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Beverly Sills Sings Operetta: A Rare Album

08/21/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"For fans of the 60's and 70's opera legend Beverly Sills, this rare and often neglected album will be pure gold. Fans of sopranos are willing to buy anything their favorite diva ever recorded. Beverly Sills, in collaboration with her conductor Julius Rudel and the London Philharmonic put together a kind of tribute album to Vienna's operettas and the music of its Waltz King Johann Strauss. This was originally an LP album that has been digitally remastered on cd. It is very rare and therefore very expensive and very much in demand. "Welcome To Vienna" features orchestral music- Thunder and Lightning Polka and the Overture to Johann Strauss' operetta A Night In Venice. As far as the singing, Beverly Sills delivers sheer brilliance and charm in the German-sung pieces here, starting with "Voices Of Spring" which makes use of florid and high coloratura embellishments. Beverly Sills' version is the most beautiful I've heard, on equal grounds with soprano Tracy Dahl's version. Marietta's Song from The City Of The Dead is quite moving and Beverly Sills' sweet, feminine, alluring voice truly captures the spirit of the melancholy song. Of late, only Renee Fleming sung Marietta's Lied just as beautifully.



The rest of the arias are quite well done. Beverly Sills sings beautifully in German, and she is the equal of the German master soprano Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, whom we are lead to believe she is modeling herself after in this recording. Schwartzkopf recorded an operetta album in 1959, which is available on EMI's Recordings Of The Century label. That album features much of the same pieces Beverly Sills is singing here. It's interesting to compare both singers and discover they both have artistry, skill and a floating, easy take on these non-dramatic simple pieces that are "dessert for the voice" in Sill's own words. Much like Schwarzkopf, Sills sings with refined elegance and calculated perfection. Her "In Chambre Separee" is beautiful, continental, and particularily good because Beverly Sill's French was always on the money. This aria combines French and German in a blissfully seductive way as a young maid invites a young man to an opera box where they could have dinner, champagne and a heart to heart. The Marlene Deitrich style aria "Meine Lippen" is sung perfectly by Beverly Sills. This aria is a cabaret style song in which the singer reflects on her showy, nightlife style of living. Finally, the aria "Wien, Wien" is a gorgeous praise to the city of Vienna."