Great Recordings Of The Century: Elisabeth Schwarzkopf Sings Operetta Arias
This most serious and studious of German sopranos has a grand time--with no hint of  condescension--in this collection of Viennese operetta arias, treating them with a meticulous musicality  they rarely receive. In fact, lots of this music written by now-obscure names such as Heuberger, Zeller and  Millocker isn't heard at all. But these isolated arias are marvelously lyrical and ingratiating with some  deliciously comic counterpoint. One highpoint is the Nuns Chorus fromCasanova, in which  Elisabeth Schwarzkopf's voice soars above her fellow nuns, longing for her lover to rescue her from the  cloister. It's some of the most unbuttoned singing of her career.--David Patrick Stearns