Diana Damrau - Meyerbeer: Grand Opera

The Guardian 100

Damrau/Orchestre et Choeur de l’Opera de Lyon/Villaume
(Erato)

Meyerbeer’s operas, once deemed too big for anyone’s good, are regaining their place – and here is Diana Damrau to show how their soprano arias should be sung. The first thing we hear is Mon Coeur S’élance from Le Prophète, its cartwheeling, two-octave leaps dashed off with smiling, oh-this-old-thing nonchalance. Damrau’s easy grace, brilliant tone and pliant expressiveness is everywhere – in the trio with two flutes from L’Etoile du Nord, in the poignant lament from Emma di Resburgo (where a full-scale men’s chorus is on hand for the ‘Cheer up, love’ interjections) and in excerpts from seven other operas. Emmanuel Villaume and his orchestra are excellent, the incidental singers classy; Charles Workman is hired to sing only the word “non” in the aria from Robert le Diable. Meyerbeer geeks will be delighted to hear two obscure German arias, recorded for the first time. Everyone else will just be delighted.