Listen to Freddie De Tommaso at full throttle and you’ll need to lie down in a darkened room. Passione is singing in the tradition of De Tommaso’s hero Franco Corelli: stylish and heartfelt, spinning gold out of the simplest of popular Italian songs...He has an unerring instinct for drama and for when to lead and when to lean into the melody.

Of Italian and English parents, De Tommaso, who grew up in Tunbridge Wells, combines the outgoing Italian manner with a touch of more modest English musicianship. His voice is not the brightest Italianate tenor, but it has colour, the right style and a quality of its own.

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.

The British-Italian ‘baby spinto’ tenor's debut recording reveals a voice of considerable heft and firepower, as well as bags of natural charisma. There’s something of Jonas Kaufmann’s baritonal darkness to the voice, though without the covered quality that polarises listeners there, and with major Verdi and Puccini roles at top houses coming up this season the 27-year-old looks set for great things.

This young Brit, brought up in Tunbridge Wells by an Italian father and English mother, displays limitless promise in this debut recital of songs made popular by Italian tenors...He has ideal support from Balsadonna, who brings italianità to the London Phil.