Label: Erato | Album Website
International Release: April 28, 2015

Diana Damrau, Piotr Beczala, Nicolas Testé, Nicole Brandolino

Orchestra Teatro Regio Torino, Gianandrea Noseda

Stream on IDAGIO

Album Photos

In her first recital album devoted entirely to Italian opera, soprano Diana Damrau takes the golden age of bel canto, the early 19th century, as the starting point for an exploration of theatrical and musical passion that leads to the high-octane verismo drama of the 1890s. She sees Fiamma del Belcanto - 'the flame of beautiful singing' - as a torch of musical emotions, handed down by great Italian composers from one generation to the next.

– *The New York Times - One of 2015's Best Classical Recordings

"Diana Damrau rules the bel canto"

– fnac.com

"Erato shines with opera recitals . . . It's the same for Diana Damrau (Arie di bravura, Mozart arias, Lieder by Strauss), here with the tunes of Maria Stuarda and Rosmondo Inglhilterra Donizetti, Bellini's La Sonnambula, and also later composers of bel canto, the fresh air of Violetta in La Traviata, and Verdi's Luisa Miller and even the death of Mimi in La bohème and Nedda in Pagliacci. It notes that Italian Prime recital of vocal beauty (stamped spun notes, volume control) and a superb intelligibility of the text. The dramatic presence born of perfect control of these two parameters . . . Those who loved the "stupenda", Joan Sutherland, will be in heaven."

–  Christophe Huss - Le Devoir