Renee Fleming.(Sound Recording Review)

[] "BY REQUEST" Arias from Gianni Schicchi, La Wally, Figaro, Cosi, Norma, La Traviata (with Calleja), Madama Butterfly, Manon, Rusalka, Die Tote Stadt; songs by Rachmaninoff, Strauss, Gershwin, Villa-Lobos, Rodgers. London Philharmonic, London Symphony, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Orchestra of St. Luke's, English Chamber Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Mackerras/Solti/Summers/ Tate/Levine; Grusin, piano; Ritenour, guitar. Texts and translations. Decca 80001024-02

To this grab bag of Renee Fleming's greatest hits, recorded in the five-year period 1994-99, Decca has added three new, previously unissued 2003 tracks: "Ah! fors'e lui.... Sempre libera," from her currently newsworthy La Traviata, Richard Strauss's "Cacilie," and "You'll Never Walk Alone" from Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel, all with the Orchestra of St. Luke's under Patrick Summers.

It's notoriously hard to keep a solo recital interesting, with all those arias sung out of context. Fleming leads off with a disarmingly fresh "O mio babbino caro," and her preference for tonal coloration, over the verbal kind, prevails through most of what follows, giving variety to her sheer sensuous beauty of sound. The aria from La Wally, for example, sounds dark and sadly gloomy, "Porgi, amor" pensive and wistful. Perhaps because of packaging considerations, there's a tendency to take the easy way out, recording "Porgi, amor" and "Casta Diva" without their cabalettas (the latter also lacks its instrumental intro), though an aria such as "Come scoglio," demanding abundant technique, ...