No coturera who played Gardel’s tango on the piano, Juan Diego Florez (Lima, 1973) was born into a family that worships Criolla music and gives guitars and zapateo peñas from the charts to those that no one else could join.
A teenager in the Limeño district of Barranco, Touch your favorite pop songs when the teacher discovers opera and dance. He entered the Conservatory and the National Choir of Peru, and meanwhile secretly formed at the Teatro Municipal, hiding in the bathrooms before the opening to take care of any butaca.
In 1992, he told his mother to sell the family Coke at the end of a flight to the United States, where he subsisted on ramen and chocolate. Accepted to three target schools, decide on aCurtis Institute of Music in Philadelphiathe historical alma mater of Leonard Bernstein or Samuel Barber, which grants her a beca.
His meetings with Ernesto Palacio and Luciano Pavarotti and his exchange for the last hour at the Rossini Opera Festival have been performed in the major theaters of the world for 23 years. In 2007, he sang in La Scala for the first two years after five years to historic applause.consagrándose as the current adalid bel canta.
Most prominent in the French romantic repertoire, Bohemia or Hoffmann’s TalesFlórez saw maduraro his voice without losing his agility: at 53 he continues the arbatanda with his fetishistic expression: Ah! Mr. Amisde Hija mode.
In 2024, he pushes his own saddle, Florez Recordswith a record Zarzuelain which he gives voice to his social project Sinfonía por el Perú.
En Belcanto songswho will start in the finals in March, it is the turn of his field associate, pianist Vincenzo Scalera, with whom he travels to Spain. In Zaragoza (9th), Madrid (11th) and Barcelona (19th, Festival Ciutat de Clàssica) you missed the entrances and in Seville (13th) only a few. In fact, it will be held in all forms: at the Cap Rocat Festival and the Quincena de San Sebastián. Antes de todo esto, conversa con El Cultural.
Please. The program of the tour, which will take place in Spain, includes Mozart with Rossini, Massenet, Verdi, Chapi and Vives. Escuchado del tirón, summarizes the development of European song in recent centuries. Do you also consider your own vocal history?
Response. Yes, although I’ve never sung Mozart in an opera, I’ve done it in concert, so it reflects what I’ve sung in my thirty-year career. I will soon be in London after finishing a big tour of the United States with an equally varied schedule Hija mode. El de España will be a repertoire very similar to Kraus’s stylea mix of arias by Mozart and Rossini with zarzuela and the French opera repertoire. I think the audience enjoys this variety in the recital. And at the end I can always play the guitar, which is a tradition.
P. In his recitals, the brightest aspects coexist with other more intimate ones, e.g Le Sylvain. Want to see an artistic moment in what’s going on?
R. You must include songs in the recitals. Although I intend to, I end by singing about all the arias; I’m more of an opera singer than ever song. Bel canto teaches you to know your instrument. Everything came unexpectedly at the Rossini Opera Festival, from where I sang on the world’s biggest stages. But the key is to maintain an honest relationship with your voice. Rossini allowed me to stay cool and get close without forcing a more romantic and lyrical repertoire.
“Unique intent to include songs, I end up singing all the arias; I’m more of an opera singer”
P. Are you going to debut any film soon?
R. Ahora I’m not that interested in learning new roles because I can immerse myself in whatever I want. Many times there are characters who sometimes don’t have the opportunity to sing; for example, I would like to go back Manon de Massenet. I prefer not to accumulate personaje, sino habitarlos. I will sing in the spring Pearl fishermen in Vienna, something that gives me a lot of illusions. It is important not to lose curiosity or enthusiasm.
P. The recital brings the opera to an intimate, private stage.
R. Yes. There are very intimate moments in operas and recitalswhere the eye must look. Le SylvainAlthough it is chamber, it is also very operatic and difficult; in the last turn of the kantaba at the beginning and I placed my voice throughout the recital.
» There are many intimate parts — such as “Del più sublime soglio” by Mozart, “Quell’alme pupile” by Rossini, as well as the romance “Flores purísimas” by Chapí — and others more extroverted. “My joy to instill… As could an angel” de Lombardswith which the concert ends, organized by a cabaletta these cases are never heard. In a recital, you must hold the audience’s attention for more than two hours: eg interview.
P. When you entered the darkness, did you experience it as a crisis or as an opportunity?
R. You can listen to my first records and such a container Zarzuelanotice that the voice has changed: it used to be lighter, softer. But that doesn’t mean it’s that dramatic. I can still sing the virtuoso repertoire of Donizetti or Rossini because I take great care of my voice: don’t sing too long, leave spaces between features and never force it. This allowed me to have a fresh taste, even though I feel more comfortable in such roles now Wertherwhich is a very deep expressive path, or de Bohemiawhich made me very happy.
P. what changed
R. Access to different repertoires allowed me to work with important directors and singers and absorb my experience. Bel canto loved me elixir: I know how to keep my voice flexible; different but fresh and it also allowed me to share the script with young people who are learning. I am glad that theaters still call me to sing in operas in which I am supposed to be 17 years old, Romeo. What does makeup do?
P. In 2024, he launched Flórez Records.
R. The first album was released by Zarzuela with the Orquesta Juvenil de Sinfonía por el Perú foundation, which is dedicated to helping transform the lives of many children and young people through music. We now have over 7,000 beneficiaries from vulnerable areas or difficult situations in orchestras or choirs, it’s part of what I’m so proud of.
»Then I got a second album with songs by Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti with Vincenzo Scalera, I was a recital partner for about three decades. Having my own seat allows me to drive at my own pace and give opportunities to new generations of musicians.
“I don’t want to accumulate personaje, sino habitarlos”
P. His relationship with opera began with the zarzuela. Are the songs an opportunity to sing in your own language?
R. Yes. In college, my music teacher was involved in organizing concerts that we performed in theaters. Sometimes professional singers will participate and give me solos at concerts like I do Luis Fernando. I want to be a pop singer and I thought opera singing would help me sing better the music you composed and asked you to teach me.
» We will prepare food This or that de Rigolettode Verdi and elHello Mariade Schubert and entered the conservatory. He introduced me because I wanted to learn music in general and couldn’t pay for specific lessons. I told you everything was classic, but I loved it. Little by little I entered the world of opera, joined the National Choir… but the zarzuela was the front door. I liked it because it had the flavor of different regions of Spain and a direct connection with the bailiff, with the popular ones.
P. His father had a big influence on what he felt, didn’t he?
R. Clear. My father sang Peruvian music, about everything from Chabuca Granda, and everything – which I adore – is part of the musical baggage that I carry inside. At the beginning of the same period, many opera singers also interpreted popular music; Caruso did it. But they used the same lyrical technique that allowed the voice to be heard on top of the piano or orchestra because they didn’t have microphones.
» Now it’s very common even among classic Latin American singers who don’t sing tango, they sing rancheras, but they don’t use the same voice everywhere. When I sing with the guitar, I use a softer, more pop voice.
P. Looking back, what did I learn about the profession in those early years when I was not yet a good climber?
R. I went to Philadelphia thinking I would spend the next four years singing Songs Schubert, and on the first day they gave me the scores of three complete operas to study; you sang in november The Capulets and Montagues de Bellini. He didn’t sing more than the few arias that followed, and wouldn’t have known he was capable. But learn that this world is always a trialand who wanted to give the best of me.
P. Did it influence the way you learned about your career and your art?
R. Yes. When I study alone, it’s like a meditation: I use the air to bring to life something that Mozart or Bellini created in meditation, I think about the singers who were one of the old ones, and I look for the best solution to bring it to life. But as a singer, you can’t study too much because the voice is not like a violin or a piano that can be given and given and given; no one can speak without asking.
»When studying, the most important thing is to understand your own voice. I always got caught and then learned my own functions to learn. It is a very mental, very spiritual study. You have to have respect, devotion and love for this art. Being on a plane, staying away from home, staying in hotels with family… That’s the hard part. But singing is a joy.
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