Great Recordings Of The Century: Elisabeth Schwarzkopf Sings Operetta Arias

This most serious and studious of German sopranos has a grand time--with no hint of condescension--in this collection of Viennese operetta arias, treating them with a meticulous musicality they rarely receive. In fact, lots of this music written by now-obscure names such as Heuberger, Zeller and Millocker isn't heard at all. But these isolated arias are marvelously lyrical and ingratiating with some deliciously comic counterpoint. One highpoint is the Nuns Chorus from Casanova, in which Elisabeth Schwarzkopf's voice soars above her fellow nuns, longing for her lover to rescue her from the cloister. It's some of the most unbuttoned singing of her career. --David Patrick Stearns