When I first heard Freddie De Tommaso – as Cassio in Otello at Covent Garden – I noted how he was no light tenor but ‘a general in the making’. It’s far too soon for that long-term prophecy to bear fruit but the British-Italian tenor is making solid progress. In the autumn he joined the ensemble at the Wiener Staatsoper, where he opened the season as a robust Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly. Further lockdowns have limited his opportunities there but the reopening of the house to the Viennese public should see him perform roles in Macbeth and Der Rosenkavalier.

In the meantime, De Tommaso has been snapped up by Decca and has recorded this attractive disc of Italian and Neapolitan songs. It is dedicated to two Francos: his father, an Italian who emigrated from Puglia and ran a restaurant in Tunbridge Wells; and Franco Corelli, De Tommaso’s tenor hero, born a century ago.

Corelli, like many Italian tenors, recorded discs of this popular repertory. Executive producer Dominic Fyfe relates in the booklet introduction how they searched in vain for the Franco Ferraris arrangements Corelli used in his recordings but stumbled across Decca’s archive of arrangements for tenors such as Luciano Pavarotti and Mario Del Monaco, which were used on the new recording, including some by Mantovani.

De Tommaso’s voice has quite a ‘covered’ tone – more Caruso than Corelli – but there’s a definite Italianate ring to it and his singing is disciplined in a way Corelli or Del Monaco weren’t always. Listen to the sensitive way he shades the dynamics in a favourite such as ‘Marechiare’ and one notes an artist who has clearly done his homework. He was even coached in Neapolitan dialect by soprano Carmen Giannattasio. If top notes don’t (yet) open out into the vocal sunshine of a Pavarotti or Giuseppe Di Stefano, he shows much promise.

Much of the repertoire here is justly well known – ‘Mattinata’, ‘Core ’ngrato’, ‘Marechiare’ – but there are rarities such as Puccini’s early song ‘Sole e amore’, which will be familiar as he later recycled it in Act 3 of La bohème (Plácido Domingo sang the original voice-and-piano version on his ‘Unknown Puccini’ album – Sony, 3/90). Ernesto Tagliaferri and Nicola Valente’s ‘Passione’, a Corelli and Del Monaco favourite, lends the album its title, wonderfully sung. The programme has some nice biographical links: Paolo Tosti spent much of his life in London, while Tulio Trapani, composer of ‘Cara mia’, was the pseudonym of Mantovani, who ended up living in … Tunbridge Wells. It’s a small world, and George Hall does a lovely job giving background to these songs and composers in his booklet notes. The LPO under Renato Balsadonna offer charismatic support, although Decca’s recording is disappointing, lacking the Mediterranean brightness of those Corelli recordings from the Orchestra Franco Ferraris.

This is a fine debut disc by De Tommaso. He will doubtless be nurtured at the Wiener Staatsoper and I hope that his record company and agents bear their responsibilities as well. Too often we see talented young singers treated as disposable commodities, forced into heavy roles early and tossed aside when their voices crash and burn. Let’s hope that De Tommaso receives sensible guidance and that this is the start of a long, successful career.