(Cuban-American soprano Eglise Gutierrez, a new superstar in the-making in the international opera firmament)Lifelong love affairs … (Classical Notes by William Charlton-Perkins, by kind permission of The Mercury)
Strange how increasingly potent the pull of nostalgia becomes the older one grows, linking the senses with past associations. For me, the scent of freshly-mown lawn never fails to conjure up the distant sound of crickets, and memories of hazy summer afternoons at boarding school in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands.
Lifelong love-affairs with favourite singers from one’s youth grow ever deeper too, with the passage of time. The sonic splendour of Decca’s 1972 Turandot, wondrously capturing Dame Joan Sutherlands limitless reserves of power as she unleashes her legendary soprano on Puccini’s “In questa Reggia”, had me and a group of friends bouncing up and down with glee last week..
Ditto the diva’s languorous tones, melting seductively as they blended in unison with Franco Corelli’s tenor in the ravishing love duet, “O nuit d’amour”, from Gounod’s Faust - another Decca recording whose 1966 vintage beggars belief in its aural magnificence.
These were two shared moments of retrospective awe, to be put beside re-acquaintance with the velvet sheen and seamless legato of Leontyne Price’s singing of the aria, “Care selve”, from Handel’s Atalanta, as heard in her four-CD Prima Donna recital set, a traversal of soprano arias stretching across three centuries, from Henry Purcell to Benjamin Britten.
But life goes on, and Britain’s intrepid Opera Rara label continues to win one over to new experiences, lifting the curtain on neglected masterworks by 19th century masters. Two of its recent releases once again pertain to rarities by Gaetano Donizetti, recorded live during concert performances in London.
The first of these, which took place in 2008, offers the world premiere recording of Imelda de Lambertazzi, which has Sir Mark Elder at the helm of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, with period instruments and gut strings. It unveils a marvellous score imbued with musical delights, as one gorgeous aria or vocal ensemble succeeds the next, embedded in orchestral writing that is studded with superb solo opportunities for virtuoso players like clarinettist Antony Pay to shine.
The music is linked to a plot that suggests it has been cloned from Romeo and Juliet. This beautifully packaged production, which stars the celebrated young American soprano, Nicole Cabell, heading an accomplished cast with the Geoffrey Mitchell Choir in full flight, has one marvelling, as so often with the company’s previous releases, that such riches have lain in obscurity down the decades. Extracts can be Googled on Youtube, as samples of this great new addition to the Opera Rara catalogue.
The second Opera Rara recording mentioned comes hot off the press, a new release of Donizetti’s enchanting Linda di Chamounix. This stems from two live concert performances given at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, with Maestro Elder back on the podium in 2009. This is sure to offer stiff competition to alternative recommendations of this work, as it has the greatly gifted young Cuban American coloratura soprano Eglise Gutierrez singing the title role. I was alerted to her in a recent email from a friend in the UK, whose initial resistance quickly dissolved.
He wrote: “Isn’t it odd how one’s stiffening defences can still be breached occasionally by some cunning new vixen. I can’t get that Gutierrez woman out of my head. I don’t even think the voice is beautiful, but she sucks you in with her way of carrying those wonderful long Bellini and Donizetti lines, taken at old-fashioned stately tempi.”
This promptly had me Googling up a storm and I, too, am now enslaved by a new superstar-in-the-making, who has Prima Donna written all over her, her large, dark voice an instantly recognisable instrument of character and maturity, her singing offering grand-scale phrasing that has one looping back to an earlier age..
Listen online to a snippet of the heavenly duet, “Se tanto in ira agl’uomini.. A consolarmi affrettisi” from Act I of Linda di Chamounix, for an irresistible taste of Gutierrez as Donizetti’s pastoral heroine, communing in all innocence with her young man…
All praise to Opera Rara for this one, too. For more information about Opera Rara’s priceless catalogue of recordings, log onto www.opera-rara.com – William Charlton-Perkins
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