Rost comes with good credentials; she has already won her spurs at the Vienna State Opera, La Scala and Covent Garden as, variously, Lucia, Gilda and Violetta, all represented on this disc. She sings here with a consistent sense of line, considered phrasing, and musicality – perhaps under Mackerras’s influence, she opts for both verses of Violetta’s arias. I like the way in the second verse of “Ah! fors e lui” she takes the word “dolcissimo” in a suitably dolce tone and, in the recitative before “Addio del passato” goes up to the E at the end of the phrase “ogni speranza e morta” with proper delicacy and feeling. Her singing throughout is filled with that kind of intelligence. There’s also vocal agility of a youthfully engaging kind, not least in Norina’s credo.
Why then did I come away at the end with a sense of disappointment? It may simply be that this is a voice that doesn’t take too kindly to recording, which emphasizes an insistent brightness in the monochrome tone and an inbuilt vibrato, reminding me rather of Beverly Sills, among singers of the recent past, and sometimes of Gruberova. As aria follows aria one begins to tire of the voice’s monochrome colour – for instance, at “Alfin son tua” in Lucia’s Mad scene. As a complete Lucia with Rost is already on the stocks (admittedly with period instruments), the inclusion of the two extracts from Donizetti’s opera seems odd planning from Sony: anyone who now has these may not easily be tempted to the whole thing.
Puccini sits slightly oddly between Verdi and Donizetti. In any case this is at the moment a voice for Musetta rather than a Mimi, whose narration sounds a trifle tremulous. If we judge Rost just by her contemporaries, this and her Violetta want the warmth, the overtones of Angela Gheorghiu and, in the lighter pieces, quite the charm of Eva Mei. Still, I don’t want to exaggerate the downsides of a recital that presents a promising soprano with the wherewithal to achieve much.
Aquiles Machado, who delighted everyone so much at last summer’s Cardiff Singer of the World contest, offers Alfredo’s few phrases and a single “Si” in Mimi’s narration: he might have been offered a full duet, which would have provided a needed contrast of voice. Mackerras provides just the sympathetic, experienced support a young singer needs. The recording is true and well-balanced. AB