Sandrine Piau & Freiburger Barockorchester - Mozart: Opera Arias (2002)

French soprano Sandrine Piau's voice is small, beautiful, light, and perfectly focused, and it's absolutely even from top (often, repeated high Ds) to bottom. She focuses thoroughly on the text and exclaims important, dramatic phrases with a natural emphasis that helps her avoid the sameness that high coloraturas can be so guilty of, especially on disc. Her breath control is stupendous (in Giunia's "Ah se il crudel periglio" from Lucio Silla, she launches one wildly embellished half-minute run after another effortlessly), the tone absolutely centered. Aside from the embroidered pieces here from Silla and Mitridate, we get a taste of Pamina, and while a fuller voice is (almost) needed for "Ach, ich fuhls," the manner in which Piau handles dynamics offers us enough. The same can be said for Konstanze's "Ach ich liebte" and "Traurigkeit," the latter sung as movingly as we're probably ever going to hear it. This is great singing. -- Robert Levine