Magdalena Kožená is a remarkable singer. Her voice is a somewhat light mezzo with many colors, and she can shade it to a whisper or impress with a fortissimo high B-flat. Her range is absolutely even from top to bottom and she never switches gears; similarly she refuses to push the voice at either end. Her reading of Eboli’s “Veil Song” from Verdi’s Don Carlos is seductive and insinuating, with just the right Spanish flavor in the low-register roulades–but they’re soft-focused. Perhaps she has no “chest” register, or is afraid to use it? But then, along comes the character of Dulcinée in Massenet’s Don Quichotte, and she belts out some phrases that would impress Marilyn Horne and Fiorenza Cossotto, and you realize that a certain type of expressive device–i.e., belting–simply would have been wrong for the elegant Eboli, while the earthy Dulcinée is right at home with such exclamation.
This entire recital–all 78 minutes of it–is equally impressive and thought through. Beginning with a rarity from Auber’s Le domino noir, in which the heroine, escaping from pursuers, enters breathlessly and then proceeds to enchant with a coloratura showpiece, we get superb portraits of Marguerite dreaming of the King of Thule (from La damnation de Faust), young, impetuous Stephano from Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, the Princess-heroine of the same composer’s unknown Cinq-Mars meditating gorgeously on the night, Sapho’s tragic suicide aria, the mock-heroics of the heroine of Ravel’s L’Heure espagnole, Mignon’s thoroughly personal “Connais-tu le pays?”, and more. Massenet’s Cendrillon in an autobiographical aria is followed by Bizet’s Carmen (in the Gypsy Song), sung as if Carmen were light on her feet and playfully sexy.
I’ve left a few out (Nicklausse; Jenny in La dame blanche; Massenet’s Cléopatre), but you get the point: from long-lined cantilena to explosive exclamation to perky observations, Kožená is in total control and always both interesting and lovely. The voice seems smallish, but it’s used wisely. The trill is in place, the legato smooth as silk. DG’s production is grand: not only are the sonics remarkably clean and clear, with ideal balances between Kožená and Minkowski’s wonderful Mahler Chamber Orchestra, but the producers have left a couple of seconds between tracks so we can prepare for another character. This is a brilliant disc. [10/25/2003]
