Search - Vesselina Kasarova :: Magic of Kasarova

Versatile!!

Smorgy | Southern California, USA | 07/22/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is mostly a compilation of arias previously recorded in her other CDs with the bonus of 2 live tracks. All are brilliantly sung.



Kasarova is a very intensely dramatic singer with an uncanny ability to transport you into the operatic scene she is singing. She is as convincing as the fickle Dorabella who's putting up a preposterous show of distress (Cosi fan tutte) as she is as a truly innocent Angelina (La Cenerentola) or the romantically distressed Marguerite (La damnation de Faust) or the revved up and heroic Rinaldo. If there is any weakness, it's her French diction. Though with so much being communicated in the voice itself, she could be singing in Martian and you wouldn't miss what she's trying to portray. This gal is a superb voice actress.

The tracks are:



1. Mozart: La clemenza di Tito: 'Deh, per questo istante solo' from her Mozart Arias disc

2. Rossini: La Cenerentola: 'Tutto e deserto/ una volta c'era un re/ Un soave non so che' from her Rossini Duets disc with Juan Diego-Florez

3. Bellini: I Capuletti e i Montecchi: 'Siam giunti'

4. I Capuletti e i Montecchi: 'Ecco la tomba'

5. I Capuletti e i Montecchi: 'Deh! tu bell'anima'

6. Thomas: Mignon: 'Connais-tu le pays' from her 'Nuit resplendissante' disc

7. Massenet: Werther: 'Act III Prelude/ Werther! Qui m'aurait dit'

8. Werther: 'Je vous ecris de ma petite chambre' (the letter scene)

9. Berlioz: La damnation de Faust: 'D'Amour l'ardente flamme' is a live track from the 1999 Salzburg Festival production

10.Rossini: Tancredi: 'Perche turbar la calma' ...the lesser known act II aria

11.Mozart: Cosi fan tutte: 'Ah scostati/ Smanie implacabili'

12.Gluck: Orphee et Eurydice: 'Qu'entends-je?/ Amour, viens rendre a mon ame' is a live track from a performance at the Bavarian State Opera.

13.Handel: Rinaldo: 'Or la tromba in suon festante' from her 'A Portrait' disc



It is a good 'best of Kasarova' mix, I think, covering much of her ever widening repertoire. The 2 live tracks are great, but a better version of her rendition of 'Amour viens rendre' from Orphee et Eurydice is the one on the 'Das Bayerische Staatsoper: Live 1997-2005' CD. That version is from the same performance that was captured on the DVD with a very clean run of the Viardot cadenza... and it comes without the recitative leading into the main aria. The one on this disc seems to have captured her on a less than perfect day and the run isn't as clean. It is still very thrilling, nonetheless. It is amazing how agile her voice is, as full and sizeable as it is (it is quite bigger live than on record).



If you are looking for only 1 disc of Kasarova to buy, this is a good one to go for."