Amici e Rivali (Friends and Rivals) celebrates one of music’s golden ages, when Rossini’s operas provided the fuel for truly incendiary singing. Star tenors of the 19th century—Andrea Nozzari, Giovanni David, and Manuel García—are recalled by two of today’s most stylish tenors, American operatic singers Michael Spyres and Lawrence Brownlee. Both have made a speciality of Rossini’s repertoire and sing with a wonderfully sure-footed grasp of the idiom—whether solo, in duet, or joined by their two guests, the Irish mezzo Tara Erraught and a third tenor, Xabier Anduaga. Nicely programmed, the album is given further polish by Italian conductor Corrado Rovaris’ elegant ensemble, I Virtuosi Italiani.