Composer: Arrigo Boito, Stefano Donaudy, Umberto Giordano, Ruggiero Leoncavallo, Pietro Mascagni, Angelo Mascheroni, Amilcare Ponchielli, Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini, Licinio Refice
Performer: Angela Gheorghiu, Joseph Calleja, Richard Novak, Prague Philharmonic Choir
Orchestra: Prague Philharmonia
Conductor: Emmanuel Villaume
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Warner
Catalogue: 9029578024
Release: 2017
Size: 1.02 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana
01. “Regina coeli”
02. “Voi lo sapete o mamma”
03. “Tu qui, Santuzza”
04. Donaudy: O del mio amato ben
05. Puccini: Vissi d’arte (from Tosca)
06. Boito: Spunta l’aurora pallida (from Mefistofele)
07. Mascheroni: / Arr Tudor: Eternamente
08. Recife: Refice: “Ombra di nube”
09. Ponchielli: Suicidio! (from La Gioconda)
10. Giordano: No! se un pensier torture (from Siberia)
11. Leoncavallo: Ed ora conoscetela (from La Boheme)
12. Leoncavallo: La Canzone di Fleana (from I Zingari)
13. Puccini: Parigi! E la citta dei desideri (from La Rondine)
14. Giordano: Vicino a te (from Andrea Chénier)
At 52, soprano Angela Gheorghiu has lost none of her bite, none of her character, and certainly none of her voice, as evidenced by this album of melodies from the Italian verist’s repertoire. Some are the great hits: “Vissi d’arte” from Tosca, outstanding moments from Cavalleria rustincana, from Ponchielli’s La Joconde, but also overlooked pearls like La Bohème… only not Pucchini’s, but Leoncavallo’s, which is no less fascinating and much closer to Murger’s book; or indeed Giordano’s Siberia, now fallen out of fashion, and many others. After a global career punctuated by great heights, superb successes, U-turns, upsets and about-faces, has the soprano arrived at a level of peace that allows her to plunge back into this repertoire with a new eye? It’s for the listener to judge: but they will surely not be disappointed. She calls upon the tenor Joseph Calleja and bassist Richard Novak for two great duets.
Eternamente is described as a collection of verismo – the term used generically for Italian opera of the immediate post-Verdi era. No matter when they were composed, and no matter what their subject matter, all these operas demand great passion and commitment from their performers – and they get it from Angela Gheorghiu. “It is like my soul, it is something different, it is not the voice,” she explained in an interview with Opera magazine. “The voice is also there, it has to be there, and it has had to be prepared – but at that moment of the performance, there is more. The response is never a conscious exaggeration – it is a natural expression. I am never pretending. It is just how I am at that moment.” The character and impact of her voice was summarised thus in Gramophone: “With her smooth and dark-toned soprano, a voice at once powerfully firm and vulnerable, Gheorghiu stands out from an entire generation of talented singers. Her sound is convincingly Italianate in the great tradition; her voice, once heard, is never forgotten.”