We’ve been very fortunate in Australia to have nurtured some promising sopranos. To mind there’s Emma Matthews, Tiffany Speight, Sara Macliver and Amelia Farrugia. Not that any of them have emerged overnight. Most have plied their trade for many a year. I saw Amelia Farrugia, for example, singing Nanetta to Bryn Terfel’s Falstaff with Simone Young conducting in an Opera Australia production in the late 1990s. Some of the sops, however, are a bit hesitant about taking the plunge in trying to seek fame and status overseas. Not Farrugia. As you will have noted in my profile of her, she is no shrinking violet. In fact Joie de Vivre, a project she has fought for and financed with the help of her friends, was conceived in Australia and given birth in the UK. The BBC kindly lent their symphony orchestra for the occasion, and they are conducted admirably by Alexander Briger; another Aussie talent – and Sir Charles Mackerras’s nephew to boot! 

In this album Farrugia has a young and sprightly voice she is not afraid to exploit in arias that are a veritable what’s-what of the coloratura repertoire. From Gounod’s Jewel Song to Novello’s Waltz of my Heart she stretches her tonsils to their limits and then - just to show how talented she is - switches to ‘repose mode’ in Until we Meet Again, a lullaby written by Richard Mills (another Aussie) especially for this album. Just strings and harp. Mesmerising! Her rendition of Adele’s Laughing Song from Strauss’s Die Fledermaus is thrilling, a fact I can vouch for having seen her perform it on stage. Farrugia’s diction needs a bit of tweaking here and there but that is a minor complaint. Plus I wish she’d included the Nanetta aria from Falstaff, Dal labbro il canto estasio vola; but being a duet that would have meant introducing a tenor and we have a few Aussie ones here that would have filled the bill! Do you get the feeling I’m trying to boost the Australian balance of payments? In any event the duet is so ethereal it would have turned what is an already impressive debut album into celestial bliss. 

Randolph Magri-Overend 
 
see also Review by Evan Dickerson who was not quite so supportive

 

Advertising Rates
Visitor stats
MusicWeb International
has over 21,000 Classical CD reviews on offer

Gerard Hoffnung Concerts &
The Bricklayer Story

New Releases

New Releases

23rd-27th May

MusicWeb Recommended Recordings 2007

DISCS OF THE YEAR 2007