This duo-recital disc by two of the world’s leading Czech singers starts out poorly and zooms downhill. Dagmar Peckova is the better-known of the two. Her rich mezzo voice has been well heard in Mahler and Janacek; here the closest she comes to “good” is in a Tchaikovsky aria, although her boyish sound is nicely suited to Cherubino’s “Voi che sapete” as well. Her Rosina in Il barbiere is closer to Lady Macbeth than any other character that comes to mind (although she does hit almost all of the “little” notes); her Marguerite in La Damnation de Faust is uninflected and cold; and she lumbers through Leonore’s third act scene from Donizetti’s La favorite like a truckdriver. As Zerlina in “La ci darem…” she is awkward and unenticing, her Papagena has to be heard to be pitied, and by the time she portrays Mignon in the opera by Thomas, at the CD’s close, we don’t care.
Baritone Ivan Kusnjer has a brightish sound and good energy, but he slurs Figaro’s runs, is not very sexy as Don Giovanni, and is as light as an ox as Papageno. His singing of “Vision fugitive” from Massenet’s Herodiade is, however, splendid. This was recorded live–the audience is enthusiastic, but not overwhelmed. Jan Stych’s accompaniments are lifeless. You will be disappointed, no matter how low your expectations.
