Famed opera singers Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazón collaborate again for their much anticipated Duets album. Already a platinum-seller internationally, this album is a collection of their favorite pieces from the world's most celebrated operas including La Bohème and Roméo et Juliette. As a gift to one another, Anna and Rolando also sing in each other's native language with duets from Luisa Fernanda and Iolanta. This release coincides with the pair's engagement at New York's Metropolitan Opera in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette from September-December, 2007 (see dates below). Netrebko and Villazón established themselves as the new operatic dream team when they sang in the Salzburg Festival production of Verdi's La Traviata in 2005 (their interpretations are preserved on Deutsche Grammophon CD and DVD). Since then, they have conquered the world's stages in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette in Los Angeles, and Verdi's Rigoletto at New York's Metropolitan Opera (conducted by Plácido Domingo).Rolando Villazon and Anna Netrebko, opera's "golden couple" (or is it "dream team?") have just released their first CD of duets. In the duet that closes the first act of Bohème, both singers are in rapturous voice, their phrasing sensitive and sincere. The Lucia-Edgardo duet is passionate and tender by turns, with Villazon particularly good--he takes his solo softly and in a long breath. The Duke and Gilda are roles made for them: She sounds sweet and vulnerable and he sounds like he believes what he's singing at the moment, and their final high D flat together is a dazzler. A hypnotic Roméo et Juliette duet follows, with gentle singing from both, and they make the most of Leila and Nadir's scene from The Pearl Fishers, turning in a languorous, smooth performance. The big duet from the third act of Manon finds Netrebko at her most seductive and a duet from Iolanta, probably the most lyrical tenor-soprano moment in Russian opera, is a nice rarity, with Villazon very at home in the Russian idiom and the pair soaring to great emotional heights. A delicious number from Torroba's Zarzuela Luisa Fernando ends the CD on a soft, tender note. Netrebko's diction remains unfortunate and while singing with a partner whose diction is as clean and clear as Villazon's, it becomes more noticeable. But there's precious little to complain about here--it's a true pleasure to hear singing and communicating of this caliber. --Robert Levine
