Oksana Dyka (soprano)
In Questa Reggia
Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra/Constantine Orbelian
rec. September 2019, Philharmonic, Kaunas, Lithuania
Sung texts and translations provided in booklet
DELOS DE3586 [68:05]
The association between the Delos record label and the Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra has been an enduringly successful one and with Oksana Dyka’s new recital album the collaboration continues to bear fruit. The album title In Questa Reggia (In this palace) is the name of the Act Two aria from Puccini’s opera Turandot.
Ukrainian soprano Oksana Dyka, a graduate of Kyiv Conservatory, was the winner of the 2003 Marseilles International Opera Competition and engaged as a soloist of the Ukraine National Opera 2003-07. She progressed to perform at many leading international opera houses, including La Scala, Milan, the Paris Opéra; the Staatsoper Berlin, the Staatsoper Dresden, the Oper Frankfurt, the Metropolitan Opera New York, the Los Angeles Opera and the Royal Opera House, London and has so far in her career sung a considerable number of roles, including most of those in this recital, which presents a programme of Verdi and Puccini arias featuring eight of the most renowned female operatic protagonists.
In her four Puccini roles, Dyka takes on three tragic heroines Floria Tosca (Tosca), Manon (Manon Lescaut) and Cio-Cio-San (Madama Butterfly), all victims of ill-fated romances. Tosca is in love with Cavaradossi, who has assisted an enemy of the state. Tosca stabs Scarpia, who, she discovers, has tricked her in his arrangement of Cavaradossi’s execution. She kills herself by jumping from the castle walls. She sings Tosca’s celebrated aria Vissi d'arte attractively and with no shortage of meaning or drama. Butterfly commits suicide having been deceived, humiliated and abandoned by the American naval officer Pinkerton. In her much-loved aria Un bel dí vedremo, she expresses her unwavering love for Pinkerton, believing he will return. For me, this is the highlight of the album; Dyka excels in here, providing power and drama. Considered a heroine by some - including Puccini - and an anti-heroine by others, Manon intends to enter a convent but survives as a courtesan before being deported to New Orleans, dying in a Louisiana desert of thirst and heat exhaustion in the arms of her lover Des Grieux. While he has gone to search for water, deserted and wretched, Manon in her final aria reflects upon her past life, and desperately expresses her desire to live. Dyka communicates this emotional outpouring of the dying Manon quite splendidly. The fourth Puccini role is the deadly anti-heroine Princess Turandot who is brutally cold hearted before undergoing a complete character transformation into a heroine. Dyka brings great drama to Turandot’s aria In questa reggia, aptly displaying her long, high notes.
Of the four Verdi roles, Amelia (Un ballo in maschera) and Leonora (La forza del destino) are heroines. Part of a lethal love triangle, Amelia is tormented by her love for Riccardo, her husband Renato’s best friend. Renato wrongly believes Amelia has committed adultery with Riccardo whom he fatally stabs. Dyka builds significant tension in Amelia’s aria Ecco l'orrido campo, singing with utmost sincerity. The plot of La forza del destino focuses on family loyalty and vengeance: Leonora is in love with Alvaro who has unintentionally shot her father. Leonora is then killed by her brother Carlo in defence of the family honour. In Leonora’s splendid aria Pace, pace, mio Dio, living as a hermit she restates her love for Alvaro and beseeches God to end her suffering with a peace she will find only in death. Here, the orchestra assists Dyka to produce a splendid level of drama in the aria, together with strikingly held notes.
Verdi’s Princess Abigaille (Nabucco) and Lady Macbeth (Macbeth) are murderous, power-hungry anti-heroines who die by suicide. Scheming Abigaille (who is really a slave) the daughter of the Babylonian King Nabucco, vows to rule as queen at any price. In her aria Anch'io dischiuso un giorno, she reflects on the time when she was a compassionate woman and on her love for Ismaele. Conductor Orbelian and Dyka combine to significant effect, creating a dark and sinister undertow as Abigaille, afraid that her lowly status will be discovered, begins to feel and express honest emotions. Standing out here is the quality of Dyka’s extended high notes. Merciless Lady Macbeth is the wife of Macbeth a valiant Scottish general in King Duncan’s army. Lady Macbeth plots the murder of Duncan King of Scotland and descends into madness before taking her own life. Dyka has chosen three of Lady Macbeth’s arias, from Act One Nel dì della vittoria ... Vieni! t'affretta; Act Two La luce langue and Act Three Una macchia è qui tuttora. Yes, there is strain and far more beautiful performances of these arias exist, nonetheless, Dyka portrays Lady Macbeth’s malevolent disposition intensely. Especially well sung is Una macchia è qui tuttora, in which the sleepwalking Lady Macbeth is tormented by remorse.
Dyka is a singer who divides opinion. Her voice although not especially heavy is invariably loud, often fiery, and certainly decisive and penetrating. It can border on the shrill with a number of uneven moments and her diction could be improved; however, her moderate vibrato is appealing and never intrudes. Overall, there is an unevenness to her performances that can them seem workmanlike at times and her tone does contain a hard-edge; nevertheless, I do not find Dyka’s voice unattractive. She certainly never stints on drama and there is no shortage of emotional turmoil in the scenes and arias of her chosen characters.
Under Constantine Orbelian the Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra provides Dyka with ideal support, producing splendid playing. Recording in 2019 in the Kaunas Philharmonic the engineering team for Delos provides first-rate sound. Helpful booklet notes provide sung texts and English translations, together with the context of each aria.
Michael Cookson
Contents
Giacomo PUCCINI (1858-1924)
Turandot
1. In questa reggia
Tosca
2. Vissi d'arte
Giuseppe VERDI (1813-1901)
Un ballo in maschera
3. Ecco l'orrido campo
Nabucco
4. Anch'io dischiuso un giorno
Giacomo PUCCINI
Madama Butterfly
5. Un bel dí vedremo
Giuseppe VERDI
La forza del destino
6. Pace, pace, mio Dio
Giacomo PUCCINI
Manon Lescaut
7. Sola, perduta, abbandonata
Giuseppe VERDI
Macbeth
8.Una macchia è qui tuttora
9. La luce langue
10. Nel dì della vittoria ... Vieni! t'affretta
