Juan Diego Flórez

Sometimes promoted as the successor to Luciano Pavarotti, Peru's Juan Diego Flórez is actually a very different kind of tenor, and one of a sort that has not been heard much in recent years: his voice is light, extremely athletic, and suited above all to the bel canto tenor roles of the early 19th century. Among the accomplishments of his young career was the restoration to its proper place of a difficult passage, long considered unsingable, in the role of Almaviva in Rossini's Il barbière di Siviglia. His primary vocal model is not Pavarotti but Alfredo Kraus -- a performer l...