Quite often discs of opera extracts from divas young and - well,
slightly less young - can be something of a scourge for a reviewer. What are
we to do with a random and miscellaneous collection of commonly slow and
soupy arias, performed with an often massive vibrato and sometimes dubious
orchestral accompaniment. So I felt a little uncertain when I approached
this disc as to what I might expect from a singer I hardly knew.
For some reason the CD player got itself onto the
‘random’ button and I began with a slow start of
Donizetti’s
C’on est donc fait and the continuing arias
from
La Fille du Régiment which fall into the slow and soupy
category as did the next randomly selected track. This was Puccini’s
tear-jerking
O mio babbino caro which surely no-one can dislike, but
which is also unhurried and sentimental. It then skipped back to the
orchestral ultra-romantic
Intermezzo from Puccini’s
Manon
Lescaut which I had only just heard, coincidentally a few days before
whilst walking around the ‘Puccini Casa’ in Lucca. The voice,
alas still rather palled, and when I discovered that there were no texts
supplied but just a brief résumé of the opera story and
background to the aria I started to feel a bit sick. The situation was not
saved by the fact that much space had been given over in the little pull-out
poster-type annotation to several photos of Eli Kistin Hanssveen looking
both ice-cool and also highly glamorous.
After that ‘iffy’ start things started to look up. I
looked more carefully at the repertoire and realised that the usual format
had to a certain extent been nicely side-stepped. For instance the Donizetti
extracts mentioned above culminate in the showy and virtuoso
Salut
à la France. This happily leads on to the Ravel extract, an even
more excitingly flashy piece, orchestrated so magically. It is here that the
Operaorkesteret under the sensitive John Fiore show themselves to be quite
superb and not merely a band knocked together for a recording. The balance
here and elsewhere is ideal and the recording spacious and clear. Hanssveen
clearly loves the experience. This all demonstrates that her voice is
marvellously flexible and, as discovered from the earlier extracts she is
well able to delve into and indeed inhabit the romantic heart of these
chosen pieces - especially in Verdi’s
Sempre libera from
La
Traviata. You might find her a little heavy in this aria but she brings
across the drama in a suitably contrasted manner. Also exceptional and a
rare ‘listen’ is the Richard Strauss aria from one of his
lesser-known operas
Die Schweigsame Frau. Here the singer can really
take-off out of a deliberately baroque style evoked by the composer.
It is often said that the test of a good voice, no, an
outstanding voice, is in Mozart and Hanssveen gives us arias from
Zaïde, an original choice in many ways, and from
Die
Zauberflöte.
These give her an opportunity to demonstrate
very ably two significant aspects of the recital, one, the expressive, as in
the aria from Mozart’s early
Zaïde and the other, the
dramatic, in the famous
Queen of the Night aria from
Magic
Flute. In the latter she is precise in articulation and tuning to the
Nth degree.
It seems very apt in this programme of unusual repertoire, aimed
perfectly at the Hanssveen’s voice, that she should choose to close
with
Louise’s glorious aria from Charpentier’s now rather
underrated opera of the same name. Its glorious wash of romantic melody
suits the voice well and the orchestra and singer act as one throughout.
So, a worthwhile recital by a singer better known in her native
Norway since her debut in 2002. She has a passionate and precise voice and a
wide and expanding repertoire which includes popular music. Hers is a voice
and career to follow.
Gary Higginson
