I’d admired Inva Mula’s DVD performances as Gilda and Lisette (in Rondine) and was looking forward to hearing this, her first solo recital. It isn’t very good. I’d like to believe that she is going through a transition from leggiera/soubrette to the more substantial roles she sings here, but she isn’t ready. The top of the voice has hardened to a worrisome degree at any level above mezzo-forte, and while she is scrupulous about dynamics, she is not clever with the text and her French enunciation is awful.
The “bel sogno di Doretta” that opens the program is ravishing, with divine high pianissimos (including the all-important C), but the recital goes downhill from there. The two Bohème excerpts (she has sung the role on stage) are good enough, but the voice lacks bloom at the top, even for the easily-reached high As, and Mula offers few non-generic insights. The Mireille arias have a tough edge to the tone and the coloratura is smudged. Manon’s “petite table” aria is quite lovely, however, but then again, very little of it is to be sung forte, which is where Mula gets into serious trouble.
The King of Thule scene and Jewel Song contain fake trills, mushy diction, and no sparkle (the orchestral accompaniments sound as if they belong to a first-time run-through as well). “Il ne revient pas”, from later in Faust, is entirely lacking gravitas of both tone and text. Thaïs’ “mirror” aria reminds us of how difficult–and heavy–this music is.
The recital leads up to the pièces de résistance–Violetta’s “Addio del passato” followed by(!) her first-act brace of arias. The letter-reading–a bit rushed–is girlish and sad, and the “Addio” is well sung. “E strano …Ah, fors’è lui” is unimpressive. And the “Sempre libera” contains approximate coloratura and the oddest final moments: Mula sings the cadenzas full-voiced and then ascends to the (unwritten) E-flat, hitting it square in the middle, pianissimo, before returning to full voice for the ultimate note. Clearly she can sing anything softly. It isn’t enough but it’s enough to make an audience member worry. As suggested, the accompaniments are lackluster.
