OH, BOY!

Arias by Gluck-berlioz, Meyerbeer, Mozart, Offenbach, Thomas, Hahn, Gounod, Massenet & Chabrier Marianne Crebassa (mezzo-soprano); Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg/

Marc Minkowski

Erato 9029592762 72:36 mins

In little more than a decade

Marianne Crebassa has established herself in the first rank of a new generation of mezzo-sopranos. A former Paris Opera young artist, she sings at Salzburg and Berlin as well as in Paris, and has already made her American debut in Chicago.

And boy – can she wear the trousers well! Her Cherubino in ‘Voi che sapete’ trembles with anxious desire. Only the stoniest hearted woman could resist this ‘Non so più’, Crebassa by turns eager and breathless; and what daring there is in the slow section of the aria with the legato spun so finely that you fear that it will snap.

Elsewhere in this debut solo disc Crebassa excels in a pair of sparkling arias from Lucia Silla. But there are other treats from other composers