A Bouquet of Great Arias

Paul Groves

"Selected arias." Compilation albums. There are purists who regard them as cultural alco-pops: the hard stuff served up in palatable mixtures for the intellectually feeble. An aria experienced out of context is like... gin without tonic, ice and lemon - they would say - or scrambled eggs without the supporting toast and bacon; opera-lite for the YouTube attention span.

Pah. Let them scoff. Callas did not disdain the compilation album back in 1954, and nor in more recent times have Pavarotti or Carreras, Domingo or Dessay, Netrebko or Fleming. Singers, it is true, are hostage to the imprecations of agents and record labels, and dark mutterings of "commercial suicide" should they resist such populist temptations. But let us also remember that this is the same profession that gave birth to the term "diva." If anyone were going to be fiercely protective of his artistic reputation it would be an opera superstar.

Bryn Terfel, speaking recently about his latest compilation of arias, expressed impatience with purists’ dislike of "selected highlights." His view: What’s wrong with accessibility? If hearing a glorious aria inspires a listener to experience the whole opera, he says, who can complain? So enjoy the guilt-free indulgence of our "bouquet: of great arias from the Classical TV library of free videos. And if you are moved to hear more, help yourself. (Rise above, if you can, the fleeting annoyance of the introductory - and contractually necessary - Great Arias title theme, which does not improve with repetition.) Instead, enjoy the added bonus of introductory interviews with the artists, giving their personal and professional insights into these pieces.

• Great Arias: Alceste - Paul Groves   FREE

Ancient Greece: King Admetus is dying. Apollo demands a human sacrifice. Queen Alceste is willing to give up her life for her husband. Paul Groves as Admetus celebrates his recovery, unaware of his wife’s impending sacrifice. A starkly modernist production expresses the omnipotence of the gods, and Groves’ introduction highlights the irony that it is Admetus’s love for the queen which makes him savor his return from the dead.

Anne Sofie von Otter

• Great Arias: Alceste - Anne Sofie von Otter   FREE

Alceste’s response to her husband’s unwitting celebration: "Ah implacable divinity." Love at its most sombre and selfless, sung by the classically beautiful Anne Sophie von Otter. And don’t miss more of Gluck’s Alceste for free, in a different and very balletic interpretation.

• Great Arias: Eugene Onegin - Orla Boylan   FREE

Tangled Russian unrequited love. In this famous “Letter Aria” (“No, there could never be...”) the idealistic, novel-reading Tatyana is writing to Eugene Onegin, who embodies all her romantic dreams (even though she has only just met him). Swooping melodies express the passion of first love. We can all identify with the uncertainties of young love, suggests engaging Irish soprano Orla Boylan in her introduction.

And see the Metropolitan Opera’s complete Eugene Onegin with Renée Fleming and Dmitri Hvorostovsky, for $4.99

• Great Arias: L'Elisir D'Amore - Roberto Alagna   FREE

Love potions from opera’s loved-up couple. In the opening scene we have peasant boy (Roberto Alagna as Nemorino) who loves posh girl (Angela Gheorghiu as Adina) in “Quanto è bella, quanto è cara” (“How beautiful she is”). Then, after various tribulations and a trumped-up love potion which fails to deliver, he harbors hope that she may yet have a soft spot for him when he notes her secret tear in “Una furtiva lagrima”.

Angela Gheorghiu

• Great Arias: L'Elisir D'Amore - Angela Gheorghiu   FREE

It’s the good-news, all-is-resolved love aria. “Prendi, prendi, per me sei libero” (Take it, I have freed you) sings Gheorghiu/Adina as she hands Nemorino the military contract she has purchased to buy his freedom. “I love you, I do!” and it’s hugs and kisses all round. We can’t bring you the complete L'Elisir D'Amore, but see Alagna and Gheorghiu together in Puccini’s La Rondine and Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette.

- Jennifer Stevenson

And if you liked these arias, you might also like:

• Della Jones Recital: Dramatic Heroines in Song:  Della Jones   FREE

One of England's favorite mezzo-sopranos, portrays some of the great dramatic figures of literature, including history’s Maria Stuart (Zumsteeg), classical mythology’s Ariadne, from Ariadne of Naxos (Haydn), Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth (Horovitz), and Ophelia (Berlioz), Goethe’s Gretchen (Verdi), and more.

• Felicity Lott and Thomas Allen Recital   FREE

Two of opera's greatest British stars, Dame Felicity Lott and Sir Thomas Allen, sing songs and duets by Schumann, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Bizet, Duparc, Saint-Saens and Faure from the Wigmore Hall.

• Best-Loved Arias from Verdi’s La Forza del Destino, sung by Galina Gorbachova and Gregam Grigorian   FREE

In separate programs Gorbachova and Grigorian discuss theirs roles and sing an aria from Verdi's La Forza del Destino.