Puccini: Donde lieta usci (from La Bohème) (Mimi's Farewell)

Arias by Wagner, Mozart, Gounod, Verdi, Mascagni and Puccini show off the ‘golden voice’ of Victoria de Los Angeles. Super budget price.

Mirella Freni was one of Herbert von Karajan’s favourite singers; indeed, he is known to have commented that if he could have any voice in the world, it would be hers. Combining a stunning voice with heartfelt acting, Freni is equally at home in the lighter roles, such as Mozart’s Susanna and Zerlina, as in the weightier roles of Puccini’s Manon Lescaut and Tosca. This collection brings together arias from throughout Freni’s illustrious career.

Cheryl Barker first broke the hearts of audiences worldwide as Mimì in Baz Luhrman’s imaginative production of La bohème. In Puccini ≡ Passion the radiant Australian soprano delivers beguiling performances in a panoply of Puccini’s heroines in favourite arias, accompanied by the State Orchestra of Victoria under the baton of Richard Bonynge.

Opera expert Rodney Milnes comments in the booklet: “Puccini famously liked to write about "little women", but he gave them "big" music, which is one thing that makes Cheryl Barker so ideal an interpreter of his soprano roles ... her lyric soprano, with an indefinably sweet vibrancy built in to the tone, adds immeasurably to her appeal. With that vibrancy comes a sense of vulnerability, which helps her bring the characters alive in both vocal and dramatic terms ... This most welcome disc allows her to present an overview of Puccini's women from the very beginning.”

Issued for the first time on SACD, this disc is for all lovers of Puccini, encompassing his most popular soprano arias from Manon Lescaut, Tosca, La bohème and Madama Butterfly, one of Barker’s favourite roles, as well as arias from Le Villi, Edgar, La rondine, Suor Angelica, Gianni Schicci and Turandot. Barker ends with two little known treasures, the folksong-like ‘E l’uccellino’, and ‘Sole e amore’, an 1888 song whose melody Puccini later re-used in La bohème. And in a departure from his usual repertoire Richard Bonynge brings fresh imagination and sparkle to Puccini’s masterful orchestral palette.

Cheryl Barker’s most recent CD, also for Melba and released in 2011, was Pure Diva (MR301129), a very personal tribute to her teacher and fellow Australian soprano, the great Dame Joan Hammond.

“She [Angela Gheorghiu] has earned her place as one of the best sopranos of her generation and it has been said that her voice is ‘…perhaps the most instantly recognizable and interesting soprano voice of our time… a liquid instrument of great beauty” Gramophone

“The world's most glamorous opera star” New York Sun

Homage to Maria Callas is a collection of beloved French and Italian operatic masterpieces performed by Angela Gheorghiu, the defining diva of this century. The programme is inspired by the career and recordings of Maria Callas, the greatest diva of the last century. The arias are shared favourites of both Callas and Gheorghiu, and Angela’s new recording demonstrates once again her extraordinary vocal and emotional range.

Angela Gheorghiu said recently, “Callas was original in everything she did; she was a phenomenon. In every performance she gave her all. She was the most wonderful painter and you can always hear exactly the right colour in her voice. Just hearing her sound, you understand all the power or fragility of her emotions. That's a rare talent and a great gift.” Gheorghiu continued, “EMI was her record label and it’s mine too. It feels like a family”.

Recorded at London’s iconic Abbey Road Studios in London and in New York, the repertoire of Gheorghiu’s first studio recital in six years (during which time she recorded several complete operas, including a multi-award-winning Madama Butterfly), shows her versatility in lyric, spinto and mezzo roles, with each of which she feels a strong emotional connection. These include Mimi (La bohème), Marguerite (Faust), Imogene (Il pirata), Adriana (Adriana Lecouvreur - an opera which Gheorghiu added to her repertoire in 2010 to great critical acclaim), Maddalena (Andrea Chénier), Nedda (Pagliacci), Wally (La Wally), Medea, Chimène (Le Cid) and Delilah (Samson et Delilah). The new album also includes two arias from the opera that launched her career: La traviata by Verdi, New York Magazine praised at the time that “Her lady of the camellias is a worthy successor to Garbo and Callas.” Here she sings Violetta’s closing scene from Act I, in which the heroine wonders whether it is worth sacrificing her precious freedom to take young Alfredo as a lover. ‘It was very important for me to have this aria here. I’ve sung the role a lot on stage, but I haven’t ever recorded it in the studio’ adds Angela.

Angela Gheorghiu was born in Romania. In 1992, she made her international debut at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, followed the same year by debuts at the Metropolitan Opera and the Wiener Staatsoper. Since then, she has graced the stages of the world’s opera houses and concert halls, excelling both vocally and dramatically. Today, at the height of her career – and looking as glamorous as ever - she is widely recognised by critics and opera lovers as one of the great sopranos of all time.

In 1998, Gheorghiu signed an exclusive contract with EMI Classics for whom she has recorded Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Tosca and Il trittico, Massenet’s Manon and Werther, Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, Bizet’s Carmen and Verdi’s Il trovatore, several duet albums with Roberto Alagna and concerts with orchestra or choir and orchestra including Verdi’s Requiem, Live from La Scala, Live from Covent Garden, Casta Diva, My Puccini, and Diva.

She has collaborated with Sir Georg Solti, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Claudio Abbado and Antonio Pappano, among others. Her performances as Marguerite in Gounod’s Faust, Magda in Puccini’s La rondine and Mimi in La bohème with the Royal Opera House and the Metropolitan Opera have been released on DVD by EMI Classics. Gheorghiu’s discography and videography have received wide critical acclaim and many prestigious awards in the UK, France, Belgium, German, Italy, and the United States.

After Angela Gheorghiu’s July 2011, performances as Tosca with Jonas Kaufmann and Bryn Terfel at The Royal Opera House under the baton of Antonio Pappano, The Independent wrote, “Gheorghiu, like Tosca, is a born diva.” The Guardian added, “Her bloodcurdling outburst at the realisation that [Mario] is dead, not merely pretending, reminded us why this Romanian diva draws the crowds.” This production will be screened in cinemas around the world in the autumn.

Angela Gheorghiu’s 2011-2012 season includes performances in Gounod’s Faust at London’s Royal Opera House, in Puccini’s La bohème at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, the Staatsoper Hamburg, the Nationaltheater, Munich and La Scala, Milan, a concert performance of Cilèa’s Adriana Lecouvreur at New York’s Carnegie Hall and song recitals in Tokyo, Essen, Washington, D.C. and Paris.

- Deluxe Edition comprises a CD encased in a hardcover book containing an essay from Angela in three languages, a gallery of glamorous new photos and exclusive access to a video and mini-feature on the making of the CD.

“She [Angela Gheorghiu] has earned her place as one of the best sopranos of her generation and it has been said that her voice is ‘…perhaps the most instantly recognizable and interesting soprano voice of our time… a liquid instrument of great beauty” Gramophone

“The world's most glamorous opera star” New York Sun

Homage to Maria Callas is a collection of beloved French and Italian operatic masterpieces performed by Angela Gheorghiu, the defining diva of this century. The programme is inspired by the career and recordings of Maria Callas, the greatest diva of the last century. The arias are shared favourites of both Callas and Gheorghiu, and Angela’s new recording demonstrates once again her extraordinary vocal and emotional range.

Angela Gheorghiu said recently, “Callas was original in everything she did; she was a phenomenon. In every performance she gave her all. She was the most wonderful painter and you can always hear exactly the right colour in her voice. Just hearing her sound, you understand all the power or fragility of her emotions. That's a rare talent and a great gift.” Gheorghiu continued, “EMI was her record label and it’s mine too. It feels like a family”.

Recorded at London’s iconic Abbey Road Studios in London and in New York, the repertoire of Gheorghiu’s first studio recital in six years (during which time she recorded several complete operas, including a multi-award-winning Madama Butterfly), shows her versatility in lyric, spinto and mezzo roles, with each of which she feels a strong emotional connection. These include Mimi (La bohème), Marguerite (Faust), Imogene (Il pirata), Adriana (Adriana Lecouvreur - an opera which Gheorghiu added to her repertoire in 2010 to great critical acclaim), Maddalena (Andrea Chénier), Nedda (Pagliacci), Wally (La Wally), Medea, Chimène (Le Cid) and Delilah (Samson et Delilah). The new album also includes two arias from the opera that launched her career: La traviata by Verdi, New York Magazine praised at the time that “Her lady of the camellias is a worthy successor to Garbo and Callas.” Here she sings Violetta’s closing scene from Act I, in which the heroine wonders whether it is worth sacrificing her precious freedom to take young Alfredo as a lover. ‘It was very important for me to have this aria here. I’ve sung the role a lot on stage, but I haven’t ever recorded it in the studio’ adds Angela.

Angela Gheorghiu was born in Romania. In 1992, she made her international debut at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, followed the same year by debuts at the Metropolitan Opera and the Wiener Staatsoper. Since then, she has graced the stages of the world’s opera houses and concert halls, excelling both vocally and dramatically. Today, at the height of her career – and looking as glamorous as ever - she is widely recognised by critics and opera lovers as one of the great sopranos of all time.

In 1998, Gheorghiu signed an exclusive contract with EMI Classics for whom she has recorded Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Tosca and Il trittico, Massenet’s Manon and Werther, Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, Bizet’s Carmen and Verdi’s Il trovatore, several duet albums with Roberto Alagna and concerts with orchestra or choir and orchestra including Verdi’s Requiem, Live from La Scala, Live from Covent Garden, Casta Diva, My Puccini, and Diva.

She has collaborated with Sir Georg Solti, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Claudio Abbado and Antonio Pappano, among others. Her performances as Marguerite in Gounod’s Faust, Magda in Puccini’s La rondine and Mimi in La bohème with the Royal Opera House and the Metropolitan Opera have been released on DVD by EMI Classics. Gheorghiu’s discography and videography have received wide critical acclaim and many prestigious awards in the UK, France, Belgium, German, Italy, and the United States.

After Angela Gheorghiu’s July 2011, performances as Tosca with Jonas Kaufmann and Bryn Terfel at The Royal Opera House under the baton of Antonio Pappano, The Independent wrote, “Gheorghiu, like Tosca, is a born diva.” The Guardian added, “Her bloodcurdling outburst at the realisation that [Mario] is dead, not merely pretending, reminded us why this Romanian diva draws the crowds.” This production will be screened in cinemas around the world in the autumn.

Angela Gheorghiu’s 2011-2012 season includes performances in Gounod’s Faust at London’s Royal Opera House, in Puccini’s La bohème at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, the Staatsoper Hamburg, the Nationaltheater, Munich and La Scala, Milan, a concert performance of Cilèa’s Adriana Lecouvreur at New York’s Carnegie Hall and song recitals in Tokyo, Essen, Washington, D.C. and Paris.

- Standard Edition consists of a CD in a digipack with a booklet excerpting Gheorghiu’s essay. Both Deluxe and Standard editions feature song texts in English, French, German and the original language, if different, as well as booklet text in all three languages;

- Standard Digital Version offers the entire standard CD contents.

“A true artist” BBC Music Magazine

The Albanian-born soprano Inva Mula will open the Paris Opéra’s 2009-10 season in the title role of Gounod’s rarely heard Mireille, a tragic story of farming folk in 19th-century Provence. Two arias from the work feature on this recital alongside favourite extracts from Faust, Thaïs and Manon, demonstrating Mula’s credentials as one of the best ‘French’ sopranos of today (she is Micaëla in the EMI Classics Carmen conducted by Michel Plasson); her achievements in the Italian repertoire are represented by arias from La Traviata, Rigoletto, La Bohème, La Rondine and Gianni Schicchi.

After her appearance as Violetta at France’s Orange Festival, Andante wrote that: “The soprano … was a revelation: her Violetta was confident, passionate and utterly convincing … a sharply detailed, nuanced portrayal that had real emotional impact ...This dramatic ability, combined with a rare vocal power, lit up the stage”; her Gilda in Barcelona prompted Opera News to judge that: “The delicate Albanian soprano Inva Mula was an almost perfect Gilda. The crystal clarity of her projection and the miraculously sustained soft notes were most effective in Act I. Mula realized a very difficult aspect of Gilda’s character: she managed to show that although Gilda loses her ignorance, she does not lose her innocence. Mula played the progression with great emotional power.”

A recent DVD of La bohème caused the BBC Music Magazine to describe her as a “true artist … Inva Mula sings Mimì with melting sensitivity.” (She is Mimì in Paris in Autumn 2009.) The complete EMI recording of La rondine under Antonio Pappano features Mula in the role of the maid Lisette, but she has sung the principal role of Magda in Toulouse and Paris and in this recital performs the character’s first, glorious aria, “Ch’il bel sogno”

Inva Mula was born in the Albanian capital, Tirana, the daughter of Avni Mula, famous in Albania as a popular singer and composer. She won competitions in Tirana, Bucharest (the internationally renowned George Enescu Competition) and Barcelona and was also a prizewinner at the first Plácido Domingo Operalia competition in Paris in 1993.

In France she has appeared in Bizet’s Carmen and in his rarely heard La Jolie fille de Perth and Ivan IV, BelIini’s I puritani, Puccini’s Turandot, Gounod’s Faust, Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict, Lalo’s Le Roi d’Ys and Cherubini's Médée. In Italy -- where she collaborated regularly with Riccardo Muti, notably with the company of La Scala, Milan – her appearances have include La traviata, Lucia di Lammermoor, La Bohème, Manon, Rigoletto, L’elisir d’amore, Don Pasquale, Falstaff and Gianni Schicchi

At the Vienna State Opera she has starred in La Traviata and Les Contes d’Hoffmann and she has also made regular appearances in Germany and Spain; her US dates have included Los Angeles, Washington DC, Chicago and the New York Metropolitan and La Traviata has also taken her to London, Toronto and Japan.

Mula’s reputation extends beyond the world of opera houses and concert halls: in Luc Besson’s extravagant 1997 science fiction film The Fifth Element she provided the voice for the Diva Plavalaguna – tall, blue-skinned and tentacle-headed, performing part of the Mad Scene from Lucia di Lammermoor and supplying the piping vocalise for ‘The Diva Dance".

Armenian soprano Karine Babajanyan has made an international impact as Cio-Cio San in numerous Madama Butterfly productions and is one of today's outstanding performers of Puccini’s divas.

“Karine Babajanyan succeeds not only acting wise but also gives us a musically complex portrayal of the title heroin...” the press wrote about her debut at the Opera House Graz as Cio-Cio-San, a role she has since performed at the New National Theatre Tokyo, the Hamburg State Opera, the Opera House Frankfurt, the State Theatres of Saarbrucken and Wiesbaden, and at the Stuttgart State Opera.

Karine Babajanyan began her musical education with piano lessons at the age of seven and continued with singing and choir direction studies at the Erivan City Conservatory, graduating with distinction. After participating in master classes in Italy the young artist returned to her native country. Here, she received her first engagement at the Armenian National Opera.

The versatile artist is hailed by both the press and the public for her “…warm-timbred, youthful dramatic voice…” in all the important roles of her repertoire e.g. the Contessa in ‘Le nozze di Figaro’, Fiordiligi in ‘Cosi fan tutte’, Mimi in ‘La Bohéme’, Leonora in ‘Il Trovatore’, just to name a few.

In 2007 the attractive soprano made her widely noticed debut as Tosca at the Bregenz Festival in Austria – seen by cinema-goers worldwide in the opera scene in the James Bond film ‘Quantum Of Solace’.

Further guest performances took Karine to the Aalto Theatre in Essen, the Mannheim National Theatre, to Bern, Basle, Oslo, Dorset and Mexico, where she keeps celebrating triumphs in roles such as Tatjana (Eugen Onegin), Norma, Leonora (La forza del destino), Maria (Mazeppa)‚ Maddalena (Andrea Chénier) and the press comments “not only is her voice true, powerful and beautiful, but she has that natural presence with which only few are blessed”.

“There was great excitement at the British debut of Armenian soprano Karine Babajanyan in the title role, and she fully satisfied the anticipation. She has attracted rave reviews in Germany, Switzerland and Israel, and local audiences were indeed fortunate to see this remarkable singer so early in her career. Not only is her voice true, powerful and beautiful, but she has that natural presence with which only few are blessed, and her performance was magnetic” Blackmore Vale Magazine on Karine Babajanyan’s UK debut in Norma with Dorset Opera