Bolero queen Tania Libertad charms with opera. (CD Player).

Arias de Opera Tania Libertad Independent production

Opera aficionados often get their backs up when they hear pop singers dabbling in what they like to consider their sacred genre. Most of the time they have good reason to complain, since almost every pop star that meddles in bet canto sounds disastrous.

Fortunately, this is not the case of bolero queen Tania Libertad. Her recording of opera arias is a case of passionate singing without the empty posing copped by too many professionals.

Once Libertad reached the heights of a successful career with more than 30 albums, it seemed she had nothing else to prove. She had already won fame in bolero, tango, traditional, folk and crossover styles. But a hidden love for the opera--from her early days in her native Peru, where she started singing at age five--has now surfaced in a collection of 10 of the most popular arias.

Libertad produced the collection herself due to the lack of interest by commercial record companies, which rarely risk a penny on this kind of project. But the fact that the album made No. 1 in classical music sales in one of the largest music chains proves that Tania's fans have an appetite for opera, while traditional opera fans are also interested in what she has to offer.

Libertad said she's not trying to make a switch in her career or to become another Maria Callas. She knows she belongs to the world of romantic song (boleros) more than to the elite world of opera. But judging by the results, she is ready for a full Puccini's "Tosca," or a powerful "Madam Butterfly." Featured in the album are arias from those two operas, as well as Schubert's well-known "Ave Maria" and Bellini's "Casta Diva" from Norma.

Accompanied by the Camerata of the Americas, under the direction of James Demster, Libertad's voice explores the many textures required to express the variety of emotions evident in works by great masters such as Bizet, Offenbach and Donizetti. Real connoisseurs could actually judge Tania's approach as irreverent, but this is not an album for experts. It is a production meant to present another angle of a gifted voice.