French singer Elsa Dreisig, of Danish background, has made a splash with a voice that can soar as only those of the young can do. Miroir(s) is her debut album, and it certainly gains her points for boldness: instead of offering a program of well-worn arias, she opts for an unusual thematic program that includes a pair of world premieres. The program doesn't totally work. The "miroirs" (mirrors) are billed as pairs of views of the same character from different operas and different composers. This is an intriguing idea, but ...
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French singer Elsa Dreisig, of Danish background, has made a splash with a voice that can soar as only those of the young can do. Miroir(s) is her debut album, and it certainly gains her points for boldness: instead of offering a program of well-worn arias, she opts for an unusual thematic program that includes a pair of world premieres. The program doesn't totally work. The "miroirs" (mirrors) are billed as pairs of views of the same character from different operas and different composers. This is an intriguing idea, but it is not really realized, and indeed it could have been realized more fully than it is. The opening pair, Gounod's Marguerite, from Faust, and Massenet's Thaïs, are linked merely by their fascination with looking in the mirror, and to call Rossini's Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia and Mozart's Countess Almaviva from Le nozze di Figaro the same character is stretching a point; even if one is the sequel to the other, the presentation does little to illuminate the composers'...
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