Puccini: Con onor muore (from Madama Butterfly) (Butterfly's death scene, Suicide scene)

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.

Soprano Margaret Burke Sheridan (1889-1958) is Ireland's most enduring legend of the operatic stage. Born in Castlebar, County Mayo, she was orphaned at the age of eleven yet, by the time she was 29, Margaret Burke Sheridan made a dramatic debut on the professional stage. At four days' notice, still in vocal training, she was chosen to replace the indisposed soprano as Mimi in Puccini's La Bohème at Rome's Costanzi.

She performed with all the greats, including the tenors Aureliano Pertile and Beniamino Gigli, and conductor Arturo Toscanini, and was coached by Puccini himself. Singing on stages throughout the world, among them Covent Garden, in Milan and Naples, and at the prestigious Carnivale season at Rimini, Margaret Burke Sheridan ultimately retired early due to a combination of tragic personal and professional circumstances. There followed a long and desultory retirement in Dublin where, as one acquaintance noted, she became "an alien among her own, outrageous and witty." She died on 16th April 1958 and is buried in Glasnevin cemetery, Dublin.

Un Bel Di contains fifteen digitally remastered tracks including a live performance from Covent Garden in 1926 and five ballads never brought together on one CD before. This is truly the definitive Margaret Burke Sheridan collection.

This Irish soprano had outstanding talent coupled with powerful determination to succeed. Amazingly, she made a successful career in Italy between the World Wars. The years from 1922-1924 were her great years at La Scala. She enjoyed great popularity especially in the role of Butterfly which is included here.

This CD features soprano Amarilli Nizza singing Puccini’s most memorable arias.

The talented Milanese singer outlines Puccini’s heroines with her typical passion and emotional engagement.

1954 Recording. 1954 was for Callas an exceptionally busy year. As well as appearing regularly at La Scala, Milan and elsewhere in Italy, she made her American debut at the Chicago Lyric in November. Her September 1954 Watford Town Hall sessions featured on this recording were released on two albums, one devoted to Puccini arias, not without blemishes, and the second featuring a selection entitled Coloratura Lyric Arias, which remains justly famous to this day. In the two arias from Cilea’a Adriana Lecouvreur, Callus’ interpretation benefits from her remarkably expansive breath span. In Boito’s L’altra notte Callas revolutionises performance practise: she not only correctly sings all the written notes, but she understands implicitly what the dramatic situation calls for in her treatment of the cadenzas at the end of each verse. Throughout the remarkable length of her phrases, her choice of vocal colours, her command of rubato and her dynamic range reveal much more than one had thought the music contained.