Beethoven, Wagner, Verdi

Beethoven, Wagner, Verdi

by Lise DavidsenLise Davidsen

Overview

Lise Davidsen emerged in the early 2020s as a rapidly rising soprano star, and a few minutes with the voice, which can range from delicate middle-ranging singing to blazing power, is enough to make the listener understand why. Beyond vocal mastery, though, there's programming intelligence here and a sense of self. Appearing in early 2021, the album is something of a snapshot of Davidsen's career at the time. It looks back to Beethoven's "Fidelio," one of the operas in which she made a splash, and adds to it the big and not terribly common three-part concert aria "Ah, perfido, Op. 65," which shows off her talents to the fullest. Temporarily, the program moves to Italy with an athletic Cherubini aria setting up the two contrasting Verdi arias and the melancholy verismo excerpt from Mascagni's "Cavalleria Rusticana" that follow. The program closes with Wagner's five "Wesendonck Lieder" in their orchestrations by Wagner and Felix Mottl, signaling unmistakably that Davidsen, in her mid-30s when the album appeared, was ready to move her growing dramatic soprano into that territory. With sympathetic backing from the London Philharmonic under Sir Mark Elder, this feels like a release that will be key to operatic collections for years to come.

Product Details

Release Date: 04/30/2021
Label: Decca
UPC: 0028948515073
catalogNumber: 003356502
Rank: 1572

Tracks

  1. Wesendonck Lieder, songs (5) for voice & piano (or orchestra), WWV 91
  2. Otello, opera: Act 4. Ave Maria, piena di grazia
  3. La forza del destino, opera: Act 4. Pace, pace, mio Dio
  4. Cavalleria rusticana, opera (melodramma) in 1 act: Voi lo sapete, o mama
  5. Médée (Medea), opera in 3 acts: Atto 1. Dei tuoi figli la madre
  6. Ah! perfido! . . . Per pieta, non dirmi addio, scena and aria for soprano & orchestra, Op. 65
  7. Fidelio, opera, Op. 72: Act 1. Abscheulicher! Wo eilst du hin?

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