TRACKLISTING

1 Cilea: Poveri fiori (Adriana Lecouvreur)
2 Smetana: Dobrá! Já mu je dám!... Jak je mi? (Dalibor)
3 Tchaikovsky: Pochudilis mne budto golosa… Za dvorom luzhok zelenvoshek (Oprichnik)
4 Puccini: Vissi d’arte (Tosca)
5 Korngold: Ich ging zu ihm (Das Wunder der Heliane)
6 Gounod: Ö légère hirondelle (Mireille)
7 R.Strauss: Orchesterzwischenspiel… Wie umgibst du mich mit Frieden (Die Liebe der Danae)
8 Rimsky-Korsakov: Tsvetï moi! (Servilia)
9 Verdi: Ché più t’arresti?...Tacea le notte…. Di tale amo (Il Trovatore)
10 Massenet: J’ai verse le poison dans cette coupe d’or (Cléopâtre)
11 Janácek: Mamicko, mám težkou hlavu...Kdo to je? – Jenufko, ty jsi ješte vzuru? (Jenufa)
12 Korngold: Ich soll ihn niemals, niemals merh sehn (Die Kathrin)

RECORDING INFORMATION

Renée Fleming's sumptuous tribute to the glamorous divas of opera's 'Golden Age'

Click here to see the album feature

Today's leading Strauss soprano explores a golden age of opera, and the women who inspired it

Opulently beautiful arias in tribute to the divas who sang them

German, Italian, Russian, French & Czech repertoire

Favourites by Puccini and Verdi

Many rarely heard 'lost jewels'

Valery Gergiev conducts the Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre, St.Petersburg

'My heart belongs to the fin de siècle, and my imagination is fired the by the great women who inhabited it.'
Renée Fleming

Acclaimed throughout the World’s great opera houses, American soprano Renée Fleming enjoys particular success in roles from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when glorious vocal writing and opulent orchestrations took the art of opera to new heights.

In studying and performing this passionately lyrical music Renée Fleming became increasingly fascinated with her predecessors - sopranos of a 'golden age' who made this intensely emotional music their own.

With this recording project Renée Fleming pays tribute to remarkable singers including Lotte Lehmann, Maria Jeritza, Rosa Ponselle and Mary Garden; women who achieved iconic status in a rapidly changing World in which their fame was spread through recordings, film and advertising - a time which could be described as ‘The Age Of The Divas’.

The beautiful music links the 19th Century of Verdi and Gounod with the 20th Century of Korngold and Richard Strauss. All of the pieces were championed by Divas of the past. Although two arias come from operas that are still very popular today (Tosca & Il Trovatore), most are from operas that have been wrongly neglected. Renée Fleming rediscovers these “lost jewels” - big hits in their time - and presents them for a new generation.

For this passionate, richly orchestrated repertoire, Renée is joined by the acclaimed Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre under their music director Valery Gergiev.