Soprano Aleksandra Kurzak has become known largely for comic roles since coming on the scene as a protégée of Plácido Domingo, but this 2020 release perhaps inaugurates a new phase in her career. Kurzak has a varied and agile voice, ranging from an impressive blade-like top (sample her "Timor di me?" from Verdi's Il trovatore, among other selections) to a lower range with a bit of what Astor Piazzolla used to call "mud." Desire, her theme here, can be fiery or angry in addition to having the brooding, sultry tone of almost ...
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Soprano Aleksandra Kurzak has become known largely for comic roles since coming on the scene as a protégée of Plácido Domingo, but this 2020 release perhaps inaugurates a new phase in her career. Kurzak has a varied and agile voice, ranging from an impressive blade-like top (sample her "Timor di me?" from Verdi's Il trovatore, among other selections) to a lower range with a bit of what Astor Piazzolla used to call "mud." Desire, her theme here, can be fiery or angry in addition to having the brooding, sultry tone of almost all of these selections, and one might wish along the way for a bit more contrast. Yet it's easy to see why Kurzak chose the pieces she did: they fit her voice perfectly. She effectively mixes Puccini and Verdi standards with works from Eastern Europe, concluding with a big Tchaikovsky scene in which her momentum does not flag, and including a terrific excerpt from an opera of her native Poland, Stanislaw Moniusko's Halka, that most Western listeners will not know. She gets fine,...
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