Even though there is an embrarassment of richness in the current crop of lyric mezzo sopranos, a solid dramatic mezzo soprano who can do the Verdi and the dramatic French repertoire justice is hard to come by. Among the not so many gracing our operatic stages today, however, none is more sought after than Olga Borodina, the Russian diva with a magmatic voice of tsunami proportion and an exotically self-contained air to match.

Her instrument is a remarkably lush, lustrously silky and dark Russian voice; dramatic in weight and sensually highlighted with a quick vibrato that gives it a sort of warmth that is just subtle enough to smolder without melting the snow into a puddle. For the size of it, it is a surprisingly agile voice, if not quite effortlessly so... And that makes her bel canto selections (tracks 1, 2, 5) rather interesting. Aside from these, though, the dramatic arias (tracks 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12) fit her very well... Though they are probably best taken in small and separate doses rather than the whole CD all at once. She sings gorgeously, but most of the time so invariably that one loses interest after a while. The sound engineering also favors the voice over the orchestra too much. Borodina doesn't need any help being heard... but the Welsh National Opera's Orchestra under Carlo Rizzi occasionally sounds like it does.

The recital opens, surprisingly for me, with Cinderella's final rondo (#1) from Rossini's La Cenerentola. This is a quintessential bel canto show piece sung by the gracious young heroine who, having finally gained independence from her ogre-ish step-family, turns around and forgives them all to close the show on a high note (literally). Borodina is a very lush-voiced Cenerentola even though she does lighten her voice considerably in this rendition... And it is worth buying the CD just to hear a voice this big coping this well with this aria's formidable virtuoso cabaletta ending (she does remind of Marilyn Horne... but with an even heftier voice and a bit more inertia). Cope with it, she does, though it is obvious enough that the effort it takes to make a voice this size sprint up and down the scale makes it virtually impossible for her to actually express much of the character's pathos while she's at it. Her go at Urbain's Act I cavatina (#2) reinforces the impression... and the attempt at Arsace's Act I aria (#5) seals the deal. With Cenerentola at least there is something of a character being portrayed... not a young novice noble, but a rather established queen. By the time she gets to Arsace, though, it's the notes on the page being sounded in a (barely) timely manner... Which is beautiful, but not much more. She's basically Mohammad Ali running the 100 meter dash... It's a valiant run, and she doesn't suck at it. I'm glad she gave it a go.

If bel canto isn't a repertoire that fits this voice well, baroque should be a square repertoire for her big rounded vocal peg, shouldn't it? But Borodina is a smart singer who knows to go for the slow melodic numbers rather than the showy fire-work-fest ones. Her well-heated dark volcanic flood of a sound makes Dido's lament (#3) a (very) slow moving river of burnish sorrow. It is quite a change of pace to come to this track after hearing her attempt at speedy bel canto numbers that wouldn't allow the texture of her voice, from it top to bottom, to be properly appreciated. This is a more tragic Dido than most others I've heard, which is probably not to many Baroque-fans' cup of tea. I rather like it, though... somehow compensate for the really draggy tempo. Serse's famous love song to a plane tree (#4) is very well sung.... Though the sound engineering so favors the voice that it is almost like she's singing a capella much of the time.

Samples: Serse: Ombra mai fu  www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH0S8apVFHY

Then comes the middle tracks, Dalila's three arias from Saint-Saëns' masterpiece work. If there is a better Dalila singing on the operatic stage today, I haven't heard one... though hearing tracks 6, 7, and 8 back-to-back is not what I would recommend. Perhaps my listening taste is less subtle than many others', but much of the time Borodina, very understandably so, seems to enjoy her rich voice just as much as we listeners do and forgets to be the character (she is much more involved live, though). I don't hear this Dalila progress from affecting as a woman wounded by love in order to solicit Samson's sympathy (#6) to a vengeful suitor scheming a plot against her target (#7) to opera's biggest femme fatale singing her siren song to the, by now, quite infatuated Samson (#8). She just basically sings the notes gorgeously... with a voice that is so intoxicatingly rich and erotic that even a drama-junkie like me can't fault her too much. And her French diction is very good also.

Sample: Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix  www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFT1AopeYC0
This is actually a bit more 'involved' than the version on the CD.

All that said, it is still better to hear these tracks with a bit of a break in between them, even though there is indeed a breather in the longish orchestral introduction to Marguerite's long aria (#9), with its gorgeous oboe solo. Her voice is quite heavy for the role, but has ample glow for the wistful mood... though the weight of it still shows as a handicap in the brief sprinting section when she has quite a time just keeping up with the orchestra. By the time you get to this aria, however, you have been listening to over 40 minutes of beautiful singing with minimal characterization (and the orchestra isn't much more dramatically involved either, aside from being underfavored by the sound engineer), and that is a bit much even when the voice is as gorgeous as that of Borodina's.

Curiously enough, the singer's dramatic flares return on track 10, in a most unlikely opera character... Ponchielli's La Cieca, the blind old lady who, having just been saved from an unruly crowd by beautiful Laura, turns around to gratefully bless her young benefactor. The introduction vocal coloring is very welcoming, even though she doesn't sound anything like a pitiable old hag. Of the entire CD, the final two Russian numbers are the tracks that best glimpse Borodina as you would hear her in live theater. Joan of Arc's farewell to her beloved hills and fields (#11) as she depart to war benefits handsomely from Borodina's Slavic dark timbre and heroic vocal weight. And Lisa's scene from The Queen of Spade (#12) has appropriate fatalistic flavor... if the voice is somewhat too imposing for such a tragic and (self-imposedly) helpless character. I was hoping to hear her as Polina rather than Lisa (after all, Lisa is a soprano part), but this is a recital CD and not an opera performance... and so curious excursions like this (and Dido, Serse, and Arsace) are cool with me.

Olga Borodina has one of the most drop dead gorgeous operatic voices since Renata Tebaldi. For those who have heard her live, though, the super clean and mostly bloodless singing captured here may prove unbecomingly underwhelming. She always has a touch of aloofness in her voice... that 'I know you can't resist me, and if I call you WILL come' siren quality that drives all straight men (and not so straight women) completely nuts... Though in this recording that quality isn't offsetted by any dramatic tension and I end up overdosing on the voice itself after a few tracks and am quite bored by the time Dalila's 3rd aria comes around.... Hence, the recommendation to NOT listen to this whole CD in one go but in multiple dosages. As much of the tracks here also appear on her 2 CD set, Olga Borodina: Portrait, you're probably better off spending just a few more bucks getting that CD, with its bigger collection of Russian numbers and a few Spanish songs, rather than this one.

Olga Borodina (mezzo-soprano) with Carlo Rizzi and the Orchestra of the Welsh National Opera
Tracks:
1. ROSSINI: La Cenerentola: Nacqui all' affanno
2. MEYERBEER: Les Huguenots: Nobles seigneurs/ Une dame noble et sage
3. PURCELL: Dido and Aeneas: Thy hand, Belinda/ When I am laid in earth (Dido's Lament)
4. HANDEL: Serse: Frondi tenere/ Ombra mai fu (Serse's Largo)
5. ROSSINI: Semiramide: Ah! Quel giorno ognor rammento
SAINT-SAËNS: Samson et Dalila:
6. Printemps qui commence
7. Samson, recherchant ma présence
8. Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix
9. BERLIOZ: La damnation de Faust: D'Amour l'ardente flamme
10. PONCHIELLI: La Gioconda: Voce di donna o d'angelo
11. TCHAIKOVSKY: The Maid of Orleans: Da, chas nastal / Prostite v'i
12. TCHAIKOVSKY: Pique Dame: Uzh polnoch blizitsya (Lisa's aria)
Recorded in 1996 at Brangwyn Hall in Swansea, UK.

1 CD. Case lining contains a short introductory essay by Alan Blyth, track list, and printed libretto in original language and English translation.

Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Listening