The booklet for this two-disc compilation refers to Puccini's "uncanny ability in the format of the three-minute aria 'hit'," and what you get here are all the Puccini hits as well as a few that could have been. As a greatest-hits collection, the set is nicely selected and organized. The listener who has heard some Puccini arias or maybe an entire opera or two gets to start with a moment everyone knows and loves: "O mio babbino caro," from Gianni Schicchi. That aria is sung by the big-voiced and intense Chilean Puccini ...
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The booklet for this two-disc compilation refers to Puccini's "uncanny ability in the format of the three-minute aria 'hit'," and what you get here are all the Puccini hits as well as a few that could have been. As a greatest-hits collection, the set is nicely selected and organized. The listener who has heard some Puccini arias or maybe an entire opera or two gets to start with a moment everyone knows and loves: "O mio babbino caro," from Gianni Schicchi. That aria is sung by the big-voiced and intense Chilean Puccini specialist Cristina Gallardo-Domâs, whose singing inspires divergent reactions. Almost everything else is a safe choice, however, with José Carreras, Kiri Te Kanawa, and Plácido Domingo among the multiply represented singers. Disc 1 is largely filled out by other big hits from La bohème and Tosca, with Madama Butterfly filling out much of the beginning of the second disc. From there the program draws the listener into lesser known material; each of Puccini's operas is represented by at...
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