Track Listing

1. Act II, Ballata: "Il segreto per esser felici"
2. Act I, Aria: "Al mio core" (Aurelio)
3. Act I, Romanza: "All'afflitto � dolce il pianto" (Sara)
4. Act II, Romance: "Que faire?" - "Sol ador� de la patrie" (Zayda)
5. Act I, Romanza: "Dopo l'oscuro nembo"
6. Act I, Introduzione: "S�, vuol di Francia il rege"
7. "Ah! Quando all'ara scorgemi"
8. "In tal giorno di contento"
9. "Ah! dal ciel discenda un raggio"
10. Act I, Andante
11. Recitativo: "O patria, dolce e ingrata patria!"
12. Cavatina: "Di tanti palpiti"
13. Act II, Terzetto: "In questi estremi istanti"
14. Act I, Scena: "Lieto del dolce incarco"
15. "Ascolta. Se Romeo t'uccise un figlio"
16. "Riedi al campo"
17. Cavatina: "La tremenda ultrice spada"
18. Act II, Duetto: "Io l'udia chiamarmi a nome"
19. "Suon tremendo!"
20. "La speme un dolce palpito"

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9494 in Music
• Brand: GARANCA,ELINA
• Released on: 2009-04-28
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .23 pounds

Album Description
2009 release. Elina Garanca follows her exceptional debut splash, Aria Cantilena, with bel canto solos and ensembles featuring guest luminaries like Ildebrando d'Arcangelo. Flawless coloratura and a 'one-in-a-million' mezzo (The Independent) make this exciting young artist ideal for this repertoire. Balancing familiar numbers and ensembles with little known treasures by Bellini, Donizetti and Rossini, Elina rides bel canto's vocal acrobatics and spun out melodies through an emotional spectrum to unforgettable effect Universal

New York Sun
"Ms. Garanča has all the goods: musicality, technique, voice, confidence, smarts, dramatic range - and movie-star looks. She practically defines `can't miss'. And in her Met debut on Saturday night, she did not miss . . ."

From the Artist
ELĪNA GARANČA SINGS BELLINI, DONIZETTI & ROSSINI In conversation with Nick Kimberley, the Latvian mezzo-soprano talks about giving individual life and colour to bel canto characters and music.Elīna Garanča has an enviable reputation for the purity of her tone, her ease with the most taxing vocal demands, and the breadth of her repertoire. On this collection, she focuses on a particular style and period: Italian opera from the first half of the 18th century. Not for nothing is this repertoire known as bel canto: "beautiful singing". Elīna Garanča has selected pieces by the three greatest Italian composers of the day, whose music offers rich rewards for the modern mezzo-soprano with a flair for high drama. NK: Not every mezzo-soprano rises to the challenge of singing bel canto. When did you first become aware that this repertoire suited your voice? EG: Bel canto has followed me from the very beginning of my studies. My first teacher at the Riga Academy, a Russian woman, told me that she thought my voice was particularly suited to bel canto. It was at the very beginning of my career and I couldn't really sing anything, but she heard that the colour of my voice and its timbre were right for that repertoire. How did you select the pieces for this collection? This CD has been a long time coming, but that gave me the opportunity to look very carefully at the music. I went to a library in Vienna, for example, and looked at autograph manuscripts; and Deutsche Grammophon sent me music, lots of it: I remember receiving one package that had the scores of 20 different operas. So I looked through page by page, checking the arias, the duets, the ensembles, working out how the music would fit my voice. There is so much absolutely gorgeous music from these composers that we don't know. It's true to say that these operas are often very difficult to cast. You don't only need a great soprano and mezzo-soprano, you also need a very good tenor and a very good bass. There are not too many singers whose voices are suitable, who know the bel canto tradition and style, and who can be convincing onstage. Is it difficult to make the music come alive when you're only performing a brief excerpt from an opera, not the whole piece? I never go into the recording studio without having tried the piece out in the concert hall or the opera house. It's an interesting challenge with a CD such as this to try to give every aria a different quality, because every piece by Donizetti, Bellini or Rossini has its own specific dramatic idea, and in each opera there is a particular reason why this aria or that duet is sung at that particular moment. Within the idea of beautiful singing and a beautiful line, the singer still has the opportunity to give colour to the different phrases and to the different emotions. That is part of the pleasure of singing these pieces. Even in a recording such as this, you want the listener to see the faces, see the reactions, simply by listening to the music. You're a mezzo-soprano, which in bel canto sometimes means that you take male roles, as we hear on this CD in the excerpts from, for example, Lucrezia Borgia and I Capuleti e i Montecchi, which you've just recorded complete for Deutsche Grammophon, singing Romeo. Is it difficult for you to play men? At the moment that I go into the theatre and put the costume on, I become the character that I'm performing. I don't think to myself, "Oh my God, I have to play a man." I go out and I'm in the dramatic situation, I hear the music, I know what I'm singing, and at that very moment I am Romeo or whoever it is. I like to observe people and situations, and in rehearsal there are certain physical details that I pay attention to. Perhaps that helps me create a character which is more manly, and I certainly enjoy that. On the other hand, I truly believe that every woman has a masculine side and that every man has a feminine side, and it's fun to test that part of myself onstage, to try to imagine how a young man might react in that situation. Are there singers from the past that you admire in bel canto? As a student at the age of 17 or 18 I had Joan Sutherland's recording of "Casta diva" from Bellini's Norma. I used to play it in my apartment with the windows open, and the neighbours would scream at me to shut up. Of course everyone speaks about Maria Callas in this repertoire, but if I had to choose just one singer, it would be Beverly Sills. A friend had several recordings of her singing bel canto and there was something in the way she sang that completely convinced me. It blew me away, and I still have her recording of Donizetti's Anna Bolena on my iPod. Beverly Sills was a soprano. Would you like to have been a soprano? That struggle to define myself and my voice is still going on: not for me but for other people. Some people tell me that in a few years I will become a soprano; one person will say that I'll become a dramatic soprano (as did Birgit Nilsson at a singing competition in Finland in 1999, when she told me I would probably follow in her footsteps, perhaps even as far as Wagner), another that I'll be a lyric soprano, which is an idea that really surprises me. Then other people tell me that when I have a baby, my voice will sink and then I'll become a dramatic mezzo-soprano. In any case, I don't want to push myself. I don't want to pigeonhole my voice, or try to work at making it bigger or lighter. My voice is as it is, and I'm trying to guide it the way that I feel it wants to go.

12/2008

Customer Reviews

Beautiful Bel canto singing
I disagree with another reviewer who remarked on the lack of drama in this material. The Bel canto style had its peak of popularity in the Rossini, Bellini and Donzinetti era, where singing is less about drama and content, and all about the art of beautiful singing, vocal control and floral agility, which is exactly what we get from Elina Garanca. There is all the emotional content in her voice to make the songs touching and will invite repeated listening. If you appreciate beautiful singing you can't go wrong with this. If the reviewer wants drama I suggest to buy something from Verdi or Wagner, but that is not the point and purpose of Bel canto.

Elina GRanca
I'm neither a professional reviewer, nor a music critic. However, I know quality when I hear it.
Elina Granca, to me, has a magnificent mezzo-soprano voice,so well-produced and a pleasure to listen to.
I have listened to this CD, 'Bel Canto', time and time again, and keep hearing new and wonderful things, even though the music is not familiar to me. It is becoming a very good friend , as is Elina Granca.

Children, Please........
Let's not fight. The previous reviewers both agree that this is a well produced album of music sung by a beautiful voice. It is, indeed. Why is that not enough??

Elina has given us a recording of non-standard Bel Canto pieces. Thank you. Yes, I like the "old favorites" as much as anybody, but the 247th. recording of "Uno poco voce fa" would be somewhat pointless. No, I did not previously know this material; I admit it. But, I'm happy to learn...and learning new things is one of life's joys....

I am NOT an unbiased reviewer of Elina. I could listen to her forever. She has honored us with a CD of rather unfamiliar music, and I, for one, am glad to have it. I like Verdi and Puccini as well as the next person, but Opera is way more than conventional repertoire. Keep it coming, pretty lady. Six or seven stars.