MOZART ARIAS. Justino Diaz, bass; English Chamber...

MOZART ARIAS. Justino Diaz, bass; English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Ettore Stratta. ASV DCA-609 (compact disc). Hitherto underrepresented on records, the Puerto Rico-born bass contributes a handsomely voiced if ineffectually inflected recital of concert and opera arias for this London-based company. Mozart wrote several of the numbers for bass Ludwig Fischer, who, presumably, commanded a more flexible technique and more assurance in the passagework than Diaz. His incisive instrument moves sluggishly through the scale, aspirates excessively, finds little theatrical fire in Leporello’s Catalog Aria delivered with all the alacrity of a Dow Jones report, and, in the case of Sarastro, confuses nobility with stodginess. Stratta’s conducting is acceptable.