17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Julieth Lozano Rolong – Alma: Ibero-American Songs album review – Colombian soprano serves up captivating debut
The Colombian soprano Julieth Lozano Rolong walked away with the audience prize at the most recent BBC Cardiff singer of the world in 2023, and this recording – with the pianist João Araújo, whom she met while studying at the Royal College of Music in London – leaves no doubt as to why.
The songs, all in Spanish or Portuguese, are by composers from seven countries, and switch seamlessly between art song, folk music arrangements and numbers covered by pop singers. There's a wealth of colour in Lozano Rolong's velvet-toned soprano, and her words are immediate and expressive – even in the patter of a song such as Uirapuru by the Brazilian Waldemar Henrique, which zips through so much local folklore that its text needs eight footnotes. Other highlights include a haunting lullaby by Argentina's Gilardo Gilardi, two almost Puccini-esque songs by the Mexican composer María Grever, and another lullaby, this time dreamier, by Colombia's Luis Carlos Figueroa. The programme doesn't have an obvious centre of gravity, but it's full of small-scale discoveries – including two folk song arrangements by the playwright Federico García Lorca. With Araújo offering beautifully judged support, it showcases Lozano Rolong as a captivating and hugely promising performer.
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