page_title: Italian Opera Arias
section_title: Critical reception
hierarchical_section_title: Italian Opera Arias / Critical reception
caption_attribution_description: English: New entrance and facade of Canada's National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
context_page_description: Italian Opera Arias is a 51-minute studio album of music performed by Frederica von Stade, Janice Taylor and the National Arts Centre Orchestra under the direction of Mario Bernardi. It was released in 1979.
context_section_description: Alan Blyth reviewed the album on LP in Gramophone in January 1980. Readers who were regular visitors to Glyndebourne, he wrote, would already be familiar with Frederica von Stade's portrayal of Penelope, the lonely, sorrowing queen of Ithaca in Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria. In her arioso and recitative "Torna, torna", she was "deeply moved [and] deeply moving" as she pleaded for her husband to come back to her after his long absence in the Greeks' war against the Trojans. Monteverdi's genius, von Stade's artistry and the able support of Janice Taylor as Ericlea combined to paint a picture that captured the very essence of romantic devotion, even if the music was performed in the "fanciful" edition confected by Raymond Leppard. "Di tanti palpiti" from Rossini's Tancredi (sung complete with its introductory recitative) was delivered with "appropriately upright, masculine tones" and a confident grasp of Rossini's melodic idiom. It was the composer's fault, not von Stade's, that what was meant to be an aria of lament sounded incongruously cheerful. "Il mio ben quando verrà" from Paisiello's Nina widened the recital's emotional range with tenderness and charm. Accompanied by some pretty woodwind playing, von Stade sang it with "all her most shapely phrasing and mellow tone". "Bel raggio", from Rossini's Semiramide, was the album's only disappointment. Von Stade infused it with passion, but the aria's fioriture and other vocal challenges were too difficult for her to negotiate without some moments of audible discomfort. "L'Ombra fedele, anch'io" from Broschi's Idaspe was an aria that many listeners would probably never have come across before. Written for the composer's brother, the famous castrato Farinelli, it was "an insinuating piece with a kind of trumpet obbligato, and many repeated notes, in Handelian vein". Von Stade dispatched it "with élan, finding just the right castrato timbre for its grave utterance of another faithful soul".
   "È destin" from La Bohème - Leoncavallo's little known setting of the story, not the famous Puccini version - concluded the recital with a venture into a territory peripheral to von Stade's repertoire, nineteenth-century verismo. Despite Musetta's heartbroken outpourings being very unlike her usual material, she expressed them with unqualified success. The playing of the National Arts Centre Orchestra and Mario Bernardi's "alert and refined conducting" were both beyond reproach, as was CBS's audio quality, which had "more forward presence" than most of the company's output. The album's heterogeneity of styles meant that its transitions between tracks could be jarring, but the disc demonstrated von Stade's ability to project many different kinds of music and character with equal conviction. In sum, the album was "another desirable record" from an "attractive, thoughtful" singer who "never makes a bad one".
  The album was also reviewed in the 1982 edition of The new Penguin stereo record and cassette guide.
caption: The National Arts Centre, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA", "Image Make": "OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP.", "Image Model": "E-P1", "Image XResolution": "240", "Image YResolution": "240", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic 8.4 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2019:08:14 13:29:41", "Image ExifOffset": "258", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1006", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "11548", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/320", "EXIF FNumber": "9", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Creative", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "200", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0231", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2019:08:14 14:27:08", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2019:08:14 14:27:08", "EXIF OffsetTime": "-04:00", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "1040241/125000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "126797/20000", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "249/256", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Fine weather", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "12", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "76370275/32768", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "76370275/32768", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "3", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[2, 0, 2, 0, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "24", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Landscape", "EXIF GainControl": "Low gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Hard", "EXIF Sharpness": "Hard", "EXIF BodySerialNumber": "H45511937", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[12, 12, 7/5, 7/5]", "EXIF LensModel": "LEICA DG SUMMILUX 12/F1.4", "EXIF LensSerialNumber": "18011700372"}