TRACKLISTING

CD 1
1 Temerari! … Come scoglio
2 Ei parte, senti, ah no!
3 Per pietà, ben mio, perdona
Così fan tutte Mozart
4 Nè sulla terra creatura alcuna
5 Ah conforto è sol la speme
6 La terra, il ciel m’abborrino
Il corsaro Verdi
7 Venerabile o padre
8 Lo sguardo avea degli angeli
9 Qual mare, qual terra
I masnadieri Verdi
10 Quant’è grato all’alma mia
11 Questo cor ben lo comprende
Elisabetta Rossini
12 Ô beau pays de la Touraine
Les Huguenots Meyerbeer
13 Signore, ascolta!
14 Tu che di gel sei cinta
Turandot Puccini
15 Suicidio!
16 La barca s’avvicina
La Gioconda Ponchielli
17 La mamma morta
18 Vicino a te
19 La nostra morte è il trionfo
dell’amor!
Andrea Chénier Giordano

CD 2
1 Ecco l’orrido campo
2 Ma dall’arido stelo divulsa
3 M’ami, m’ami!
Un ballo in maschera Verdi
4 Padre, ricevi l’estremo addio
Luisa Miller Verdi
5 Notte cupa, truce
Mefistofele Boito
6 Vissi d’arte
Tosca Puccini
7 Depuis le jour
Louise Charpentier
8 Ah! Verranno a te sull’aure
9 Il dolce suono mi colpì
10 Ardon gli incensi
Lucia di Lammermoor Donizetti
11 Mi chiami, o Norma!
12 Deh! Con te, con te li prendi
13 Mira, o Norma
14 Sì, fino all’ore estreme
Norma Bellini
15 Es ist kein Laut zu vernehmen
Salome R. Strauss

RECORDING INFORMATION

Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballé is without doubt one of the very greatest singers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Her 70th birthday is marked by Decca with this 2-CD collection of many of the greatest performances from her extensive Decca, Philips and DG discographies.

At home in a wide variety of roles Caballé has always been famous for the sheer beauty of her singing. She is known for her superb technique, stunning breath control and the ability to spin quiet, high notes of unrivalled beauty.

Almost every major opera composer is included in this collection but it is perhaps with the three major bel canto composers (Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini) and with Verdi that Caballé is most closely associated. It was in Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia that Caballé achieved overnight fame when she replaced an indisposed Marilyn Horne in New York in 1965 in the title role, and the following years would see her explore a number of other Donizetti roles in operas which were still largely unknown at that time. Caballé made her Glyndebourne and Metropolitan Opera debuts in 1965, and La Scala followed shortly after this. 1972 marked Caballé’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden debut (as Violetta in Verdi's La traviata) and the following twenty years would see her in that house in a number of central roles including Norma (title role), Leonora in Verdi's Il trovatore, Amelia in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera, and the title role in Verdi's Aida.

Caballé’s impressive discography is not limited to recordings made for Universal Classics. However, the range of recordings for Decca and Philips is broad and includes her participation in such rarities as Verdi’s Il corsaro and I masnadieri, as well as Rossini’s Elisabetta. Among these recordings are several with fellow-Spaniard José Carreras; their recording of Puccini's Tosca under Sir Colin Davis has been a staple of the Philips catalogue for the past twenty-five years and it is the famous aria from Act Two of this opera which gives this release its title.