Jorge Navarro - Colorado

Arias for Ballino: Opera Settecento at the London Handel Festival Singing from memory (that is twelve arias in total) Navarro Colorado succeeded in making this music count dramatically. No matter the technical complexities, he never lost sight of the drama and for each aria conjured a sense of character and pace. Words were terrific, spat out where necessary and always present. Born in Spain and trained in the UK, Navarro Colorado is clearly not just happy in Italian but can use the language expressively in this complex music. Tall and distinguished-looking, he cut a striking figure and was adept at using his face to complement the expressivity of his singing. His voice has a fine, strong middle which seems very necessary in this music (Fabri’s range was from B to a’) where a lot of the busier passages sat, but Navarro Colorado also has a lovely free top. We were able to be dazzled by his singing, be amazed by the crazy music but never did we have to worry about whether he would make it. All was free and easy. Robert Hugill, Opera Today.

Review: "Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in patria", second stop of the "Monteverdian" trilogy at the CNDM, with Europa Galante and Fabio Biondi. Another one of the most outstanding voices of the evening was that of the Spanish tenor - although he is hardly ever featured in his country - Jorge Navarro Colorado. Trained in England (Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Britten-Pears and Samling programmes), the Alicante-born portrayed the son of Ulisse with vocal splendour already at the beginning of the second act - Telemaco doesn't appear until then-, with a timbre of great beauty, a role that possesses more cantabile moments, which allowed him to show his qualities in terms of phrasing, roundness, luminosity, intonation and projection. He is one of those tenors forged in baroque singing, with a discourse in which there are no unnecessary artificial vocal mannerisms or affectations. With him, it all stems from the natural, for which one is enormously grateful, as he demonstrated with a very clean, neat and round top, which he accompanied with a very careful diction. The homogeneity of his chest and head registers is admirable, sustaining a line of singing of great fluidity and flexibility, supported again by a "continuo" of excellent level. He ornamented with elegance and very much in style, as he demonstrated in his interventions. The scenes with his father were, without a doubt, some of the most outstanding of the evening, especially the dialogue «O padre sospirato!/ O figlio desiato!». Otherwise, he comfortably sailed through the somewhat sober "recitati", with less melodic embellishment than other passages, but equally effective.