's operas are responsible for some of his finest moments, with the disc bookended by a lyrically ingratiating aria from Ernani and a devastatingly emotional one from Otello -- almost as if Licitra were staking a claim both to the territory recently vacated by Pavarotti and to the domain still ruled by Domingo. And even though he sticks to Verdi's Italian contemporaries and immediate followers, up to the turn of the 20th century, he branches out enough to suggest a broader range. Especially in the full-bodied arias from Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana but also in the "Improvviso" from Giordano's Andrea Chénier and the impassioned "Vesti la giubba" from Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci, Licitra comes through with a genuinely fiery verismo passion. No less impressive, "Cielo e mar!" from Ponchielli's La Gioconda finds the tenor reveling in purely beautiful singing, and as a "bonus track," Rossini's song "La Danza" shows that this artist also has a joyous lighter side that his operatic roles rarely reveal. A promising newcomer no longer, Licitra gives notice here that he has the voice, the artistry, and the personality to make the leap to full-fledged opera stardom. Scott Paulin, Barnes & Noble

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