– The tenor from Tenerife takes on Verdi’s masterpiece at Madrid’s opera house before heading to Germany’s Rossini Festival to perform Arrieta’s Marina, a production that will be recorded for the Naxos label.
Tenor Celso Albelo is set to reprise one of his signature roles, Manrico in Verdi’s Il trovatore, following his acclaimed performances at ABAO Bilbao Opera in May 2023. The Spanish singer approaches this engagement with “great enthusiasm,” fully aware that, as he puts it, “it’s a real responsibility and a wonderful challenge to return to Madrid with such a momentous character.”
Albelo has masterfully balanced his career, holding on to the bel canto roles that have defined his trajectory – such as Arturo in I Puritani, Gualtiero in Il Pirata (both by Bellini), and Donizetti’s Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor – while gradually expanding his repertoire to include heavier Verdi parts like Macduff in Macbeth and Riccardo in Un ballo in maschera, the latter of which he performed just last month at the Ópera Menorca season. In Albelo’s view, many of Verdi’s characters “aren’t that far removed from the roles I’ve always sung, since they grow out of the bel canto tradition where vocal line, phrasing elegance, tone colour, and diction are practically one and the same. Manrico is a fascinating character, and that’s why I’m so thrilled to be back at the Teatro Real with such a demanding role in an iconic opera, surrounded by the finest cast you could ask for.”
Albelo will sing Il trovatore in four performances on 1, 4, 15, and 20 July, with rotating casts that feature sopranos Marina Rebeka and Saioa Hernández as Leonora, and mezzosopranos Anita Rachvelishvili and Ksenia Dudnikova as Azucena. The musical direction is in the hands of Nicola Luisotti, leading the Teatro Real’s Chorus and Resident Orchestra, with stage direction by Francisco Negrín.
Following this Madrid Trovatore, Albelo has a busy schedule ahead: his debut at the Rossini Festival in Wildbad (Germany) in late July, where he will sing Jorge in Arrieta’s Spanish opera Marina under the baton of maestro José Miguel Pérez-Sierra – a production that will be recorded for the Naxos label; a recital in Vigo alongside soprano Désirée Rancatore in September; the revival of the zarzuela La Bruja at Madrid’s Teatro de la Zarzuela after decades off the stage; and a zarzuela gala at Pamplona’s Auditorio Baluarte.