Music » Aria Music

There's a plethora of single-disc Caruso collections, but this one's the preferred choice for opera fans who treasure this golden- voiced epitome of Golden Age singing. It's a Greatest Hits collection to beat all Greatest Hits collections. Selections span Caruso's career, from the lyric effusions of 1906-7 to the darker-voiced later recordings, including one of his last records, the 1920 La Juive aria, "Rachel, quand du Seigneur," which he invests with a heartbreaking poignancy that hasn't been bettered. Caruso shines brightest in the Italian repertory, capturing the pathos of Vesti la Giubba, the insouciance of the Duke's Rigoletto arias, and the hero's dilemma in Celeste Aida, among much else. But everything here is wonderful--great music, great singing. --Dan Davis

Release Date: 1994-07-19, Audio CD, EMI Classics

When he was growing up, Andrea Bocelli recalls finding inspiration in a favorite recording of sacred music performed by tenor legend Franco Corelli. Bocelli--who in the meantime has come to inspire millions of fiercely loyal fans himself--returns to the genre as the guiding theme of Sacred Arias, the release of which coincides with the first English-language biography of the singer. These performances are filled with the singer's phenomenally well-known vocal signature: his flair for long, sweetly floating high notes and the gentle sense of cadence he brings to a melody. It's a mistake to compartmentalize Bocelli into a singer of "operatic" versus "popular" styles: in truth his approach is at heart the same. Lack of color and control in his phrasing remains a drawback, but the emotional empathy Bocelli evokes is never in doubt. The arias collected here sample some of the most famous devotional pieces: Schubert's "Ave Maria" and Mozart's transporting "Ave Verum," as well as an arrangement of "Silent Night" in which Bocelli tries out his English. There's also a decidedly odd choice of bedfellows for a program of "sacred" music, such as a song from Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder (whose "angel" is the object of an overpoweringly erotic attraction) and Handel's figurative ode to a tree, "Ombra mai fu." Still, Bocelli sings with an unfeigned directness that is sure to expand his already enormous following even further. --Thomas May

This is a glorious debut recital by a tenor, from whom, if he sings the right roles and keeps way from jet-setting and too much singing, might just be the lyrico-spinto tenor we've been waiting for. He has the class of Carlo Bergonzi and a ringing tone which is somewhere between Domingo's big, dark sound and Pavarotti's brightness; he sings with a true mezza voce (not a falsetto); he always obeys the composer's markings and delineates character. He seems incapable of vulgarity, refusing to gulp or sob when a musically expressive gesture will do. The opening aria here--from L'Arlesiana--is so beautifully, touchingly sung that it's a heartbreaker; he doesn't take the usually opted-for high note near the end, but never fear: in the Traviata and Boh?me excerpts, Villazon offers big, whopping high Cs. This CD is a knockout; let's hope it's only the beginning of an illustrious career, both recorded and live. --Robert Levine

Rolando Villazon's follow-up CD to his sensational debut recital of Italian arias is devoted to music by Gounod and Massenet: some as familiar as Faust's, Romeo's and Des Grieux's arias, some as rare as pieces from Gounod's Polyeucte and La Reine de Saba and Massenet's Roma and Le Mage. But almost more important than the interesting repertoire, familiar or otherwise, is Villazon's handling of the music. In Werther's passionate Act II outburst to God about suicide, which is almost never excerpted, Villazon manages, in four minutes, to create a complete character, with all his neuroses, mania, and desperation--and he caps it with a ringing high B natural which is as beautiful as it is heartfelt. He sings both of Des Grieux's arias with feeling and tenderness (aided in "Le reve" by Natalie Dessay!). An aria from La Reine de Saba turns out to bequite a showpiece, with a drop-dead high C at its close. As singing and as interpreting, this CD is a must-have. Villazon's dark-hued, expressive tone is always used in the service of the music, and following his career will be a joy for all lovers of great tenorizing. --Robert Levine

Here, a year after her sensational Metropolitan debut as Prokofiev's Natasha from War and Peace, comes the debut solo recital album of 30-something soprano Anna Netrebko. She hails from southern Russia, and her emergence from the life of a conservatory student has a touch of the Cinderella tale—the bit, that is, about being discovered by Gergiev mopping floors for the Kirov as a part-time job and making her way into the Kirov's ranks. Later she became a favorite at San Francisco Opera, trying on for size a swath of comic and dramatic roles. Opera Arias parades Netrebko's way through a spectrum of vocal styles and characters. This mesmerizing lyric soprano engages--at times thrillingly grips--the listener with an imagination far greater than the disc's title (couldn't someone have dreamt up a less ridiculously bland handle?), but most significantly leaves an impression that the enterprise here isn't merely about singing. Netrebko's Ilia and Donna Anna are flesh-and-blood characters in real situations, as Mozart wanted them to be. The results are a bit more uneven with her bel canto heroines, where the required balance between Netrebko's emotional identification, so obviously a forte, and the musical phrasing thereof is a delicate one. Her shading of Lucia's mood swings, vocal and emotional, isn't consistently compelling. On the other hand, Netrebko uncovers gemlike facets not just in Gounod's "Jewel Song" but particularly in her stunning, passionately realized and beautifully phrased Manon (even if her trills disappoint). A shame that samples of her Russian repertory are missing here, though Netrebko's "Song to the Moon" from Dvorak's Rusalka concentrates and sets a mood with enviable mastery. Netrebko's musical intelligence and theatrical savvy seem destined to ensure her a magnificent career, so it's no surprise that many fans are already clamoring for more than the tease of an aria collection. --Thomas May

Yet again, the fascinating French soprano Natalie Dessay has come up with a winning recital. Canary fanciers can love her without guilt: her high notes are all in place (up to a solid E natural), her skill with fast coloratura is astonishing, her pitch is ideal, and her breath control is massive. But she's as interested in creating character as she is in pure singing. For once Ophelia's long Mad Scene from Thomas' Hamlet is a truly dramatic, heartbreaking event, for instance; similarly, Manon sounds young and sassy, as she should. Rarities by Boieldieu and Offenbach are a joy to hear; "Je suis Titania" and Juliette's Waltz Song are suitably virtuosic and show-offy--she's as good as any of the so-called "Golden Age" sopranos in this repertoire. Her tone remains full and pretty; only the very top notes have a bit of an edge, but this hardly detracts. In short, this is a remarkable recital--interesting pieces, gloriously sung. --Robert Levine

This is a fine Handel compilation that provides a nice overview of his orchestral music with brass instruments, as well as his only incidental score (music written to accompany the action of a play). Christopher Hogwood uses the arrangement that Handel made of the Fireworks Music for normal-sized forces, including strings, which were absent from the original. All the music is played with a fine sense of style, and a goodly bit of the "pomp and circumstance" that Handel above all others knew how to capture in music. At two discs for the price of one, this is an extremely good deal. --David Hurwitz

"Marcello Giordani sang like a god." (The New York Times) The Sicilian born tenor, Marcello Giordani, has garnered many accolades for his performances, which include Tosca, Un ballo in maschera, Eugene Onegin, La Damnation de Faust, La favorita, La bohème, Lucrezia Borgia and Verdi's Requiem. Emerging as one of the leading Romantic tenors of the present day, Marcello Giordani is in demand at the world's major opera houses including the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, La Scala, Vienna, Zurich and Verona.

A disc of operatic arias by Schubert? Did Schubert write great operas? No. Only an academic or devout enthusiast would want to sit through them. But did he write great opera arias? Occasionally. After all, the odd one proved a starting point for what would subsequently turn into a song. And this anthology includes a number from Alfonso und Estrella, which was later fed into Winterreise's "Tauschung." Many of the better arias are for baritone, reflecting Schubert's friendship with the singer Johann Michael Vogl, so there was plenty of scope for the baritone here, Oliver Widmer, to select rewarding items. Steering clear of the comparatively well-known Fierrabras and Die Verschworenen, Vogl has preferred to give a platform to the early operas Teufels Lustschloss and Die Freunde von Salamaka, and to fragments like Die Burgschaft and Adrast. The singing is attractive--agile, light, and sympathetically responsive--and the playing more accomplished than one might expect. It makes a welcome tag-on to Hyperion's Schubert Lieder series. The booklet comes with encyclopedic notes. --Michael White