Chandos is proud to present Jennifer Larmore’s debut on the Opera in English label. She will feature in a number of Chandos opera releases throughout the year.

She is famous for performing the Olympic hymn at the closing ceremony of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, which was viewed by millions around the world.

Jennifer Larmore is an outstanding American mezzo-soprano who made her initial operatic success in Europe and turned into international stardom. In a career of twenty years Larmore has traversed the whole gamut of the operatic repertoire, from the Baroque to the contemporary, and proved herself amongst the most popular and admired of American singers. Brian Kellow described her as “one of our most spirited and technically accomplished coloratura singers”.

Known for excelling in the coloratura roles of the baroque and bel canto repertoire, she can be heard on over seventy CDs to date, which has earned her the distinction of being the most recorded mezzo-soprano of all time. She presents her first operatic arias disc on Chandos Opera in English with a wide range of composers, performing works from Donizetti’s La favorita, Cilea’s Adriana Lecourvreur, Rossini’s Tancredi, Rienzi by Wagner, Romeo and Juliet by Gounod and Mozart’s Don Giovanni to name but a few! As well as solo arias she also performs a number of duets and is joined on the disc by Susan Patterson, Fflur Wyn and Colin Lee – all familiar names on the Chandos Opera in English label.

Versatility is perhaps Larmore’s over-riding quality, and this CD certainly shows this clearly. This is an excellent addition to the Great Operatic arias collection and will certainly attract more admirers to Jennifer Larmore.

Larmore made her reputation with the Baroque and bel canto repertoires and she turns in handsome accounts of ‘Hence, Iris, away!’ from Semele and Tancredi’s aria ‘Tell me, my beating heart’ (‘Di tanti palpiti’). A pair of numbers from the neglected La favorita are well done too, with a winning legato in the opening of Leonora’s cavatina ‘Oh, my beloved…’ after David Parry has sent the solo harp and horn off into one of Donizetti’s most beguiling melodies. Parry drives the Philharmonia Orchestra on admirably in Leonora’s and Fernando’s duet ‘You, most courteous maiden… My beloved’ (Ah, mio bene’).
Jennifer Larmore’s sure and defiant mezzo was ideal…
Reviews from recent performances:
Jennifer Larmore possesses a gloriously rich mezzo; very steely and very precise, but also very warm.
Versatility is the key to mezzo Jennifer Larmore’s success in this English-language programme, as it is in the opera house. She’s top-of-the-range in Juno’s number from Handel’s Semele, while the Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini items all find here spirited and technically faultless.
On this hugely engaging disc of arias in English, Larmore shows once again why she’s one of Chandos’ most popular artists. Her voice has a luxury richness about it, and her dramatic skills are second to none. She blazes with passion as the desperate Princess Bouillon from Adriana Lecouvreur and brings a sense of grand nobility to the page Adriano from Wagner’s Reinzi.
Track by track, Larmore’s technical command and dramatic concentration are stunning. That Rienzi solo, for instance, is an immense undertaking, and everything – vocal range and expressive intensity for a start – is in the grand manner, indomitable and tireless. Azucena’s gruesome narrative is tense in enunciation, musically very precise and graced by genuine trills where they are often fudged or ignored. Larmore is amongst the most accomplished singers of her time.


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