Love Entranced: French Opera Arias
The Bulgarian mezzoVesselina Kasarovahere exhibits some new sides to her wonderful voice and interpretive abilities. The rich, creamy sound is very impressive near the bottom of its range (rarely the case with mezzos nowadays,Ewa Podlesnotwithstanding), and she gets to show it off here. The program is  varied: We get Urbain's playful, charming aria fromLes Huguenots, followed by Fides' pitiful plea fromLe Prophete. Sapho's suicidal lament changes mood again, and Dido's farewell offers more grief--all beautifully portrayed. And so on with six more selections, some quite rare and welcome (an aria from Gounod's little-heardCinq-Mars), others familiar but well-enough done to sound newly minted (Dalila's Act II aria). This CD lets us know that there's even more to Kasarova thanMozart, Bellini, andRossini. It's a fine release, highly recommended.--Robert Levine