Ermonela Jaho / Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana / Andrea Battistoni ANIMA RARA

ANIMA RARA

 

Dresdner Philharmonie / Marek Janowski PIETRO MASCAGNI Cavalleria rusticana

                                                     CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA

Wiener Philharmoniker / Valery Gergiev / Anna Netrebko SOMMERNACHTSKONZERT 2018

The Summer Night Concert of The Vienna Philharmonic is the world's biggest annual classical open-air concert set in the magical Schönbrunn Palace Baroque park in Vienna. The concert will take place on 31 May 2018 and its theme for this year is 'An Italian Night'. The concert is broadcast on TV and radio in more than 60 countries, and thus reaches an audience of millions. The evening’s repertoire is an attractive combination of extremely popular works for orchestra including the William Tell Overture, the March from the opera Aida and the Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana, as well as famous Soprano arias like Vissi d’arte, vissi d‘amore from the Opera Tosca. Valery Gergiev returns to conducts the Summer Night Concert and is joined by star Soprano Anna Netrebko in what promises to be one of the most popular concerts this year! (Presto Classical)

Anita Rachvelishvili / Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale Della RAI / Giacomo Sagripanti ANITA

Anita Rachvelishvili was born in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. She at first studied piano at the Mukhran Machavariani School and then singing at the Vano-Sarajishvili Conservatory with Manana Egadze. She received a stipend from the president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili, and in 2007 won the Paata Burchuladze Prize. While still a student at the conservatory, she debuted at the Opera in Tblisi as Maddalena in Rigoletto and as Olga in Eugen Onegin, subsequently joining the ensemble of the theater in the fall of 2006. In 2007 she was invited to join the Accademia at the Teatro alla Scalla, it was there she was heard by Daniel Barenboim, who then invited her to star in the new production of Carmen which opened the 2009/2010 La Scala Season.

She  became internationally known when on December 7th, 2009, the opening night of the La Scala season, she sang the title role in Carmen opposite Jonas Kaufmann as Don José, in a production staged by Emma Date and conducted by Daniel Barenboim. This performance, which was her first of any major role in the West and which was her debut in the role, was also televised all over the world.

Angela Gheorghiu ETERNAMENTE

For Eternamente, her first studio recording in six years, soprano Angela Gheorghiu focuses on Italian composers of the generation that followed Verdi and predominantly on repertoire she has not sung before – including some fascinating rarities. Joining her for duets from Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana and Giordano’s Andrea Chénier is another star of today’s opera stage, tenor Joseph Calleja.

Eternamente is described as a collection of verismo – the term used generically for Italian opera of the immediate post-Verdi era. No matter when they were composed, and no matter what their subject matter, all these operas demand great passion and commitment from their performers – and they get it from Angela Gheorghiu. “It is like my soul, it is something different, it is not the voice,” she explained in an interview with Opera magazine. “The voice is also there, it has to be there, and it has had to be prepared – but at that moment of the performance, there is more. The response is never a conscious exaggeration – it is a natural expression. I am never pretending. It is just how I am at that moment.” The character and impact of her voice was summarised thus in Gramophone: “With her smooth and dark-toned soprano, a voice at once powerfully firm and vulnerable, Gheorghiu stands out from an entire generation of talented singers. Her sound is convincingly Italianate in the great tradition; her voice, once heard, is never forgotten.”

Elīna Garanča / Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana / Roberto Abbado REVIVE

In Revive, her latest album for Deutsche Grammophon, Latvian mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča explores the storms raging in the lives of some of the strong women of opera. A world-class performer approaching the peak of her form, she channels her experience and insight into a collection of arias drawn from the great Romantic repertoire, complete with captivating rarities and genuine showstoppers. Revive, released 04 November via Universal Music Canada, the country’s leading music company, charts the impassioned responses of characters blown off course or thrown into emotional turmoil by events beyond their control.

Bookended by arias from Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana and Saint-Saëns’s Henri VIII, the album also takes in music from Leoncavallo’s La Bohème and Massenet’s Hérodiade, as well as celebrated set-pieces from Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur, Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila, Massenet’s Werther, Berlioz’s Les Troyens and Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, among others.

This breadth of repertoire bears witness to Elīna Garanča’s vocal versatility and range. Her programme choices amount to a projection of her personal passions and interests at the time of creating the recording. “I feel confident that at this moment I can approach the women in the opera literature who are strong, whom I understand, with whom I can share my own life experience,” she comments. “This has been the guideline in everything I do: I go onstage when I am confident that I understand why I’m going to present a character. I hope that everyone listening to this recording can find something particular: it’s enough if they can relate to only one aria.”

Revive casts light on powerful women to reveal their vulnerabilities and weaknesses. Garanča’s strikingly individual interpretations arise from her empathy for each character and are underpinned by her admiration for their desire always to stand tall, even in moments of despair or apparent defeat.

“All these women are, I think, about exploring an inner world, about people finding themselves in a weak moment, for whatever reason – unhappy love, betrayal, losing power, saying goodbye to loved ones. In my everyday life, I’m everything: I can be jealous, I can be angry, I can be funny, I can be sad. Life is like a big colourful book. So the women on this album belong to a big colourful book.”

Revive was made in company with Roberto Abbado and the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana. Elīna Garanča welcomed a fresh opportunity to work with Abbado, and was delighted by the absolute focus shown by the orchestra throughout the sessions. The recording process allowed the singer to dig deep into dramatic roles destined to become part of her future work in the opera house, notably Mascagni’s Santuzza and Verdi’s Princess Eboli, two powerful roles she is preparing to perform for the first time onstage, at the Paris Opéra (in the autumn of 2016 and 2017, respectively).

“I’m lucky enough to have a mezzo-soprano voice that has the potential for development,” she comments. “I started with Baroque, Mozart and bel canto repertoire, with a little bit more dramatic stuff, too. I have never done Verdi on the stage or really done verismo opera, so there’s something new for me. Now, I feel it is really time to explore further, so the repertoire that is coming now is a new Elīna with new, exciting challenges.” Verdi and verismo, she adds, offer fresh territory for rewarding exploration. “I’m very happy that I can embrace it. It feels right at this moment to move on and reach other mountains!”

Jonas Kaufmann THE BEST OF JONAS KAUFMANN

German tenor Jonas Kaufmann came on the scene in the mid-1990s and has gradually risen to the top rank of the operatic world. His is a remarkable voice in many ways. Like Plácido Domingo, to whom he is a sort of German opposite number, he excels in both Italian and German opera and also sings well in French and English (in an odd performance of a piece from Weber's Oberon, track 17). He adds freely dramatic shaping to lines of the big Verdi and Puccini tunes, almost always defamiliarizing them in ways that seem personal and passionate, with a bit of vocal gravel applied at just the right moment. Kaufmann has done his part to rediscover a languishing repertory, in his case verismo opera from around the turn of the century, and this Best of Jonas Kaufmann collection may be worth the price simply for the little-heard Ombra di nube of Licinio Refice (track 15). The collection represents a good mix of standards and innovative thinking. And, through it all, there's the kind of power that just doesn't come along often. It took a while for general listeners to wake up to the fact that Kaufmann is close to the best out there. This collection draws on recordings made between 2002 and 2010, with a variety of orchestras that are all completely overshadowed by Kaufmann's vocal artistry. It's a fine place to start with a singer well on his way to becoming a household name like the great voices of the past. (James Manheim)

Elina Garanča MEDITATION

On September 16, Elina Garanca will be releasing "Meditation," her most beautiful selection of spiritual music dedicated to the eternal search and longing for inner peace. It's perhaps one of her most personal albums ever which connects the listener with Elina's Latvian roots.

Elina's parents were involved with choral music, she grew up listening to this music and sang herself in choirs as a young musician, so it is a very important album to her personally, celebrating the origins of her own singing career  She studied at the Latvian Academy of Music with her mother. She won the Mirjam Helin Singing Competition in 1999 and was a finalist in the 2001 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition.

She began her professional career as a resident artist with the Südthüringischer Staatstheater in Meiningen where she appeared in a number of leading roles and she appeared as a resident artist with the Frankfurt Opera. In September 2005 Ms Garanča became an exclusive recording artist with Deutsche Grammophon. Her first solo recording 'Aria Cantilena' was released in March 2007 to great popular and critical acclaim and she was awarded the prestigious ECHO KLASSIK award for 'Singer of the Year 2007.' Her second solo record, 'Bel Canto' was received with similar enthusiasm.

Ms Garanča has since, quickly established herself as one of the music world's major stars through her performances with leading opera theaters and symphony orchestras around the world. She has captured critical and popular acclaim for her beautiful voice, intelligent musicianship, and compelling stage portrayals.

The album includes a couple of real discoveries like Praulinš' Dievaines, but also some hit repertoire like the Cantique de Noel d'Adam. This is probably her most commercial album to date, the careful selected variety of the repertoire will attract a lot of new fans. Latvian choirs are extremely famous worldwide, so it was natural for her to want a Latvian choir with her for this recording. Two Latvian composers have been involved in the music for this recording - Ugis Praulinš for his work Dievaines, and Eriks Esenvalds who has written an a cappella arrangement (Allegri Miserere) especially for this recording.

Elina is joined on this recording by her husband, the well-known Gibraltan conductor Karel Mark Chichon OBE. This is their second collaboration on disc for DG following the success of Habanera.

(Timothy Yap / Sep 01, 2014)