Delibes: Les filles de Cadix

Lyne Fortin is one of Canada’s foremost sopranos and is as much at ease performing on the opera stage as being a guest with an orchestra or in recital. Here she invites us on a visit of the Gardens of Spain and her programme includes new takes on popular old Spanish songs by Joaquín Nin and Fernando Obradors, as well as works by Wolf, Bizet, Weill and Richard Strauss.

Celine Byrne may have been a late-comer to the world of opera: she was eighteen years old and working as an au-pair in Italy when she first heard opera sung live, which persuaded her to take singing lessons. Scroll forward to today and among Celine's achievements are her Carnegie Hall debut, a broadcast to over 200 million people in China, and winning the Maria Callas Grand Prix in 2007. Truly, her star is in the ascendant.

Now, Celine Byrne releases her debut CD For Eternity on the RTÉ lyric fm label. While she has a refreshing affinity with the opera classics like Ebben n'andrò lontana from La Wally, and Puccini's Vissi d'arte and Sì, mi chiamano Mimì, she also displays her remarkable voice on several songs from the Spanish zarzuela tradition to which she was introduced by José Carreras.

Accompanied by the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra and Studio Choir conducted by Marco Zambelli, CELINE BYRNE: FOR ETERNITY heralds a remarkable new voice to all lovers of great singing. Even the critics love her!

Russian-born soprano Rita Streich, also known as the ‘Viennese Nightingale’, was a much-admired singer of the post World War Two era, who made many popular recordings.

Her bright pearly voice was a light coloratura, and her repertoire included much lieder, as well as operas by Mozart, and also classical Viennese operetta.

Rita Streich’s naturally vivacious and charming personality comes across in this delightful collection of various light musical ‘bon-bons’ which is drawn from her immensely popular recordings of the 1950’s. She was adept in several languages and so very well equipped to sing this eclectic mixture of vocal waltzes, songs and arias from operas, opéras comique and operettas, which show off her range of vocal abilities, from her effortless coloratura to her sweet, melting way with a melody.

The collection includes some old favourites, less familiar pieces and some rarities. There are pretty vocal waltzes such as Johann Strauss’ Voices of Spring, the Shadow Song from Meyerbeer’s Dinorah and Luigi Arditi’s Parla Waltz, lilting melodies such as Delibes’ Les filles de Cadix, Saint-Saëns’ beautiful Le rossignol et la rose and Verdi’s delightful Lo spazzocamino, arias from Suppé’s operetta Boccaccio (or The Prince of Palermo) and Dvorˇák’s gorgeous Song of the Moon from Rusalka. There are also rarer pieces by less well-known composers, such as a Dell’Acqua’s song Villanelle, Czernik’s tarantella Chi sa?, and an aria from Benjamin Godard’s opera Jocelyn.

Victoria de los Ángeles’ son Alex has Down's Syndrome and she used to sing many of the songs on this disc to him. The CD is a collaboration between the Victoria de los Ángeles Foundation and the Catalan Down Syndrome Foundation. The project includes the voices and paintings of children with Down Syndrome.

Hot on the heels of her recent Shostakovich release, Argentinian cellist Sol Gabetta exploits her incredibly warn, rich tone in this programme of attractive arrangements of popular classical works.