COMPOSERS: Berlioz,Handel,Meyerbeer,Ponchlelli & Tchaikovsky,Purcell,Rossini,Salnt-Saens
LABELS: Philips
ALBUM TITLE: Collection: Olga Bobodina
WORKS: Arias from operas by Purcell, Handel, Rossini, Meyerbeer, Salnt-Saens, Berlioz, Ponchlelli & Tchaikovsky
PERFORMER: Olga Borodina; Orchestra of Welsh National Opera/Carlo Rizzi
CATALOGUE NO: 446 663-2
Olga Borodina, bright star in today's Russian operatic firmament, is proving herself a versatile artist. Her smooth mezzo can be many things - grand, creamy or incisive — and, as this disc confirms, she sings several languages idiomatically.
The Purcell and Handel arias are both ordinary and unnecessary, but she is a focused Rossinian, with the imperious Semiramide more her thing than a slightly unsparkling Cenerentola. She is languorous in Dalila's 'Mon coeur', and would be even more alluring in the character's other two numbers were it not for Rizzi's desperately un-ritzy (two-star) conducting. Lisa's aria is also too slow and Borodina is unsuited to this soprano role, but as Joan of Arc she sings Tchaikovsky with seamless beauty and deep feeling. John Allison