Aria Cantilena.

ARIA CANTILENA 

Elena Garanca/Staatskapelle Dresden/Fabio Luisi

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Deutsche Grammophon 00289 477-6231

In a recent discussion about programming, a colleague casually remarked that concerts and recordings are no longer about "concept" or "context," but simply about the individual "track." Here, in this DG debut album of the glamorous and gifted Latvian mezzo, Elena Garanca, we have a release that seems to reflect this shift in musical aesthetics. We leap from a spirited excerpt from Chapi's zarzuela, Las hija del Zebedeo, to Charlotte's emotionally charged Letter Scene from Massenet's Werther; and from Montsalvatge's setting of the Catalan folksong, "El can dels ocells," to the rapturous final trio of Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier. It all strikes my ear as somewhat crude and musically insensitive. To use contrast as a programming device can be effective (in moderation), but it usually depends on context--and here, clearly, there is none. What we have is a collection of diverse arias thrown together, sometimes to jarring effect, and released under the somewhat innocuous title, Aria Cantalina. As for the singing, Garanca, who turns 31 this year, clearly possesses an impressive and agile voice, but there is a generic quality both to her singing and to her interpretations. This is a far cry from the singer I first encountered in Vienna a few seasons ago as an exceptionally fine Charlotte in the Staatsoper's new Werther. On this disc, her singing sounds decidedly studio bound and somewhat bland. In the Rosenkavalier Trio, she is joined by Canadian soprano Adrianne Pieconzka (Marschallin) and German soprano Diana Damrau (Sophie).--N.C.