Huw Montague Rendall: Contemplation album review – young opera star justifies the buzz

Montague Rendall/Opéra Orchestre Normandie Rouen/Glassberg
(Erato)
The debut album from the British baritone lives up to the hype, showcasing his velvet and nuanced singing with room to spare

Opera fans will be familiar with Huw Montague Rendall’s surnames – from his mezzo-soprano mother Diana and tenor father David respectively – but the 30-year-old is making an impression on the international opera scene on his own terms, and his debut solo recording justifies the buzz. Hamlet’s soliloquy from Ambroise Thomas’s opera – velvet-toned, nuanced, with beautifully floated high notes – sets the tone for an eclectic programme on themes of self-discovery. Alongside songs by Mahler and Duparc and opera excerpts by Gounod and Messager, he’s heartbreakingly engaging as Britten’s Billy Budd and puts in a classy turn as Carousel’s Billy Bigelow. In Fritz’s song from Korngold’s Die tote Stadt he perfectly walks the tightrope of nostalgia without falling into the pit of schmaltz. You can almost hear the orchestra’s thoughts as he holds the final note: who is this guy? Does he ever need to breathe?

The Count’s aria from The Marriage of Figaro offers a teaser for his Royal Opera performances next week. He gets energised support from the conductor Ben Glassberg and the orchestra of the opera company in Rouen, where he sang his first Don Giovanni earlier this year; the Serenade from that opera is yet another highlight, each syllable as carefully placed as the notes of the tender mandolin accompaniment.

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