Eternamente is described as a collection of verismo – the term used generically for Italian opera of the immediate post-Verdi era. No matter when they were composed, and no matter what their subject matter, all these operas demand great passion and commitment from their performers – and they get it from Angela Gheorghiu. “It is like my soul, it is something different, it is not the voice,” she explained in an interview with Opera magazine.
“The voice is also there, it has to be there, and it has had to be prepared – but at that moment of the performance, there is more. The response is never a conscious exaggeration – it is a natural expression. I am never pretending. It is just how I am at that moment.” The character and impact of her voice was summarised thus in Gramophone: “With her smooth and dark-toned soprano, a voice at once powerfully firm and vulnerable, Gheorghiu stands out from an entire generation of talented singers. Her sound is convincingly Italianate in the great tradition; her voice, once heard, is never forgotten.”
Mascagni: Regina coeli laetare (from Cavalleria Rusticana)
Prague Philharmonic Choir, PFK - Prague Philharmonia
Emmanuel Villaume
Angela Gheorghiu (soprano)
Mascagni: Voi lo sapete o mamma (from Cavalleria rusticana)
PFK - Prague Philharmonia
Emmanuel Villaume
Angela Gheorghiu (soprano)
Mascagni: Tu qui, Santuzza? (from Cavalleria Rusticana)
PFK - Prague Philharmonia
Emmanuel Villaume
Joseph Calleja (tenor), Angela Gheorghiu (soprano)
Donaudy: O del mio amato ben
PFK - Prague Philharmonia
Emmanuel Villaume
Angela Gheorghiu (soprano)
Puccini: Vissi d'arte (from Tosca)
PFK - Prague Philharmonia
Emmanuel Villaume
Angela Gheorghiu (soprano)
Boito: Spunta l'aurora pallida (from Mefistofele)
PFK - Prague Philharmonia
Emmanuel Villaume
Joseph Calleja (tenor), Richard Novak (bass), Angela Gheorghiu (soprano)
Mascheroni: Eternamente
PFK - Prague Philharmonia
Emmanuel Villaume
Angela Gheorghiu (soprano)
Refice: Ombra di Nube
PFK - Prague Philharmonia
Emmanuel Villaume
Angela Gheorghiu (soprano)
Ponchielli: Suicidio! (from La Gioconda)
PFK - Prague Philharmonia
Emmanuel Villaume
Angela Gheorghiu (soprano)
Leoncavallo: La Canzone di Fleana (from I Zingari)
PFK - Prague Philharmonia
Emmanuel Villaume
Angela Gheorghiu (soprano)
Giordano, U: Vicino a te (from Andrea Chénier)
PFK - Prague Philharmonia
Emmanuel Villaume
Joseph Calleja (tenor), Emmanuel Villaume (spoken voice), Angela Gheorghiu (soprano)
