Angela Gheorghiu - Arias

Angela Gheorghiu posseses one of THE most beautiful voices you will ever hear. It is hard to descibe such a voice. The lower part is dark and musky and the high register is supringly sweet. The tones which she produces are amazingly pure and ring like a bell. There is no other soprano today who sounds anything like her.

Not only does Angela Gheorghiu possess possibly the most gorgeous and unique lyric soprano voice today, but she also possesses the attributes of the most accomplished dramatic actress. Anyone who has heard or seen her acclaimed Violetta would agree. She is also especially electrifying in her memorable performances with her equally gifted husband, Roberto Alagna.

Angela's debut recording, Arias scratches the surface of her exceptional gifts very well. The album represents roles she has sung to acclaim such as Nanetta and Mimi, roles in which she will most certainly triumph, along with unique rarities which serve her voice well--and highlight her astonding versatily. She shows pure lyricim in her Verdi and Massenet selections, spinto power and pathos in her Catalani, Boito and Puccini interpretations, and exceptional coloratura ability in the Bellini, Donizetti and Gounod arias. This is a recording to treasure and a must have as a good introduction to this highly gifted and lovely artist if you have yet to be blessed by her out-of-this world soprano voice.

I first heard the Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu on an otherwise extraordinarily dull 1994 Metropolitan Opera broadcast of 'La Boheme', and immediately knew that we had a major star in the making. Shortly afterwards she sang Violetta at Covent Garden to nearly universal ecstasy, and was instantly given a recording contract with Decca/London. This recital CD followed shortly after.

Gheorghiu possesses one of the most extraordinary voices ever recorded, and can easily be put in the same category of some of the greatest sopranos of the past. (I know what I'm talking about here - I have at least 75 other sopranos in my record collection!). The voice is as dark and radiant as a star-filled nebula and complex as a fine wine. From a warm, mezzoish bottom to a ravishing top which blooms with ease, it is a rich full lyric that can encompass an extremly wide range of repertory with no difficulties. She has a superb technique (including excellent coloratura), an innate sense of phrasing and sensitivity to the text. Her Italian and French diction is quite fine, actually better than in some of her subsequent outings.

Unfortunately, while both the arresting quality of Gheorghiu's voice and its natural soulfulness are always evident, what is often missing here is the intense dramatic fire and detailed vocal acting that characterize virtually every other recording and live performance I have ever heard her sing. Had I reviewed this disc when it was first released in 1996, I would have given it 5 stars - but now that I know what Gheorghiu is truly capable of (and due to other problems listed below), I find it just a trifle disappointing and am giving it 3 1/2 stars.

When singers I admire falter on records, I tend to blame the conductor. This is difficult in the case of John Mauceri, whose work I've admired elsewhere. However, while he conjures lush and expressive playing from the Orchestra del Teatro Regio di Torino (and fine singing from its chorus), he tends to wallow in the gorgeousness of the music a bit too much, possibly at the expense of the drama. However, I think the ultimate problem with this disc is that it was Gheorghiu's first solo studio recording, and she had not yet learned how to act for the microphone - a lesson I suspect she learned primarily from Antonio Pappano.

The best selections on the disc, no great suprise, are the two arias from 'La Boheme'. Here she is the most dramatically engaged, possibly because at the time this was the role she had the most stage experience in. In 'Si, mi chiamano Mimi' one notes the gentle laughter in 'E perche? Non so.' and the way she emphasizes the word 'soletta', making it very clear that Mimi is inviting Rodolfo to keep her company! And, of course, a heartwrenching execution of the aria's climax. 'Donde lieta usci' is also deeply moving and full of lovely word-painting. Almost as fine as these is the aria from 'I Capuletti ed I Montecchi', but I still think it would have more impact if she were to sing it today. Nanetta's Fairy aria from 'Falstaff', which opens the disc, is appropriately enchanting and a fine showcase for Gheorghiu's ethereal, floated top. A comparative rarity, Ensoleillad's Aubade from 'Cherubin', shows off her beautiful trill and is utterly charming.

But as I said before, the arias from 'La Wally', 'Mefistofele', and 'Herodiade' really need more dramatic fire and specificity of character in order to be truly successful, gorgeously and accurately sung as they are. The Jewel Song is appropriately regal and triumphant at its climax but needs more laughter, coquettishness and a sense of being overwhelmed by good fortune - it makes nowhere near the impact that it did in her recent Metropolitan Opera performances of Marguerite, the best live performance I have heard from her yet. And where is 'Il etait un roi de Thule'? Her Norina in 'Don Pasquale' could also use a just bit more knowingness and mischief, but it's a shame that she doesn't do more comic repertory because as her performances of 'L'Elisir D'Amore' both live and on DVD prove, she's a very fine comedienne.

The disc ends with what is now one of Gheorghiu's standard encore pieces, 'Muzica' from the Romanian opera 'Valurile Dunarii' (Waves of the Danube) by Teodorin Grigoriu. This is a heartfelt tribute to the power of music ('my whole life, and all it has given me, my happiness and a long cherished dream') that is obviously very close to Gheorghiu's heart.

I am bothered by the fact that the running time is only 55 minutes for a full price disc. Gheorghiu apparently recorded Micaela's aria for this album but because she had already recorded the role complete for Teldec, it couldn't be included for legal reasons, a real shame. It is also a pity the documentation wasn't edited to take into account that this aria wasn't included, and I would have appreciated more information about the rarities, especially 'Muzica'. Still, there are full texts and translations, and Richard Fairman does provide a brief biography of Gheorghiu up until the point of this recording and fine commentary on her voice.

In the end, I'm not sure whether I would recommend this as a first choice CD if you've never heard Gheorghiu before. You might very well be dazzled by just her voice and technique, but if not, there are other recordings which suit her much better and display the full range of her artistry and dramatic expression - namely the complete recordings of 'La Traviata', 'La Rondine', 'Manon' and 'Tosca', the two duet albums with her equally splendid husband, tenor Roberto Alagna, and her Verdi arias album, among others. Still, 'Arias' is a worthwhile souvenir of a great soprano at the beginning of her career, and it shows just how far she has come since.

Where is the next great soprano superstar coming from? Where is the voice capable of singing the great Verdi soprano roles as they ought to be sung? She's already here, and her name is Angela Gheorghiu. You may know her as Mrs. Roberto Alagna, but there's been enough written about Mr. and Mrs. A. of late, who are, by the way, invited back to the Met again after a suitable period of banishment. When Angela says, in effect, "Opera c'est moi," (as she did in a recent interview) we all have a tendency to cringe. While opera would survive should she suddenly disappear (Angela might disagree), it would be a substantial loss. Here is a truly great voice, and in a still relatively young package: mature, powerful, secure from top to bottom and everywhere in between, and capable--or so it would seem--of tackling almost any role. It may be a bit too soon to say, "Here is a Caballe for the 21st Century," yet the prospect is most definitely there. She doesn't sound like Caballe (both divas have a very distinct tone all their own), but her flexibility, her vocal strength, her musical agility, do remind us of the Great Spanish Maestra. The control she exercises over her instrument is phenomenal and reminiscent of Sutherland though, again, the tones are entirely different. She can have the sweet fluidity of a Bidu Sayao in one selection, and the fullness and roundness of voice of a Renata Tebaldi in another. But all comparisons aside, she is her own distinct person, and truly individual vocal personality; in a word, Gheorghiu is unique. And whether she is capable of Bellini high-flying bel canto, or even Wagnerian vocal dramatics, I think I will go out on a limb here--a rather sturdy limb--and say we have at last found the next great Verdi soprano. She is not ready, in my estimation, for Lady MacBeth, but neither is any other young voice today. But she will be soon, and all the demands of that role, at times lyrical, and other times down-and-dirty dark, she will meet, if present indications are accurate. Although I know her only through her recordings, so far, I venture to speculate she will only continue to amaze us the more with each passing year.