Search - Vesselina Kasarova :: Vesselina Kasarova

Oh what the dramatic repertoire has been missing all these y

Smorgy | Southern California, USA | 04/29/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A look at the track list on this CD will raise more than a few eye-brows:

'Acerba volutta' from Adriana Lecouvrer, 'Stride la vampa' from Il trovatore, Eboli's two arias from Don Carlo, Ioanna's aria from Tchaikovsky's Maid of Orleans, 'Voi lo sapete' from Cavalleria Rusticana, all the Carmen arias, and Dalila's 'Printemps qui commence' and 'Mon coeur s'ouvre a ta voix' from Samson et Dalila.



As big a fan as I am, I was a bit skeptical since she's been only singing Baroque, Mozart, and bel canto stuff - with occasional lighter French works - so far. And you usually hear different type of voice for those repertoire from the dramatic roles that populate this disc. So... I stand corrected. If I am running an opera house, I'll be stalking her day and night with offers for Azucena, Eboli, Santuzza, and Dalila 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. She is THAT compelling in this recording.



The distinctive voice of Kasarova has gained more heft and warmth over the year, but it is still very fast moving (so fast that I shake my head in wonder as she does all those tricky little coloratura passages in Eboli's Veil Song without betraying any effort). It is a mesmerizing voice that doesn't seem to really fit into any rigid category. There are some who like to drop in on youtube clips of this singer to claim that the voice has been "destroyed" or "ruined" or "uglified". They are wrong. It is in as healthy a condition as I've heard it: glowing from top to bottom and capable of a vast range of colors... And totally breath-taking dynamic control.



That she has perceptible register breaks doesn't mean that her voice has gone to hell. When she wants, she does blend the registers and the break simply vanish. She is using the thing for dramatic effect, and using it and other technique so effectively that each and every operatic character appearing on this CD shows a side of them you had never heard or thought about before. This is a very beautiful-voiced Azucena, much younger and more vulnerable than I had ever imagined, but one whose recollection of her mother's death still burns as if it had happened just an hour ago. I would never be able to understand how any Turiddu could still choose to walk off to Lola after hearing the pleading from this Santuzza, and...



And then there are the Dalila tracks. It is really unfair how she puts 'Mon coeur s'ouvre a ta voix' at the end of the disc. That makes it practically impossible to not keep hitting the 'repeat all' button at the end of it. Kasarova is a very different Dalila from what you'd hear of, say, Olga Borodina (whose lustrously rich sounds floods you into submission). She is not just a siren, but also a woman... sensual and knowing exactly what she wants. Listen to how she connects without a pause between 'ces serments que j'aimais.' to 'Ah! reponds...' on the first pass, with an utterly sultry mini diminuendo and crescendo before accenting the end of the phrase with real chest coloration... And how she doesn't on the last pass (the man is poached. He's not going anywhere now!).



Every thing is thought out, of course, but the delivery is so fresh and convincing that it seems spontaneous. She is accompanied by the beautiful voice of (Serbian?) tenor Zoran Todorovich for the Carmen's dancing scene and for Dalila's last track. The Bavarian Radio Orchestra under Giuliano Carella is beautifully supportive. It is a disc no fan of Kasarova should miss, and one non-fan should find appealing, too."