CHAN 3093 Book Cover.qxd 11/4/07 3:23 pm Page 1 GREAT OPERATIC ARIAS GREAT OPERATIC ARIAS CHAN 3093 CHANDOS O PERA IN DIANA MONTAGUE ENGLISH 2 PETER MOORES FOUNDATION CHAN 3093 BOOK.qxd 11/4/07 3:30 pm Page 2 Diana Montague at the recording sessions Cooper Bill Great Operatic Arias with Diana Montague 3 CHAN 3093 BOOK.qxd 11/4/07 3:30 pm Page 4 Time Page Time Page Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) from Atalanta from The Marriage of Figaro Meleagro’s aria (Care selve) Cherubino’s Aria (Non so più) 6 ‘Noble forests, sombre and shady’ 2:05 [p. 46] Alastair Young harpsichord • Susanne Beer cello 1 ‘Is it pain, is it pleasure that fills me’ 3:07 [p. 44] from The Clemency of Titus Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Sextus’s Aria (Parto, parto) from Così fan tutte 2 6:39 [p. 44] ‘Send me, but, my beloved’ Fiordiligi, Dorabella and Don Alfonso’s Trio (Soave sia il vento) Christoph Willibald von Gluck (1714–1787) 7 ‘Blow gently, you breezes’ 3:33 [p. 46] with Orla Boylan soprano • Alan Opie baritone from Iphigenia in Tauris Priestesses’ Chorus and Iphigenia’s Aria (O malheureuse Iphigénie!) Dorabella’s Recitative and Aria (Smanie implacabili) 3 ‘Farewell, beloved homeland’ – 8 ‘Ah! Leave me now’ – ‘No hope remains in my affliction’ 4:56 [p. 45] ‘Torture and agony’ 3:39 [p. 46] with Geoffrey Mitchell Choir Dorabella and Fiordiligi’s Duet (Prenderò quel brunettino) Iphigenia’s Aria (Je t’implore et je tremble) 9 ‘I will take the handsome, dark one’ 3:07 [p. 46] 4 ‘I implore thee and tremble’ 3:36 [p. 45] with Orla Boylan soprano George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) Concert Arias from Alcina 10 ‘Banished, rejected, God save me!’ 4:50 [p. 47] Ruggiero’s aria (Verdi prati) (Vado, ma dove?) 5 ‘Verdant pastures, leafy woodlands’ 4:18 [p. 45] 11 ‘Who knows what feeling’ 3:16 [p. 47] (Chi sa qual sia) 4 5 CHAN 3093 BOOK.qxd 11/4/07 3:30 pm Page 6 Time Page Time Page from Così fan tutte Charles Gounod (1818–1893) Guglielmo and Dorabella’s Duet (Il core vi dono) from Faust 12 ‘My heart here I give you’ 4:39 [p. 47] Siébel’s Romance (Si le bonheur à sourire t’invite) with Alan Opie baritone 16 ‘When happy days’ 2:49 [p. 51] Philharmonia Orchestra • David Parry Richard Heuberger (1850–1914) from The Opera Ball from The Merry Widow Henri and Hortense’s Duet (Gehen wir ins Chambre séparée) Valencienne and Camille’s Duet (Wie eine Rosenknospe) 17 ‘Calm down, my friend!’ – 13 ‘This is the clock’ – ‘In a cosy chambre séparée’ 5:46 [p. 48] ‘Just as the sun awakens’ 6:55 [p. 52] with Bruce Ford tenor with Helen Williams soprano Gottfried Heinrich Stölzel (1690–1749) (1833–1887) Alexander Borodin (formerly attrib. J.S. Bach) from Prince Igor (Bist du bei mir) Song of the Polovtsian Maiden 18 ‘If you are near’ 2:54 [p. 53] 14 ‘Tender flower, starved of water’ 5:57 [p. 50] Alastair Young harpsichord • Susanne Beer cello with Geoffrey Mitchell Choir TT 75:01 Johann Strauss II (1825–1899) Diana Montague mezzo-soprano from Die Fledermaus (The Bat) Geoffrey Mitchell Choir Orlofsky’s Aria (Chacun à son goût) London Philharmonic Orchestra 15 ‘Three score and ten’ 2:46 [p. 51] Peter Schoeman leader Walter Weller 6 7 CHAN 3093 BOOK.qxd 11/4/07 3:30 pm Page 8 Its seemingly simple melody clothes his progression unique to Gluck. In the later Great Operatic Arias ambivalent feelings. ‘I implore thee and tremble’ (track 4 ) from It was often Handel’s custom to open an Act IV she deplores her fate at being forced to The term Zwischenfach (between types) is used For much of this recital she displays her opera with a reflective arioso (vide ‘Ombra mai make a blood sacrifice in tones that capture in a in Germany and elsewhere graphically to exceptional gifts as an interpreter of Handel, fu’ in Xerxes). The same happens in Atalanta, peculiarly Gluckian way the horror of her describe the kind of voice possessed by Diana Gluck and Mozart. Their operas cover the where the hero Meleagro sings the simple, situation. In both pieces Gluck evinces deep Montague. For voices such as hers the period when at first the castrato was in the elegiac ‘Noble forests’ (track 6 ), in which he compassion for his heroine, an emotion possibilities are almost limitless as this varied ascendant, taking many of the leading male greets the beauties of nature. As a pendant to reflected in Montague’s singing of them. and eclectic recital confirms. She possesses a roles in Handel’s operas. Later when that these Handel pieces, we have the simple, In Mozart’s time, the castrato was high mezzo able, as was that of a distant artificially created breed was being phased out sincere song ‘If you are near’ (track 18 ), once (mercifully) a dying breed, although the nineteenth-century predecessor, Pauline it became common for the roles of young men thought to be by J.S. Bach, now assigned to his composer still cast roles in his opera seria for Viardot, and others since, to encompass roles to be taken by women, again with voices of contemporary Stölzel. Whoever may be the that voice (see below). In any case, it would intended for a normal mezzo, but also many Montague’s type. It is a tradition that carried composer, the piece is a delight. have seemed odd to cast the priapic youth others usually the province of sopranos. These on into the nineteenth and twentieth Gluck’s Iphigenia in Tauris is perhaps the Cherubino (The Marriage of Figaro) with possibilities extend right from roles in Baroque centuries, eg Octavian and the Composer in most telling and dramatically consistent operas such a singer. Instead, Mozart chose a soprano, opera to those in operetta – as this disc vividly respectively Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier of his mature period, the last and greatest of the but the lighter singers in that category can and satisfactorily illustrates, as does the progress and Ariadne on Naxos, and is demonstrated in serious works he wrote for Paris. Its eponymous sound too girlish. Montague’s high mezzo, on of her career. this recital by Orlofsky in the other Strauss’s heroine is a truly tragic figure whose fate is the other hand, is entirely appropriate for the As was the case in the first volume of arias she Die Fledermaus and by Siébel in Faust. expressed – such is Gluck’s genius – at once palpitating youth, whose realisation of his recorded for Chandos (CHAN 3010), Montague The earliest among the choices here are two with classical restraint and emotional depth. burgeoning manhood is perfectly encapsulated is also a most convincing advocate of opera in well-known and affecting arias from Handel’s Diana Montague has already recorded the opera in his Act I aria, ‘Is it pain, is it pleasure that English. She deploys her trim, appealing voice to operas, both originally sung by castratos. complete in French under John Eliot Gardiner. fills me’ (track 1 ). Mozart here exploits the make the most of a text in the vernacular, ‘Verdant pastures’ (track 5 ) is sung in Alcina, Here, singing in her native tongue, she is, if ability of the middle range of the voice to inflecting every word and phrase with a specific by Ruggiero, originally taken by the castrato possible, even more moving and urgent in her project the warmth and immediacy of meaning. She also has the inestimable advantage Carestini. He has been enchanted by the portrayal of the daughter of Agamemnon, now Cherubino’s feelings. This was one of of being born with and developed a timbre that sorceress Alcina and fallen in love with her. a Priestess of Diana on the island of Tauris. Montague’s earliest roles in her successful palpitates with the music in hand. That gives The spell is removed in Act II, but Ruggiero is Her Act II lament, ‘No hope remains in my career at Covent Garden. She looked and sang everything she sings a peculiarly eloquent or, rather reluctant to leave the glorious pastures affliction’ (track 3 ), is an outpouring of despair the role to near-perfection, so this souvenir of where appropriate, witty accent. which he hymns in this justly famous aria. and loneliness with a melodic cut and harmonic that performance is most welcome. 8 9 CHAN 3093 BOOK.qxd 11/4/07 3:30 pm Page 10 Although Dorabella in Così fan tutte is a choice, ‘I will take the handsome, dark one’ In addition to his operas, Mozart wrote era, is much more urbane and Western in its very different kind of character from (track 9 ). Its intertwining of the two voices is extensively for the solo voice in arias with musical character, as is shown in Siébel’s Cherubino, the voice range for the two is truly sisterly in character. orchestra of which we have two excellent charming song ‘When happy days’ (track 16 ). much the same and, in the same way, it has In the duet, ‘My heart here I give you’ examples here. They are particularly Faust’s rival for Marguerite’s hand, he is been cast over the years with both sopranos (track 12 ), as in the trio above, Dorabella’s appropriate to Montague as both were written doomed to failure. and mezzos. In any case in Mozart’s times, fresh love is genuinely expressed, yet we also for Louise Villeneuve, the first Dorabella, for Meanwhile in Vienna much had changed in these stark differences between types hardly feel that Guglielmo, in spite of himself, is insertion in Vicente Martin’s Il burbero di buon terms of ethos and musical character since existed.