Anita Rachvelishvili sings Arias

   in Opera Now (May, 2018)
Since making her name in 2009 as Carmen at La Scala, aged just 25, Georgian mezzo Anita Rachvelishvili has been storming the world’s stages. Her debut CD offers some standard repertoire choices, but she blows the competition out of the water. People often bemoan that big voices are a thing of the past, but Rachvelishvili is here to prove them wrong, with her exciting and gleaming top notes and a baritonal chest register that rattles the speakers. She also displays great artistry and delicacy, never descending into exaggeration for the sake of cheap effect. Her Carmen, Dalila and Charlotte (Werther) are women of dignity, her Azucena (Trovatore) haunted and desperate. …