Strauss, R: Grossmächtige Prinzessin (from Ariadne auf Naxos) (Zerbinetta's aria)

The multi-faceted German coloratura soprano, who has been described as “the Meryl Streep of classical music” shows her vocal and dramatic range with this collection of arias from the 19th and 20th centuries. The repertoire ranges from Rossini and Verdi to Stravinsky and Bernstein, from comedy to tragedy and covers four languages: German, Italian, French and English. It includes Zerbinetta’s marathon coloratura aria from Ariadne auf Naxos, one of the operas which spearheaded Damrau’s international career.

“Damrau has … strong opinions on the use of coloratura for dramatic effect,” wrote Opera News in an interview with the soprano. “Unlike some singers of previous generations, who were encouraged to cut back on the vocal garni by conductors who found the flourishes suspect, Damrau employs embellishments to emphasize the impact of language ….What's more, her Italian diction is superb, something that cannot always be said for Central and Eastern European artists. ‘Oh, I'm so glad to hear that,’ she says, ‘because I have a facility for languages, and I work very hard to communicate well.’ Whether Rosina [in Il barbiere di Siviglia] is expressing delight over Almaviva's furtive caress or anger over his imagined betrayal, Damrau deploys her clarity of speech to vivid effect; she points out that in ‘Una voce poco fa’,’ [featured on this recital] the word vipera is key — the girl knows full well she can be a viper. Later on, the bite she puts into the word traditore, for example, cuts to the quick.”

When Damrau performed Rosina at the Met, The New York Times wrote that: “the lovely German coloratura Diana Damrau was absolutely dazzling here. Interpolating extra-high roulades into the music, she brought her bright, clear and very sizable voice to the role, singing with impeccable accuracy and delightful impishness. This Rosina was no innocent. You immediately believed her when she explained in the touchstone aria ‘Una voce poca fa’ that though for the most part she is a docile and obedient thing, when crossed in love she becomes a viper.”

Donizetti also appears in this recital, with an aria from Linda di Chamounix. Damrau took on the challenge of following Natalie Dessay as Lucia di Lammermoor at the Met. “Ms. Damrau dispatched the passage-work, trills and top notes with aplomb,” wrote the New York Times. “Her sound was warm, plush and clear ... That Ms. Damrau executed the Mad Scene’s spiraling vocal roulades so accurately and held sustained tones with such penetrating steadiness lent a quality of eerie control to Lucia’s madness. And her gleaming top notes filled the house.”

“Diana Damrau is the most thrilling high soprano of our day.” The Observer

“The point with Damrau ... is that she’s fearless, impressively unpredictable, and about as far as possible from being a ‘production line’ soprano.” Classic FM magazine

If opera enthusiasts had to choose a singer as the quintessential coloratura soprano, the name of Edita Gruberova would be bound to come up. To the delight of her audiences, she has spent the last four decades exploring every corner of the coloratura repertory. The fact that throughout this period she has retained her timbre, flexibility and an upper range extending above top C is due to two factors: her sovereign technique and her intelligent choice of repertoire.

After making her professional début with a provincial company in her native Slovakia, Gruberova joined the Vienna State Opera, which remains her artistic home to this day. This new compilation of high points from Orfeo's Wiener Staatsoper Live series showcases her earliest decisive successes in the sort of lighter coloratura roles often sung by soubrettes: Norina in 'Don Pasquale' and above all Zerbinetta in 'Ariadne auf Naxos', a role to which she returned for 35 years. Lucia stayed for 30 years, allowing her to cast a powerful spell on audiences not only in Vienna but all over the world.

Starting with Lucia and with three of Mozart’s soprano roles, Donna Anna, Konstanze and Giunia in the rarely heard 'Lucio Silla', she began to develop in the direction of dramatic coloratura roles, a development that finally enabled her to tackle Bellini’s 'Norma'. Between these two extremes, Edita Gruberova’s career contains many other milestones that may all be enjoyed in this portrait from Vienna. Roles represented here include the titular heroine of Verdi’s 'La traviata' (with Alfredo Kraus as one of her many world-class partners), the flighty Manon in Massenet’s opera of the same name – one of only a handful of excursions into the French repertory – and her irresistible Adele in Johann Strauss’ operetta, 'Die Fledermaus'.

Central to the second half of Edita Gruberova’s 40-year reign at the Vienna State Opera are leading roles in bel canto operas, operas which without her be even more of a rarity: Elvira in 'I Puritani' and four of Donizetti’s dramatic coloratura roles, Elisabetta in 'Roberto Devereux' plus Maria Stuarda, Linda di Chamounix and, most recently, Lucrezia Borgia.

Alois Mühlbacher, the St. Florian choirboy has performed on the stage of the Vienna State Opera, impressing all who have heard him. On his debut CD he performs works which hitherto have been beyond the reach of any boy soprano with youthful lightheartedness and vocal genius.