Deborah Voigt: Obsessions (Wagner & Strauss: Arias and Scenes)
Here the beautiful-voiced Deborah Voigt tackles music her sound is made for: big, powerful moments from works of Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner. All 10 selections are handsomely sung, with gleaming, even tone, and some are true standouts. Elisabeth's Greeting fromTannhaeuseris sort of matter-of-fact, but both of Sieglinde's solos fromWalküreare filled with urgency and depth and seem to be happening in real time. Ariadne's monolog is suitably ethereal and fantastic (in the true sense of the word) and the "chunks" fromDie Frau ohne Schattenand Chrysothemis's monolog fromElektra, though weird out of context, are vocal showpieces. Her Isolde is nuanced and potent, if without the ultimate rage in the Narrative and Curse or the heavenly transfiguration of the Liebestod, and the final scene ofSalome, ravishingly sung, does not quite probe this character's berserk Freudian issues. But she's a remarkable singer and this CD is sure to delight; one can bathe in her warm, rich sound.--Robert Levine