Customer Reviews

Puccini - Angela Gheorghiu

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As any Opera fan knows, when a recording is dismissed by the critics, on the whole that means there's many artistic qualities in it. In fact, many recordings that are now considered legendary versions were considered insufficient when they were first released. The same way the legendary Maria Callas suffered from lots of critics during all her career and even after her death, Angela Gheorghiu has nowadays suffered from the over-exigency of her listeners and the malice of her critics. As for this long-expected album, there are lots of artistic and emotional qualities in it and, unfortunately, some disturbing imperfections one should know.

Angela Gheorghiu sings wonderfully here. She's using all the power and versatility of her voice in order to sing some of the most complex heroines ever. Curiously, as we listen to the whole album, it's clear the real highlights of it aren't the worldly famous arias from Madama Butterfly or La Bohème, but the less famous and equally poignant ones. Gheorghiu sings the first aria from Edgar (''Addio, mio dolce amor'') with both gentleness and intensity and, as for her vocal performance, it's impossible to resist to her tearful rounded voice. The second aria from Edgar (''Nel villaggio d'Edgar'') is the most impressive of all arias in the album. First, because it's a big surprise that such an enchanting aria is so rarely recorded; second, because Gheorghiu shows the all the qualities that made her one of the leading sopranos of our times: her steady and dark-coloured middle, her floating pianissimi and her magnificent technique, which allows her to sing wonderful trills. Other extremely beautiful performances the arias from Manon Lescaut, Suor Angelica, Le Villi e Madama Butterfly.

After listening to every tracks lots of times, I could find only two minor drawbacks in Gheorghiu's singing. In the last two years, she has tended to sing the lower notes as if they were spoken, which can either convey more dramaticism or disturb the purity of the vocal line. Besides, I've noticed that her former sweet and crystalline high notes are turning into a more powerful and metallic sound... and also with more vibrato. Maybe that's just the case of a lyric soprano who's turning into a spinto, but I really think she should protect her precious high range.

Angela Gheorghiu, being the most complete singer actress of our days, has a complete idea of how to use the words and the melody to dramatic effect. Her dramaticism isn't screamy or exaggerated at all. Actually, it's subtle and naïve, but nevertheless powerful and impressive. Of course, in an album of excerpted arias she doesn't have the opportunity to give deep dramatic insights to each role. However, if her interpretations are always involved in a deep feminineness and innocence, she's able to express completely different personalities. After all, the icy Turandot, the tragic Cio-Cio-San, the naïve Mimì, all of them are, above all, passionate women. Her most complete characterizations are revealed in the despair of Manon Lescaut's aria (''Sola, perduta, abbandonata'') and in the Heavenly sadness of Angelica's ''Senza mamma''. Her lyric tragic temperament, as well as her dark lyric voice, suits the (apparently) fragile heroines (Mimì, Cio-Cio-San, Liù, Angelica, etc.) better than the fiery roles (Turandot and Minnie) or the sexy ones (Musetta). However, being a true artist, Gheorghiu's performances of both Turandot's and Minnie's arias are not only beautifully sung, but also dramatically effective, though one can easily notice she's not the ideal performer of those roles.

So, what can I say about the conducting? Well, here the conductor seemed as he was against, and not for, the singer. Conductor Anton Coppola preferred the slow tempos in almost every arias, and that sometimes can be disturbing. In the slow arias, like ''Addio, mio dolce amor'' or ''In quelle trine morbide'', everything's right. However, in the faster parts, which requires a lively conducting in order to deliver all the details of the melody, the conducting is so slow, and even monotone, that some wonderful melodies simply don't exist. Fortunately, most of times, Gheorghiu manages to use her voice and dramatic inflections, recovering the subtle details of Puccini's music.

In overall, I recommend this vocally amazing album not only for fans of Angela Gheorghiu, but also for everyone who loves the music of Puccini and wants to know Gheorghiu's artistry. No doubt it has some drawbacks, but there's so much wonderful singing and so many moving interpretations you will listen it only with your heart!

I am a big fan of Angela Gheorghiu and support her work because I believe all of her projects are high quality due her unique instrument and musical/theatrical instincts. This CD is no exception, although some of the repertoire is still above her head.
I do believe overall, everything on the CD is well sung and her voice remains consistent and secure, illustrating a very good technique. However, many of these arias require a spinto edge to the sound which has not totally developed in Gheorghiu. The most obvious being "In Questa Reggia" which really requires a trumpeting dramatic voice to really thrill the audience. In a hall, Gheorghiu's voice would not be adequate. The special moments are in full lyric arias she is known for. La Rondine shines, Mimi is of course her signature, and the Suor Angelica is hauntingly poignent and beautiful. Liu's arias are also well suited. One negative; Gheorghiu tends to suffer from a minor pitch deficiency sometimes, due to the way she colors her tone. However, the effects she achieves by doing this outweigh the human error. Callas was notorious for singing sharp, and now she's revered as the greatest Opera star ever. It made for exciting music. Perfection is dull and lacks emotion and artistry. I hear great potential in future endeavors with Butterfly and I'm sure Manon Lescaut will be one of her signature roles later in her career. These last two operas however require that same spinto edge which Gheorghiu needs to continue developing. I hope to witness these productions when they come to pass, but not just yet.

Angela Gheorgiou can sing Puccini like nobody's bussiness, but something is missing from this collection. It's good, with few rough spots (and admittedly, pitch issues) but I don't want "good" from Angela, I want GREAT! She can do better. She can sing these arias with more passion, better technique and I just don't understand what has happened to her. There is sameness to all these arias, and not much color or variation.
Vissi D'arte is very good, and In questa Regia is great, very different from how it is usually done, but Tu, Tu, Piccolo Iddio is not good at all and I don't like Quando Me N'vo either, I have heard much better performances of this classic, especially by Anna Netrebko, who is hot on Angela's heels as the next great diva. Watch your back, dear Angela!
Also, the programming on this album is strange, why is Vissi D'arte on a seperate disc...?
For anyone who loves this voice, it would still be a nice recital, but I am disappointed, I expected better.

Angela Gheorghiu is one of those rare, beautiful, addictive, lyrical voices that one wants to listen to again and again. I do not know what it is: the voice itself, the colour, the crafted execution, the beautiful timbre...maybe all combined together to make a listening pleasure that begs you to come back again and again. I love this CD and I also recommend it for its artistic presentation.

Buy this CD and stay with it for a day or two. You'll eventually be won over, even if you belong to another
"camp".

OK: We all know there is a type of "opera queen" of all sexes and sexual orientations that thrive on bashing
certain singers while lauding others. This is not a war. I resisted Gheroghiu for years due to the hype and
marketing. I have not heard her live, so I don't know if she is out-faching herself by singing damn near
everything alla Callas.

What I DO hear is a rather "ugly" voice (again alla Callas) that is so distinctive as to be instantly recognizable. There is that middle European "keening", rapid vibrato quality that Vishnevskaya had.

What I hear above ALL however, is commitment and passion. There are pitch problems, AGAIN alla Callas, sharp
here, flat there, driven "ugly" sounds: all the hallmarks of the Kunstdiva, of which I think she might be the
reigning example in our time.

The Puccini style here is questionable: let's lay that off on the conductor.

Fleming, Gheorghiu, Netrebko, et al: committed, intelligent, driven women who make the world a better place
in which to live and listen.

Have your favorites, and lay off the others in print.

One can only wish that this album continued much as it starts off, with two fine pieces of singing out of Cio-cio San's arias from Butterfly, which for the moment I heard them, had me almost rethinking my overall assessment of Angela Gheorghiu. She limns the melodic shapes of both with lighter tone, and gets the most effective and specific-to-character lyricism this way. Senza Mamma from Suor Angelica, a favorite aria of mine, and one I dreaded hearing on this disc after I had listened to so much else on it, is fortunately nearly as effective.

Signs of trouble begin to emerge right before the end of Tu, tu piccolo iddio, which frequently turns into almost a screamfest, and yet does not here. Anton Coppola allows the line, when to himself for a sustained period of time, to sag and lose connection with the closing half-entrance of Pinkerton at the end, whose final note expands almost a whole tone. As for Coppola's conducting, so many arias on this disc, accompanied supportively and sensitively enough, is sluggish though, and fails to carry the line out to the end of at least half a dozen arias on this disc.

Following this comes the first of two selections from Edgar, Puccini's second opera. Fidelia's aria from the closing part of this opera (Act 2 or 3, depending on what version you hear) takes place at the funeral of the supposedly dead title character, who shows up moments afterwards. I remember, from an NPR broadcast, that Fidelia is a simple peasant girl, and from the Italian and the trumpets in the background, assume that some military bravery of the main character is addressed. All that is fine, but Ms Gheorghiu makes all three lunges to high B-Flats all she can make of them, losing all sense of the shape of this piece and the specific character that she is portraying here. The tone is relentlessly mezzo forte and above, always at no further than three notes into each phrase. The chorus comes in, to maximize the effect, with nowhere to go with the dynamics that have already built up, and one gets the impression that the small village in which this piece takes place, must also be home to some massive cathedral of sorts. The second Edgar aria goes better than the first. The one aria from Le Villi, mostly because of intonation problems, and for a character of similar background to Fidelia, is lacking in clear definition of character again.

Che il sogno di Doretta from La Rondine hints at, but fails to quite entirely deliver the relaxed feeling this aria should convey. Questions about intonation begin to crop up here. The tendency to hold on to high notes with inflexibly loud, straight delivery of them has already started to sound oppressive. The inner strengths of Mimi are more front and center on Gheorghiu's mind than vulnerability, and so that the Donde liete lacks charm and the inner sense of resignation that can make the piece heartbreaking, which it isn't here. She brings out enough of the coquette of Musetta, but suffers some real intonation problems here - the tendency to slide up to pitch on a held note or, even as it seems here, to switch pitches on the same held note, as with the first note of Musetta's waltz. The Signore, ascolta from Turandot near the end of the disc is awkwardly phrased and tuned, for being sung too dark and placed back again, yet Gheorghiu finds the right pathos for the second aria. O mio babbino caro also goes too weightily, if less morosely so than on the new Netrebko recital disc. One high held note goes painfully flat. How is it, with Lauretta's aria, we can not two times in a row do better than this? It implies that coming up with the right singer for this part has become difficult.

This brings us to Laggiu nel Soledad from Fanciulla del West. First of all, it is much more a Andante, quasi Adagio, than an Andantino. It also lacks the conversational manner it is supposed to convey, not to mention the winsomeness and deep fortitude and satisfaction with her plight (and which goes a long way in helping a redeemed Ramerrez survive a near-date with destiny at the end) that Minnie is all about. Gheorghiu, as with her Edgar arias, leads me to suspect that she did not know either of these two parts, from which arias here are excerpts, before she recorded them. Third and last, Ms Gheorghiu improvises a high C at the end, after having proven the truly written one half a dozen notes earlier, while so many other singers go for a high A instead of the low one marked (asking for a drop of a minor seventh instead of going up a whole tone) in the orchestral score. At least, being on the same pitch an octave up does not musically make nonsense of Rance's interjection at the end. The aria immediately precedes In quelle trine from Manon Lescaut, which emerges with similarly distraught tone, a bit of an exaggeration for that piece, but completely out of line for the Fanciulla aria.

The disc closes with In questa reggia from Turandot. Thank heavens, Gheorghiu did not opt for similar vocalism for the finale of Butterfly near the start of the disc, because to be humane, a mandatory house pet evacuation would have to take place much earlier. Gheorghiu is on target, concerning what character she is singing here, except that the closing part of it is just way too strenuous for her voice. She should read and listen up on the vocal plight of one singer who Karajan once had record the entire role of Turandot.

In addition to the condescension of interpolating the high C at the end of Laggiu, the impression is felt that there is someone twiddling with the volume knobs or mixing board for several arias here, including the In questa reggia, yet also Musetta's waltz of all things, and Sola perduta, abbandonata from Manon Lescaut. This is also oppressive on the complete Tosca with Alagna, and especially on Gheorghiu's behalf. The condescending attitude to the buying public and particularly to listeners of this disc could not be more clear, and a large part of the reason why I rate this disc at two stars instead of three, when it had started out, in my mind, shooting at four, or perhaps as it is rated by two other people here, at five. So inconsistent is this singer and artist.

My personal rating is 5 stars, but I'm just biased to everything Romanian, the public rating derives from the fact that people need an objective as possible review, and that lead me to the flaws:
Ms. Gheorghiu's voice is there as always, with it's dark, round timbre but, as I beleive a fellow reviewer has noted, they sound a bit alike. The usual passion she injects in this music is not entirely present, she somehow sounds uninspired.
Even so, the good outweighs the bad, and that's what makes this an excellent addition to your musical library; there's not a misplaced note anywhere, her gorgeous voice is a delight to the ears, and the musical selection is quite good and interesting, even if she's not up to the challenge of Turandot (at least not yet). For some reason that I don't share, a few people have found the conducting bad, but that's the aspect I pay less attention to, unless it's enormously obvious.
In short, this is a disc fans of Gheorghiu and good singing can't miss.

I have been listening to Gheorghiu since she came on the scene about 12 years ago. I have always thought she has a lovely voice and tremendous potential. But none of her recordings ever really fulfilled it, and neither does this one. I am starting to think that maybe for one reason or another, she is not going to realize her potential.

Her basic voice is still lovely but it is starting to go hard on the top, witnessed the strident high notes in some of the arias here. The bottom of her voice is still weak and amazingly for a recording, very often her pitch is really, very bad! Why not just go back and re-record the out of pitch parts? It also seems to be heavily edited, the balance between the orchestra and voice seems plastic. Plus who is kidding who, some of these roles she could never succeed with in an opera house. And really how many times do we need her to record Mimi's or Liu's arias or Doretta, if it isn't going to grow and improve then what is the point?

Ultimately there is not much personality in these pieces unfortunately - they sound like one generalized Puccini type character. Other singers with lesser voices manage to bring each character and feeling to life as an individual - these just plod along with no vitality. If this was a first CD I would still be talking about potential. But with more than 10 years on the stage she ought to be able to bring more depth and conviction.

Maybe Gheorghiu just doesn't "have it" after all.

I really liked Gheorghiu the first time that I heard her. I thought that she was probably the best soprano out there in the spotlight. After hearing this CD, however, I have really changed my mind. First of all, she sings flat in alot in this CD. Secondly, her technique is showing some flaws now in that she can not always pronounce the words correctly. So she makes some strange sounds. For example, "Tu, tu, tu" which should be pronounced with a pure 'oo' sound is pronounced 'tuh'. I also feel that her voice is a bit frantic in alot of parts with her middle range and chest voice being weak and uncoordinated. How unfortunate! She needs to get it together or she is going down the toilet.

New releases by Angela Gheorghiu always arouse comment. This Puccini arias/scenes disc has beautiful singing from Gheorghiu, however, I find a sameness in her singing, whether she be singing an aria from Butterfly or Turandot. She colours her voice well and finds the right sense of melancholy for many of these tender heroines. I am upset that a better conductor was not sourced to compliment Gheorghiu on this recital disc. Coppola's tempi plod through each one of these masterpieces and I feel that with more freedom, the singing would have reached a higher plane