Diana Damrau is a great soprano, but this recital does not show
her off at her best. In fact it represents a missed opportunity
on a number of levels. The main problem for me is the colour
of the voice as it is here captured: too often here she sounds
brittle and edgy. She is not helped by a recording which spotlights
her to excess, bringing the voice right up close and lessening
any blend with the orchestra. Her character portrayals aren’t
great either. She shows very little of the innocence and youth
needed for figures like Juliette or Gilda: instead she comes
across as knowing and even a little ironic, which doesn’t
suit arias like
Caro Nome or
Je veux vivre at all.
In the latter her French pronunciation is rather gaspy which
doesn’t get the disc off to a good start. Likewise Puccini’s
Lauretta sounds like a barely restrained fire-eater rather than
an affectionate daughter. That’s an interpretation you
can get away with if you build it into the complete opera, but
it doesn’t work nearly as well for one aria in a recital.
Rossini’s Rosina is especially disappointing. The
bel
canto requirements of this part should be right up Damrau’s
street, but the excessive brightness of the recording make her
sound effortful and shrill, and the ornamentations, which seem
to draw attention to themselves for their own sake rather than
illuminating the character, are poorly chosen. The higher key
adopted for her soprano register doesn’t help either.
All is not lost, though. Ironically the character with which
Damrau seems to sympathise the most is the deranged Ophelia,
investing her mad scene with ethereal beauty that is quite uncanny,
and when it comes to sheer vocal fireworks Damrau can’t
be touched in roles like Zerbinetta or Bernstein’s Cunegonde.
Verdi’s Oscar suits her voice better too - perhaps it is
his extrovert character. The leaps of
Voltea la terra and
the louche
Tra-la-las of
Saper vorreste come off
very well, as does the semi-comedy of the role. The finest track
is Anne’s
Quietly night from Stravinsky’s
Rake.
The eerie instrumentation of the night garden strengthens the
edgy uncertainty that creeps into Damrau’s voice and her
I
go to him carries determination but also nervousness as she
ascends to her closing top C.
As its title suggests, this disc is fine as a display of coloratura,
but Damrau is capable of so much more and by her high standards
this disc is inconsistent and unnecessarily disappointing.
Simon Thompson
Diana Damrau (soprano) 
