by “People think it is old -fashioned to” see a tenor in the gallery, “says Freddie de Tommaso. “But showmanship is important when the public has paid for it to be entertained. If you hit these large, high notes you want to see, the Jaws fall. You want you to think: He is still going, he is still Still go! ” He grins. “The critics who say that is” bulky “that they” ask for applause? ” No!
Not that critics would ever describe de Tommaso as unmusical. The son of the 32-year-old Italian restaurateur from Tunbridge Wells has been a “passionate”, “exciting” and “bombing light” artist since winning the first prize at the tenor Viñas International Singing competition in Barcelona 2018. “It sounds like a youthful Italian domingo with a beautiful baritonal quality to the lower end, which builds on a heartbreaking top,” the opera separated now.
His fame rose when he started the last minute in 2021 to play the role of Mario Cavaradossi in Puccinis Tosca in the Royal Opera House after the planned singer got sick. “British tenor saves night in the opera!” Trumpet the Daily Mail. This year he signed at Decca Records and published his debut album Passione, on which he paid homage to the great Italian tenors of the early 20th century: Mario Lanza, Franco Corelli, Giuseppe di Stefano and the man, whom he calls the “father of all modern tenors, Enrico Caruso”.
When he arrives in a waves from Afthave in the Royal Opera House and throws his leather jacket aside, it is scary how much de Tommaso physically resembles a singer from the carusonic age. He has a reverse triangle building from Vintage Strongman. The handshake is a fleshy sparkler-gold pink, bracelet and rose gold-Rolex. “I must have been an elster in a past life, I love shiny things!” He says a boyish grin that has his reddish, serious face and increases his torn jetbrauen. Today there is no taher with a spiritual curved, although he has got one in the past.
“I Am Old school, ”he nods.“ People call my old singing all the time – sometimes with a negative connotation. But I think the old singing style is a lot, much Better. “He is proud to enjoy the romantic audience of the Mediterranean intensity:” When the opera was the pop music of the day, the man on the Arias street bought as a vinyl singles. “Now he sighs:” The opera has become this elite niche until the world championship comes over and all possible people take the Nessun with singing from Nessun, “shakes his head,” shakes his head Just an aria And not even the best in the canon. Anyone who hums would probably enjoy to come to Rigoletto or Carmen, which is full of melodies that they know … “It breastfeeds that there is practically no opera on British television.” A shame is as if the whole world is stupid. “
De Tomasso is preparing for his role as Don José in Carmen’s raw this season. In Damiano Michieletto’s staging, the campaign took place in the small town of Spain in the 1970s, with the heroine with her things disco style and the Khaki of Don Josés Uniform (he is in the police, not in the army), which are dining from the dried crushes of grass, which sprout from the stage.
Since the Bizet’s opera has been carried out worldwide since 1875, I hope that it is not a spoiler that Carmen ends with Don José kills his heroine in a attack. An increased awareness of femica all over the world means that there were some debates about opera houses that continue to use the productions of the Bizets Opera. In addition, the “toxic” internet culture inspires the misogyny in boys who are dramatized in Netflix’s latest hit drama adolescence.
De Tommaso has no time to “cancel” operas like Carmen. “It’s just a story!” He says. “But this production leans into the fact that Don José is not a beautiful guy. He has all this background story of having killed someone and go to the police instead of going to prison.” This production also shows Don José’s “complicated” relationship with his mother. De Tommaso adopts a puppy whining to explain how this is usually played: “Oooh, I love her and wish I could see her!” He makes a face. “This production shows that this relationship is so tense, with Don José’s mother incredibly overwhelming and controlling.” And that feeds the character of the character for control with Carmen? “I assume, yes, yes,” he nods. And the key is that it is clear that Carmen doesn’t “deserve” what happens to her? “Nobody deserves that!” He shines. “Carmen doesn’t go wrong at all.
The drama actually sang for the young de Tommaso, who won a scholarship for the private Tonbridge School in Kent at the age of 11. “My mother likes to joke that I was a” very well -nourished mowgli “. I was not allowed!”
He inherited the spirit of his “actor” from his father Franco, born by intigious father, a “Bon Viveur and Great Character” and a chief patron of the popular Italian restaurant, Signor Franco, in Tunbridge Wells. “It was a fairly old school, an Italian GDE -Eess site -thick tablecloths and pavarotti on the sound system,” he says. “We only ate ourselves there on special occasions and I worked there from the age of 16. Otherwise we, as my two younger brothers will testify, saw very little from our father because running this place was a 365-day-pro-year job.”
Franco de Tommaso died when his eldest son was only 18 years old. Freddie went to Bristol University to study French and Italian, but broke out after a year and a half. “I didn’t get enough of it,” he says, “and had the feeling of waste time and money. But I never stopped if my father hadn’t died because he was pretty strict. If he hadn’t died, I would never have made my way to the singer.”
After not entering the choir at the university – – “I assumed that my voice was good enough for school, but not good enough for the next stage.” – – De Tommaso went home and worked on Signor Franco. It was only “a bit of fun, to fill the time between lunch and dinner service” that he decided to take some lessons from his old singing teacher “Who Said: Hang on, your voice is much beder, in fact i Think it might real be Quite good … Academy of Music, Initally as a Baritone Before Teachers Discovered his tenor Range – – “To open a number of doors into new notes” – – Where he first played the role of Don José.
De Tommaso enjoys fast cars, expensive watches and good red wines: “All boys toys”. He married the Australian soprano Alexandra Oomens and says she was an incredible cook, so one day the couple could open a restaurant. They live in Berlin, so he lives in London with one of his brothers and was happy that there is a Brazilian deli around the corner by cutting meat from a skewer.
As a singer, he says that he is “very waiting compared to many singers. Some are completely crazy,” he thawed. “You won’t speak 24 hours before a performance – completely ridiculous.” De Tommaso says his regime includes “a trip to the gym in the morning when I slept well. I eat a good lunch: steak, lots of protein with broccoli and lots of liquids. I like this vocalzone throat, which is pastilled and my Olbas -Inhalator in the afternoon. After a performance with a meal with a meal with a meal with a meal Eating with a meal with meals around a pint with a meal.
Although he has the strange nightmare to step onto the false opera on stage, nothing makes him nervous in his real life. Later this year he will appear towards the largest soprano in the world, the Russian Anna Netrebko in a new production by Tosca in Covent Garden. It is a real diva that was avoided in the West because he refused to denounce Putin, and at the age of 53 over two decades on him. But he is not intimidated. “Because I started in such a young age in this Spinto -Tenor area, I used to have great aging with my soprano.”
His only sadness is that his father cannot enjoy his success. “Because he would have loved All of that. The journey, the shows, the seats in the front row. “He sighs and gathers.
Carmen will be in the Royal Opera House from April 9th. Tosca will be in the Royal Opera House from September 11th. Info: Roh.org.uk
