What becomes a legend most? DG's new compilation of a great soprano's greatest hits is cause for celebration. (Beverly Sills).(Sound Recording Review)

Arias by Thomas, Massenet, Charpentier, Donizetti, Bellini, Offenbach, Mozart, Heueberger, Lehar, Moore, Korngold, Strauss. Various costars, orchestras and conductors. DG 471766-2

Beverly Sills retired from singing just as the compact disc emerged, and without an active catalogue, she was poorly represented in the new format for years. Recently, Deutsche Grammophon acquired rights to many of her early recordings, among her finest work. Most were made originally for Westminster and had been issued only briefly, if at all, on CD. DG's latest release, The Art of Beverly Sills, is a collection of hits, most of which already have made their way to compact disc. (Even the title of this collection duplicates the title of an EMI compilation, now out of print.) Yet the album is cause for celebration--and for reflection on the oeuvre it samples.

One is struck immediately by how different Sills sounds in each aria: no two heroines sound alike, any more than they look alike in photographs. Indeed, the sheer breadth and variety argue against listening to the album in a single sitting. Few singers can match her grasp of nuance and suspense, her ability to convey fury, dread and pain. Even without the visual component of her performances, she remains a peerless storyteller.

Thus Philine's "Je suis Titania" and Olympia's "Les oiseaux dans la charmille," ornate in the extreme, become warning signs: these girls are trouble. Lucia's "Regnava nel silenzio" is itself an extended hallucination. Anna Bolena's melismas signify mental instability; Baby Doe's, inner beauty. Flawless rhythm propels longer vocal lines, and on the albums second disc, Sills caresses Mozart's "Ruhe sanft" and Heuberger's teasing "Im Chambre separee." She seems incapable of singing arias in isolation. In Manon's gavotte, for example, jubilation turns to an intimation of mortality--that will drive the heroine to reclaim her lover in the next scene. The seeming frivolity of "O luce di quest'anima" ("embellished like crazy, almost as a spoof," as she admits in an interview with the producer, Anthony Rudel, in the skimpy CD booklet) points to the comedy of Linda di Chamounix.

The last tracks on the album, both by Strauss, are stunners. The transformation from Daphne calls on almost all her gifts at once, and it's truly supernatural; the ...