A greatest-hits album ought to stick to the middle of the road, playing to what an artist does best. Yet it ought not simply wallow in past glories: this collection from Russian soprano Anna Netrebko, arguably the best-known soprano of the present day, hits the spot and can safely be recommended to newcomers. Netrebko is at her best in core Italian repertory like Casta Diva from Bellini's Norma or Libiamo ne 'lieti calici from Verdi's La Traviata. Sample track three to hear the latter: the soprano has an abundant tonal production that enables her to take the kind of chances that generate real charisma. Netrebko's husband, tenor Yusif Eyvazov, is present on this track, which was one of three newly recorded for the album, and there's no clearer indication of what she's about than how he stays out of her way. The album also contains verismo arias, into which Netrebko has moved as her voice has darkened in mid-career. Picking out holes in her armament is but another indicator of her dominant position, and certainly she is not as distinctive as a dramatic singer compared with her skills as a sheer tunesmith, and she has less of an instinct for French repertory than for Italian. Yet to hear her Vissi d'arte, from Tosca, is to understand why there has been such a buzz around her performances of this opera in New York and elsewhere (the recording here is with the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under Antonio Pappano). Deutsche Grammophon does a reasonable job in fusing the various sound sources into a whole, and this is an album few new or old Netrebko fans will want to skip.
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