Verissimo CD

Release Date: April 5, 2024

CD Edition

Sony Classical is pleased to announce the release of "Verissimo," the new album by celebrated Italian tenor Vittorio Grigòlo. His countless admirers have eagerly awaited the repertoire he performs in this program, which includes many of the most popular tenor arias in Italian opera. Grigòlo is joined by the distinguished conductor Pier Giorgio Morandi and the Czech National Symphony Orchestra.

"Verissimo," meaning "very true" in Italian, is a play on words with "verismo," the lyrical and passionate operatic style that flourished in the late 19th century. The works by the composers featured on this album – from the dawn of the style with Ponchielli's La Gioconda to its full flourishing with Giacomo Puccini, Pietro Mascagni, and their contemporaries – require a freedom of expression, a truthfulness to communicate elemental emotions of great power. It is undeniable that Grigòlo has taken this into account in preparing this album. He explains: "I wanted to call it Verissimo because, in a way, this music is so absolutely true... The feelings come right through to you, they're not calculated. Everything happens so fast in verismo, just like in real life."

The arias on Grigòlo's album reflect these elemental human emotions, be they love, betrayal, jealousy, or revenge. Key examples include "Recitar...Vesti la giubba" from Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, one of the most devastatingly moving soliloquies in any Italian tenor role, and "Nessun dorma" from Puccini's Turandot, with its unique main theme and magnificent culminating high notes. Throughout the album, the leading verismo tenors are clearly varied, including a heartbroken clown (Canio in Pagliacci); a passionately idealistic poet (Andrea Chénier in Giordano's opera of the same name); an ardent lover who is also a brave war hero (Maurizio in Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur); and a bitterly disillusioned dockworker (Luigi in Puccini's Il Tabarro).