Vesselina Kasarova Sings Passionate Arias: See If You Can Handle This Woman!
Written: Oct 08 '09 (Updated Oct 08 '09)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Kasarova is The Drama Queen in the best sense of the word. Fascinating and intense.
Cons: If you want 'simply beautifully sung' music, she isn't your gal.
The Bottom Line: Opera is about telling a story so convincingly that we audience feel swept up into the performance as if our story is being told. Kasarova delivers that. Period.
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| smorg's Full Review: Passionate Arias by Vesselina Kasarova |
The collection of dramatic mezzo-soprano opera arias on this latest solo CD of Vesselina Kasarova may raise the eye brows of seasoned opera fans who have only ever heard the Bulgarian mezzo in lighter baroque, classical, and bel canto repertoire. Kasarova's lyrically dark mezzo-soprano has gained more heft and warmth over the last few years and it amazes to hear a voice this plump and radiantly rounded able to move with such agility. It is a mesmerizing voice apt to expression, and her fearless use of its extraordinarily vast palette of colors endows the operatic characters she assumes with vivid personality.
It is a voice that doesn't fit neatly into any rigid category, which is really just as well... To really appreciate her, you really have to do away with your stereotypical preconception of the operatic ladies making their appearance on this disc... along with the 'correct' way of singing their music (whatever that maybe). The lass is her own woman who has her own ideas about what her operatic characters have to say.
Her stormy rendition of Principessa di Bouillon's Acerba voluta (#1) really sets the tone for the album. Put this CD on your stereo only if you won't object to looking like you've had a visit by an F5 tornado on an emotional rampart by the end of it! Kasarova doesn't have a true dramatic mezzo voice, but that doesn't prevent her from giving your state of mind a little stir. With the aid of the beautifully responsive Munich Radio Orchestra under Maestro Giuliano Carrera, she practically transforms the self-indulging scheming princess into something quite supernaturally forceful in her grand design for winning Maurizio's heart. By the end of her final note I can only wish that the poor man had taken the hint and ran for his life (though that would really quite ruin the rest of the story for the rest of us. O well). It is rather rare to get to hear this mini-opera of a tune sung with such dramatic conviction unmarred by the customary wide vibrato that often plague today's dramatic mezzo-sopranos.
Sample: Stride la vampa (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1E_AiLRyk0)
Her Azucena (#2, Stride la vampa) has a more beautiful and younger voice than what I am used to, which really spices up the character of the morbidly psychologically scarred gypsy. This Azucena doesn't so much sing this diabolically dancy aria as she is reliving the horrid experience with it. In a way, that she sounds more angry than deranged while recalling how her mother was burnt alive at stake and how she herself had tossed an infant that might have been her own son into the flame in retaliation just make this rendition more effectively blood chilling. What is worse than a hypnotically revengeful witch with an axe to grind? It is a deliciously wicked rendition that is something of a guilty pleasure to me. If you ever feel like stepping into Nero's shoes while he fiddles to the flame engulfed Rome... put this thing on your iPod and let her act out your evil fantasy for you!
Tracks 3 & 4 give good glimpses of how dramatically interesting Kasarova's impersonation of the accursedly beautiful Princess Eboli in Verdi's Don Carlo would be like. Nei giardin del bello (Veil Song) (#3) really showcases her bel canto coloratura skill that easily navigates the tricky roulades and scale runs while still able to project a lighter side of the otherwise drama-queen of a character. Her perfectly controlled dynamic rubato really bestow a magical veil of surrealism on the atmosphere created in this little scena. Track 4, O don fatale, however should be heard while firmly seated with a seatbelt well fasten on. Verdi requires his spoiled princess to become positively schizophrenic in this dramatically intense aria, and there simply is none better than Kasarova to demonstrate the many different ways aside from sheer loudness in which a truly adept artist can deliver a scene in a most dramatically convincing manner. From the musical stand point I could wish for her high notes to be sustained a bit longer, but her abrupt treatment of them makes good dramatic sense.
If there is an opera I couldn't imagine Kasarova in, it is Tchaikovsky's Orleanskaja Dewa (Jeanne d'Arc). A good testament to Smorg's fallibility when it comes to possessing a good musical imagination.... Now that I've heard her take on the heroically melancholic Prostite vi, kholmi (#5), though, I would dearly love to hear her sing the whole role of Ioanna (Joan of Arc) indeed. The Slavic sad tinge in her voice and her ability to conjure up a convincing storm even in the quiet moments combine with her dramatic intensity and superb orchestral scene setting by the Munich Radio Orchestra under Maestro Carella really have me shrinking at the looming battle that lays ahead of the heroine. I don't understand Russian, but enough is communicate in the voice itself that linguistic ineptitude on my part really doesn't hurt my ability to connect with Ioanna's anxiety and the weight that her sense of duty is imposing on her shoulders at all.
What I do wonder, though, is what Mamma Lucia would do when confronted by this insistent a Santuzza (#6, Voi lo sapete). You sort of can see how Turiddu would tire of her forcefulness, but you are still compelled to sympathize with the distressed lass nonetheless. That wild-ish quality of her high notes even adds an edge of real anxiety (the pitch is good, mind you, but there is a cut to the sound that really make you wince at the level of dysfunction in her doomed relationship with Turiddu).
Kasarova's Carmen does not sound like the flirty sensual 20 something years young lass that one may be accustomed to. But some women get more ear-catching with age... and self assurance. This is a forcefully independent woman who knows exactly what she wants and isn‘t afraid of demanding it. She hasn‘t crossed the line into being overbearing. Don‘t get me wrong, but anyone looking for an easy woman who wastes her ear- and eye-catching assets on men would find themselves quite confronted by a different tigress than they had in mind.
And get this, her French diction on these tracks is actually quite comfortable and mostly decipherable. The guile that she endows the famous Habanera (#7 & 8, L'amour est un oiseau rebelle) with makes the heart flutter. The voice lightens as she turns on the charm in her quest to entice Don Jose out of his unbecoming indifference. This Carmen doesn't just know what she wants, but she knows exactly what he wishes for as well; she comes on to him and then turns her back in a maddening tease. She will have him, but he may only come at her beckoning.... Not before and not after.
What a shamelessly sultry man-poacher! I've heard many a beautifully suggestive rendition of the erotic Act I seguedille, (#9, Près des ramparts de Seville), but Kasarova's Carmen is positively quaking with her invitation... Enough to make a grown man brush is how I'd put it... I have to say, though, that the hysteria she puts into that final note really has me curious about how a Don Jose would react to it. If the Zurich Opera doesn't hurry up with their commercially releasing of the DVD they shot of her stage debut as Carmen last summer, I might just go the way of the curious cats and run out of lives waiting for the thing.
We get a little breather with the Munich Radio's playful rendition of the Act II Entr'acte (#10), with Maestro Carrera presiding over a delightfully teaseful bunch of woodwinds accompanied by the obliging percussion section before the show progresses to Carmen's Act II opening bohemian song (#11, Les tringles des sistres tintaient)... where the tornadic sensual whirlwind that is Kasarova's Carmen turns the already suggestively orchestrated number into an acoustic manifestation of cosmic orgasm. There is a real woman there that, like her or not, you just can't help reacting to!
The Serbian tenor, Zoran Todorovich, joins the party as a particularly heroic sounding Don Jose in the final scene of Act II (#12, Enfin, c'est toi! Je vais danser en votre honneur) when Carmen decides to repay the love-struck soldier's favor in letting her escape from prison by dancing for him. Alas, he doesn't get just how discourteous he is being in not appreciating it. You just know from listening that these two really won't end well. Todorovich's ardent Jose wants a different thing from Kasarova's Carmen just as much as she desires to be her own woman. The slight hesitation as she launches into a repeat of her dance also shows this Carmen to be a perceptive woman... She gives him a chance and he blows it, and the venom she injects into her indignant outburst is totally well earned.
Another breather with the enchanting orchestral dance (#13, Danse de Prêtresses de Dagon) from Saint-Saëns' Samson et Dalila before we have an encounter with the Philistine femme fatale in all her vocal splendor. I know many will object to her not so subtle use of chest notes, but I, for one, find it strangely erotic... The melancholy in her voice, accentuated by the bosomy coloration of her low notes, positively turn the mellow Printemps qui commence (#14) into a very intimate wistful airing of a woman's sensuality that I find strangely addictive. There are more beautiful and more musical renditions of this thing available on other recordings, but, to me, none more full of personality and intimacy.
Sample: Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THHcwfECvXo)
It is most unfair that the final track of the CD turns out to be Dalila's famous aria of seduction, Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix (#15). Unlike many a passively seductive Dalila you might have heard on stage or on recording, this Dalila is a hand on woman who takes great pleasure in actively entrapping her man with her considerable vocal assets. Again, the blatant use of chest notes may offend some ears at first, but if you can hear past the music into the context of the scene of the opera... All I can say is that you're in for a serious case of sensory overload with this number. Zoran Todorovich's bright sound works well as his Samson really has no chance against this intense amorous predator... especially when she has got the Munich Radio Orchestra under Giuliano Carrera as her collaborators. Listen to that muffled timpani helping her drum Samson in. The guy is a goner... and so am I.
It takes a lot of will power to let the CD end at the final note here without reaching for that ‘repeat' button on the stereo. Something I don't quite seem to have even though this disc has been stuck in my overworked stereo for many weeks on end now. So do I recommend this disc? An emphatic yes if you are looking to be swept off your feet by a good acoustic operatic storm and are open to hearing the Principessa di Bouillon, Azucena, Principessa di Eboli, Ioanna d'Arc, Santuzza, Carmen, and Dalila as you have never heard them before.... And a sad no if you are a stickler for 'traditional rendition' or musically beautiful performance of these music above all else.
Tracks:
1. CILEA: Adriana Lecouvrer: Acerba voluta!
2. VERDI: Il trovatore: Stride la vampa
3. VERDI: Don Carlo: Nei giardin del bello (Veil Song)
4. VERDI: Don Carlo: O don fatale!
5. TCHAIKOVSKY: Orleanskaja Dewa (Jeanne d‘Arc): Da chas nastal/ Prostite vi, kholmi
6. MASCAGNI: Cavalleria Rusticana: Voi lo sapete, oh mamma
7. BIZET: Carmen: Quand je vous aimerais
8. BIZET: Carmen: L'amour est un oiseau rebelle (Habanera)
9. BIZET: Carmen: Près des ramparts de Seville (Seguedille)
10. BIZET: Carmen: Act II Entr'acte
11. BIZET: Carmen: Les tringles des sistres tintaient (Chanson Boheme)
12. BIZET: Carmen: Enfin, c'est toi! Je vais danser en votre honneur (Act II Finale)
13. BIZET: Carmen: Danse de Prêtresses de Dagon
14. SAINT-SAËNS: Samson et Dalila: Printemp, qui commence
15. SAINT-SAËNS: Samson et Dalila: Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix
Vesselina Kasarova (Mezzo-soprano), Zoran Todorovich (Tenor)
Giuliano Carrera & Münchnerrundfunkorchester.
1 CD. Sung in original languages. Booklet contains note on the performers and music included in English, French, and German. No libretto provided.
Recommended:
Yes
Great Music to Play While: Listening
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Member: Smorg
Location: Southern California, USA
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