Aside from looking like Rita Hayworth in the CD cover photo (almost worth the buy), this does nothing for Angela Gheorghiu’s reputation. And I consider myself one of her fans: I love the somewhat mysterious, dusky grain in her voice, her intelligent use of the text, her ability to mold a phrase, and the never-obvious ways she dips into chest voice or into the gleaming top register, which seems to be available at many dynamic levels. But here, in a concert recorded live at Covent Garden last June (and with what seems like hours of applause included), she’s way below her best form. I won’t elaborate too much, but the first selection, “Lascia ch’io pianga” from Handel’s Rinaldo, is moribundly slow and altogether wrongly conceived, the Countess’ “Porgi amor” from Figaro suffers from pitch problems (although the right melancholy quality is present), Louise’s “Depuis le jour” finds Gheorghiu landing in the wrong tonal neighborhood (south, that is) severely enough to make you slightly queasy, Manon’s “Adieu, notre petite table” is indelicate, the cabaletta to “Casta diva” makes clear why we haven’t heard her sing rapid-scale bel canto music before (i.e., she can’t do it without losing breath or blurring the runs), and “I could have danced all night”, offered as a “fun” encore, is revolting and unidiomatic in the extreme.
She’s very good as Adriana (spectacular, in fact) and Butterfly, with Lauretta and Liu not far behind (though the final note of the latter’s third-act aria is sung with great feeling, great volume, and off-key), but it’s not enough. And an aria by Romanian composer Tiberiu Brediceanu allows us to understand why we’ve never heard any of his music before. Ion Marin is the conductor, the orchestra plays well, the sound distorts near the CD’s start but gets better as it goes on. Of course Gheorghiu’s voice remains impressive and gorgeous, but EMI has done neither her nor her fans any favors by releasing this disc.