MOZART – Don Giovanni – Sony/Currentzis
“Vocally the cast is generally strong with Tarver’s suave Ottavio offering its chief lyric highlights … Kenneth Tarver’s bright toned and vocally dynamic Don Ottavio..” George Hall-OPERA -January 2017
“Kenneth Tarver’s mellifluous Don Ottavio – giving an object lesson in style & technique” Hugh Canning THE SUNDAY TIMES October 2016
“..luxurious casting by having Kenneth Tarver as Don Ottavio. He’s sensational, his honeyed tones turning Ottavio’s arias into two of the highlights of the set, and he brings sensuous beauty to the ensembles, too.” Simon Thompson December 2016 www.musicweb-international.com
“Kenneth Tarver (one of the most elegantly and assertively sung Ottavios I’ve ever heard on disc).” December 2016 www.prestoclassical.co.uk
“Ho lasciato per ultimo il migliore in assoluto. Kenneth Tarver si conferma come vero punto di riferimento nel ruolo di Don Ottavio: bella voce, bel modo di cantare, buon gusto e finalmente un piglio un po’ più audace rispetto ai soliti Don Ottavio sempre ascoltati. Una interpretazione di grandissimo livello che mi ha riportato alla mente l’altrettanto splendida versione – dal vivo alla Scala anni fa – che fece Gösta Winbergh.” www.operadice.com
“Anzufügen wäre, dass Kenneth Tarver, der fantastische Don Ottavio, schon zehn Jahre zuvor einen großartigen Ottavio gesungen hat – 2006 bei René Jacobs. – ein großartiger lyrischer Tenor; fast versteht man Donna Anna nicht, warum sie ihren Geliebten immer wieder in die Warteschleife abschiebt”… Hans-Juergen Fink, November 2016 www.kultur-port.de
“Ein Gewinn ist Kenneth Tarver, der als Don Ottavio keine Wünsche offen lässt, die Krisenszenen zwischen Papatanasiu und Tarver haben in dieser Aufnahme eine beeindruckende Intensität”… Marcus Budwitius www.operalounge.de
“Tarver turns in a finely sung account of Don Ottavio, perhaps the most beautiful singing on the disc.”… www.planethugill.com December 2016
“the strongest characters come across as Ottavio and Masetto–very determined and nobody’s fool, and Kenneth Tarver is ravishing as the former”. www.classicstoday.com
“Most of the big set-piece arias have their moments, and interesting ornamentation in da capos, but perhaps only one is up there with the considerable best on disc – tenor Kenneth Tarver’s ‘Il mio tesoro’. Here are both sweetness and Italianate ardour. It’s also the only recording I know where the singer actually manages 68 notes in a row at the midpoint – albeit many of them semiquavers – in a single breath (Tauber actually breaks halfway through, despite received wisdom, though maybe McCormack does it – need to check that) and stylish adornments on the return.”… davidnice.blogspot.com November 2016
“Kenneth Tarver sings pleasingly as a lyrical Don Ottavio”… GRAMOPHONE Hugo Shirley
“There are tenors who manage Don Ottavio’s music effectively, but almost none of his contemporaries rivals American tenor Kenneth Tarver’s level of comfort in the rôle…A singer who requires no vocal hiding places, Tarver contributed an exemplary portrayal of Ottavio to René Jacobs’s harmonia mundi recording of Don Giovanni, as well as having sung Ferrando in Currentzis’s account of Così fan tutte for Sony Classical, but he surpasses both of those performances with his Ottavio in this Don Giovanni….Tarver’s performance of ‘Dalla sua pace la mia dipende’ is magical: on recordings, only Cesare Valletti rivals him for tonal beauty, but Tarver’s technique enables even more exquisite breath control than Valletti had at his command… but it is his account of ‘Il mio tesoro intanto andate a consolar’ that most ravishes the ears and enthralls the heart. The long runs are sung with single breaths as Mozart surely intended, and the evenness of tone from bottom to top is exceptional… Tarver is a wonderful singer and great artist, but this Ottavio is an extraordinary performance even by his own standards.”… www.voix-des-arts.com November 2016
“Kenneth Tarver als Don Ottavio gelingen in der grandiosen Arie “Dalla sua pace” die dunklen Akzente bei aller tenoralen Brillanz überzeugen und eindringlich”… DER SPIEGEL 30.10.2016 Werner Theurich
“Kenneth Tarver brings class and experience to Don Ottavio”… OPERA NOW Francis Muzzu December 2016