Rossini & Donizetti: French Bel Canto Arias

by Lisette Oropesa

Overview

The lithe, lively voice of soprano Lisette Oropesa has been accumulating admirers, and she seems to hit her stride with this collection of French-language arias, which hit classical best-seller charts in the autumn of 2022. The idea of French bel canto arias might seem oxymoronic, but Rossini and his followers did not abandon their Italian operatic style when they began to write operas for Paris. Instead, they amped the whole thing up a bit, creating massive works, many in five acts, that continue to challenge today's best singers. Rossini's Guillaume Tell, despite its famous overture, is not often heard, for it poses substantial challenges, vocally and production-wise. Oropesa, not so much a powerhouse as a rather uncannily agile singer, is an ideal artist to tackle these challenges and those of the slightly earlier and even rarer Le siege de Corinth. She writes in the booklet of her enthusiasm at bringing to life the works on the album, which are mostly to the seldom heard side. At the end, she exploits the listener's pent-up desire to hear some big, familiar tunes with excerpts from Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor and La fille du regiment, but this is nevertheless a fresh, exciting program that offers all kinds of insight into the operatic world in the second quarter of the 19th century, from a really interesting voice that is in its prime. Oropesa receives fine support from the Dresden Philharmonic under Corrado Rovaris, and a largely American engineering team gets idiomatic sound from the Kulturpalast in Dresden. This would, among other things, make a good gift for an opera lover in 2022 or any other year. ~ James Manheim

Product Details

Release Date:	10/07/2022
Label:	Pentatone Classics
UPC:	0827949095566
Rank:	11346

Tracks

1. Le si¿¿ge de Corinthe~Act II: No. 5: Que vais-je devenir?
2. Le si¿¿ge de Corinthe~Act II: No. 5: Du s¿¿jour de la lumi¿¿re
3. Le si¿¿ge de Corinthe~Act III: No. 12: L'heure fatale approche
4. Le si¿¿ge de Corinthe~Act III: No. 12: Juste ciel
5. Guillaume Tell~Act II: No. 9: Ils s'¿¿loignent enfin
6. Guillaume Tell~Act II: No. 9: Sombre for¿¿t
7. Le comte Ory~Act II; No. 4: En proie ¿¿ la tristesse...
8. Le comte Ory~Act II; No. 4: C¿¿leste providence
9. Les martyrs~Act I: Scene 5: ¿¿ ma m¿¿re
10. Les martyrs~Act I: Scene 5: Qu'ici ta main glac¿¿e b¿¿nisse ton enfant
11. Lucie de Lammermoor~Act I: Scenes 6, 7: Gilbert... ¿¿ fontaine
12. Lucie de Lammermoor~Act I: Scenes 6, 7: Que n'avons-nous des ailes?
13. La fille du r¿¿giment~Act I: No. 6: Il faut partir
14. La fille du r¿¿giment~Act II: No. 8: C'en est donc fait
15. La fille du r¿¿giment~Act II: No. 8: Salut ¿¿ la Fronce

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Lisette Oropesa   Primary Artist,Soprano (Vocal)
Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra   Orchestra
Ulf Prelle   Cello
Meinhardt Moebius   Bass (Vocal)
Alexander Foedisch   Bass (Vocal)
Frank Bluemel   Tenor (Vocal)
Zhi Yi   Tenor (Vocal)
Juan Carlos Navarro   Tenor (Vocal)
Kristina Fuchs   Mezzo-Soprano (Vocal)
Dresden State Opera Chorus   Choir/Chorus
Corrado Rovaris   Conductor

Technical Credits

Job Maarse   Executive Producer,Recording Producer
Carl Schuurbiers   Engineer
Francesco Izzo   Liner Notes
Lucia Ghielmi   Design
Lisette Oropesa   Liner Notes
Renaud Loranger   A&R
Louis Antoine Alexandre Soumet   Librettist
Silvia Pietrosanti   Marketing
Friedrich Schiller   Adaptation
Frauke Roth   Executive Producer
Christina Gembaczka   Production Manager,Production Coordination
Gaetano Donizetti   Composer
(Victor Joseph) Etienne de Jouy   Librettist
Jean-Francois Bayard   Librettist
Kasper van Kooten   Product Manager
Gioachino Rossini   Composer
Luigi Balocchi   Librettist
Erdo Groot   Editing,Balance Engineer
Eugene Scribe   Librettist
Gustave Vaez   Librettist
Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges   Librettist
Charles-Gaspard Delestre-Poirson   Librettist
Alphonse Royer   Librettist
Anne-Lisa Nathan   Language Coach
Sean Hickey   Managing Director
Hippolyte Louis-Florent Bis   Librettist