De Eça, José - Tenor

Her Mario Cavaradossi was the Portuguese-born José de Eça, making his Opera Holland Park debut. In this 1960s setting, he wasn’t the church painter we’re familiar with but a street artist, this time painting the blueeyed Madonna on the pavement as pedestrians walked by. An impressive addition to the cast, Eça’s warm and bright timbre shone through, and he sang beautifully throughout. His robust and heartfelt rendering of “E lucevan le stelle” was truly moving and, with a voice of significant stature, he was also very well cast for an open-air setting. This is definitely a tenor with a future.

 

José de Eça in contrast, as Cavaradossi, was quite a picture in his worn suede jacket and orange shirt and casual jeans, and dismissive of her haughty demeanour. Her fiery outburst as she noticed that the Madonna had blue eyes, not brown (like her own), displayed not only the vanity of the diva but the distress of the older woman spurned. Portuguese tenor, de Eça, made a fine young Cavaradossi. His tenor voice swelled in confidence, like his character as he matures, so that when he sang E lucevan le stelle in Act 3, I was left thinking that this was a tenor to watch out for in the future.

 

On his OHP debut, José de Eça reveals a brilliantly expansive and ringing tenor that shines in Cavaradossi’s Recondita armonia and E lucevan le stelle. It is not unusual for productions to suggest that the artist realises as soon as he is informed of Scarpia’s death and the ‘mock’ execution that neither he nor Tosca will be escaping alive. However, de Eça makes this particularly clear as the contrast between his internal despair and his outward attempt to ensure Tosca’s final moments are happy ones, by encouraging her to picture the perfect life they will have, is very stark.

 

Amanda Echalaz sang the title role when this production was new. She's in fearsomely good voice playing a Callas-like diva who knows her worth and is understandably outraged when she thinks her hippyish boyfriend Cavaradossi (José de Eça) is two-timingher. The impressive de Eça displays free, ringing high notes - this is not an OHP night where anyone is drowned out by peacocks.

 

She was well matched by the young Portuguese tenor José de Eça. He captured an ardent naivety in his performance as Cavaradossi and displayed an attractive and well-focused sound.

 

José de Eça’s Cavaradossi shone at the outset when he sang Recondita armonia, accompanied by the sacristan’s grumbling countermelody. De Eça is a Portuguese tenor of promise. His love for the diva Tosca was caressing, yet there was little evidence of chemistry between his Cavaradossi and Amanda Echalaz’s Tosca. The first sensuous love duet Qual’occhio was engaging.

 

Portuguese tenor José de Eça is an admirable find, making a slow-burn Cavaradossi with an element of seriousness to the character rather than the usual hothead, and looking remarkably different without beard and with a full wig. A former baritone, de Eça has a firm, dark voice that becomes critical as it rises, giving his upper range strength and excitement. But this was a singer who successfully gave us all the thrilling moments, in just the right way, and managed to join them all up into a coherent dramatic performance, rather than a sequence of juicy plums.

 

Portuguese-born tenor José de Eça makes a stunning OHP debut as Cavaradossi, with a rich, Italianate timbre.

 

José de Eça, making his Holland Park debut, is in lustrous voice as the painter, with an intense, wiry sound and dark Italianate hues, like some great Caravaggio altarpiece.

 

Her Cavaradossi was OHP debutant José de Eça, a Portugese tenor of promise – and achievement. There is a fine low and middle register (he began as a baritone), and a top which is reliable if not always ringing.

 

Singing the role of radical painter Cavaradossi, tenor José de Eça possesses a distinctive and attractive voice that has yet to reach full maturity - but he's already a stylist in this music. The Stage There are arias, though not the popular classics one finds in Turandot and Butterfly, and they are given full value, particularly by José de Eça (Cavaradossi) and Echalaz (Tosca), the diva playing a diva.

 

The rest of the cast did an excellent job with their respective roles, and I was particularly impressed with José de Eça.

 

The tenor José de Eça put on a notable performance.

 

José de Eça punktet mit strahlendem Tenor.