Puccini - Angela Gheorghiu
It would be difficult to fault the singing of Angela Gheorghiu on these discs (the second, bonus CD contains "Vissi d'arte" from her complete recording ofTosca). She goes through almost the entire Puccini catalog of heroines--MimiandMusetta, Liu, Butterfly, Manon Lescaut,  LiuandTurandot, Lauretta, Suor Angelica, Minnie (fromFanciulla), as well as the gals fromLa Rondine,Edgar, andLe Villi, and her exquisite, fine-grained, unique sound--with its dusky lower register--is always interesting and beautifully inflected. Her attention to dynamics is admirable, verbally, she seems genuinely involved in each character. The voice can deliver as much power, as in the end of the firstEdgararia, as gentleness, in Suor Angelica's "Senza Mamma" as needed. But somehow she doesn't make any one of the characters entirely her own. This may be a bit picky, but maybe that's the case with recital albums. Let's face it--her voice is irresistible and her husband, Roberto Alagna, adds his bronzed tones to two of the selections.--Robert Levine