Puccini: Arias from Edgar, Gianni Schicchi, La boheme, Manon Lescaut, Turandot, Madame Butterfly, La Rondine & Tosca
COMPOSERS: Puccini
LABELS: EMI
ALBUM TITLE: Angela Gheorghiu – Puccini
WORKS: Arias from Edgar, Gianni Schicchi, La boheme, Manon Lescaut, Turandot, Madame Butterfly, La Rondine & Tosca
PERFORMER: Angela Gheorgiu
Milan Giuseppe Verdi Symphony Orchestra
Anton Coppola
CATALOGUE NO: 557 9550
The sumptuous packaging of this
release is, happily, matched by its
contents. Angela Gheorghiu delivers
some of her finest singing, but then
Puccini has always been one of her
special strengths.
Opening with
Butterfly’s ‘Un bel dì’, the Romanian
soprano shows again why – despite
the circus she has been known to
generate – she is essentially a serious
artist possessed of one of today’s great voices.
An instantly recognisable one,
too, thanks to her vibrant tone and
communicative relish of text.
Apart from Il tabarro, every one
of Puccini’s operas is represented
here; Tosca scrapes in on a bonus
single CD of her ‘Vissi d’arte’ from
the Pappano recording.
No soprano
can possibly capture the full essence
of all Puccini’s heroines at once, so
although it is logical to end with
Turandot’s ‘In questa reggia’ it’s
not quite the artistic climax of this
enterprise; but the colouring she
brings to Liù’s farewell raises that
to tragic heights.
If she is by nature
more of a Musetta than a Mimì,
she evokes both characters
beautifully, and in the early Edgar
she overlooks the vampish antiheroine
in favour of Fidelia’s
sincerely projected innocence.
She
sets up a fruitful partnership with
the young Milanese orchestra and
veteran conductor Anton Coppola,
who errs only by indulging her
in ‘O mio babbino caro’ – more
like an encore than part of an
unfolding story.
