‘Diva divo’ - Opera arias

Joyce DiDonato mez with Elena Semenova sop Pascale Obrecht mez Edgaras Montvidas ten Nabil Suliman bar Paolo Stupenengo bass Chorus and Orchestra of the Opéra National de Lyon / Kazushi Ono

Virgin Classics 641986-0 Buy now

(81’ · DDD)

Bellini I Capuleti e i Montecchi – Ascolta! Se Romeo t’uccise un figlio…La tremenda ultrice spada Berlioz La damnation de Faust – D’amour l’ardente flamme. Roméo et Juliette – Premiers transports que nul n’oublie Gluck La clemenza di Tito – Se mai senti spirarti sul volto Gounod Faust – Faites-lui mes aveux Massenet Chérubin – Je suis gris! Je suis ivre!. Cendrillon – Allez, laissez-moi seul…Coeur sans amour, printemps sans roses. Ariane – O frêle corps…Chère Cypris Mozart Le nozze di Figaro – Giunse alfin il momento…Deh, vieni, non tardar; Voi che sapete. La clemenza di Tito – Ecco il punto…Non più di fiori Rossini Il barbiere di Siviglia – Contro un cor. La Cenerentola – Nacqui all’affanno…Non più mesta R Strauss Ariadne auf Naxos – Sein wir wieder gut! 

The programme alternates both female-male and male-male characters, and composers’ varied handling of individual roles and stories – Massenet’s and Mozart’s Cherubino, Berlioz’s and Bellini’s Romeo, Massenet’s and Rossini’s take on the Cinderella myth. There are some pops and a good rediscovery in Sesto from Gluck’s 1752 La clemenza di Tito to set alongside Vitellia’s ‘Non più di fiori’ from Mozart’s 1791 remake of the same libretto.

Applause for this imagination can be doubled for DiDonato’s performances of the Bellini, Rossini and most of the French items (the opening track from Chérubin catches her at not quite fullest vocal ease). Her tone and phrasing catch a genuine male authority in the first entry of Bellini’s Capuleti Romeo, colour the barely suppressed rapture (in good French) of Berlioz’s ‘Premiers transports que nul n’oublie’ and fly, as expected, in her ‘home’ composer’s ‘Contro un cor’ and a neatly ambivalent ‘Nacqui all’affanno’. Cendrillon and the (to Anglophones) rare Ariane are utter, and quite dark, delights. Elsewhere, the Mozart is enjoyed and well negotiated but neither orchestra, soloist nor conductor are yet easy with the pace (rushed) or style (snappy) of Strauss’s Composer in the tricky closing pages of the Ariadne Prologue.

Virgin’s balance seconds Lyon’s acoustics in doing justice to both DiDonato and the opera orchestra’s still distinctly Gallic winds. Generally a most enjoyable (and full) CD’s worth.