{"id":89022,"date":"2024-06-01T00:46:54","date_gmt":"2024-06-01T04:46:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/operawire.com\/?p=89022"},"modified":"2024-06-01T09:19:11","modified_gmt":"2024-06-01T13:19:11","slug":"cd-review-angela-gheorghius-a-te-puccini","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/operawire.com\/cd-review-angela-gheorghius-a-te-puccini\/","title":{"rendered":"CD Review: Angela Gheorghiu\u2019s &#8216;A te, Puccini&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cA te, Puccini.\u201d &#8211; The title to Angela Gheorghiu\u2019s latest release has all the ring of a bitter-sweet tribute, a melancholy love declaration right in time for the centenary of the composer\u2019s death in 1924. The program is not your usual Puccini; instead, it is a compilation of 17 songs, including one world-premiere (\u201cMelanconia!\u201d), written mostly for informal purposes like moving to a different house (\u201cCasa mia, casa mia\u201d) or as a graduation exercise for school in Milan (\u201cMentia l\u2019avviso\u201d). They even serve as the somewhat unpolished testing grounds for melodies which would later be recycled in full-scale operas, notably \u201cLa Boh\u00e8me\u201d (\u201cSole e amore\u201d), \u201cGianni Schicchi\u201d (\u201cCanto d\u2019anime\u201d), and \u201cLa Rondine\u201d (\u201cSogno d\u2019or\u201d).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In short, the songs do not easily fit existing categorization. It would be quite unfair to judge them by any preconceived standards of the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lied <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">repertoire, let alone dismiss them as quasi-operatic curiosities, if not appetizers. Angela Gheorghiu chooses her own path, and at 58, stands to balance tonal beauty with the power of interpretation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>\u201cThe Unknown Puccini\u201d<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The songs were comprehensively reproduced in \u201cThe Unknown Puccini,\u201d Michael Kaye\u2019s landmark publication from 1987. It provided the editorial basis for Pl\u00e1cido Domingo\u2019s homonymous recital on CBS Masterworks and, in 2017, for an equally delightful Naxos release with soprano Krassimira Stoyanova.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yet neither are quite comparable to the solemnity of Angela Gheorghiu\u2019s interpretation. The latter is less operatic than Stoyanova but more dramatically inclined than Domingo. Most characteristically, she appears to embrace the cosmetic flaws of her slightly worn instrument, including an unreliably wavering pitch and the occasional sharpness of tone. In the triumphant \u201cInno a Roma,\u201d for instance, the interpretation\u2019s ongoing <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">forte<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is unwieldy at best, and the fluidity of Gheorghiu\u2019s phrasing is hampered by the strenuousness of the physical demands.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Conversely, she stays in technical control over the flourishes and dynamic variations. Her unfailingly honeyed <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">mezza voce <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">makes up for any physiological shortcomings otherwise. For example, the bitterly Romantic \u201cMentia l\u2019avviso\u201d resonates with unending tenderness, despite the moderately noticeable strain of the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">scena<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2019s climactic middle part.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Similarly, the pathos-laden \u201cSalve Regina\u201d gives the singer ample opportunity to showcase a rendition of deeply felt spirituality. Gheorghiu finds a slightly toned-down expression which conveniently blends out the piece\u2019s rather naive affiliation with the operatic output of the Giovane Scuola (it will eventually be integrated into the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Preghiera<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of \u201cLe Villi\u201d).<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Farewell?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Her artistic integrity makes it justifiably hard to fault Angela Gheorghiu for the waning capabilities of a voice among the most gracefully gifted in past decades; after all, it had made the ever so distinguished Georg Solti cry! Much of this ability to move still seems in place and with some benevolence, one might designate the vocal wear as a superficial patina to her innately appealing tone.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But even an optimist, when pressed, would have to concede that \u201cA te, Puccini\u201d is not just an aleatory homage to one of opera\u2019s all-time greats. It closes with the recently rediscovered \u201cMelanconia!\u201d from where there is no going back to the youthfulness of Mimi, Tosca, and Butterfly. Consequently, Angela Gheorghiu has moved on; not a swan song, but a farewell perhaps, hers is the most significant contribution to the Puccini year yet.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cA te, Puccini.\u201d &#8211; The title to Angela Gheorghiu\u2019s latest release has all the ring of a bitter-sweet tribute, a melancholy love declaration right in time for the centenary of the composer\u2019s death in 1924. The program is not your usual Puccini; instead, it is a compilation of 17 songs, including one world-premiere (\u201cMelanconia!\u201d), written mostly for informal purposes like&nbsp;{&hellip;}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":83301,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[72,8],"tags":[147],"class_list":["post-89022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dvd-and-cd-reviews","category-in-review","tag-angela-gheorghiu"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>CD Review: Angela Gheorghiu\u2019s &#039;A te, Puccini&#039; - OperaWire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Consequently, Angela Gheorghiu has moved on; not a swan song, but a farewell perhaps, hers is the most significant contribution to the Puccini year yet.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/operawire.com\/cd-review-angela-gheorghius-a-te-puccini\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"CD Review: Angela Gheorghiu\u2019s &#039;A te, Puccini&#039; 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