We specialize in hard to find items
All Categories
*Price and Stocks may change without prior notice
*Packaging of actual item may differ from photo shown
- Electrical items MAY be 110 volts.
- 7 Day Return Policy
- All products are genuine and original
- Cash On Delivery/Cash Upon Pickup Available
About Stephen Costello Sings Bel Canto
Product Description American tenor Stephen Costello's meteoric career has taken him to the stages of the world's top opera houses. In this, his first recording for Delos, he performs a glittering assortment of arias that will appeal strongly to any opera lover, but that will be a particular treat for fans of the bel canto repertoire. While it mainly showcases classic arias by Gaetano Donizetti, we also hear single selections by Vicenzo Bellini and Giuseppe Verdi. Polished and sensitive orchestral collaboration comes courtesy of Maestro Constantine Orbelian and his vaunted Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra. The Associated Press has called Stephen Costello "... a prodigiously gifted singer whose voice makes an immediate impact." Review BEST VOCAL RECITAL DISC OF 2018 ''The sounds that emerge from tenor Stephen Costello's Delos recording 'A te, o cara' provide 'bel canto' lovers' ears with copious reasons to rejoice, but it is heart the hearts of the characters whose music is sung, the heart of the singer bringing them to life, and the reactions of the listener's heart to these performances that makes this disc one to be celebrated as an important artist's homage to the art that uplifts him. ...At its most joyous, there is almost always a vein of wistfulness in 'bel canto', and 'A te, o cara' is a disc in which smiles and tears meld with staggering verisimilitude. This is one of the glorious capabilities of music, and Stephen Costello brandishes it on this disc and on stage with vocal gold and artistic generosity.'' --Joseph Newsome, Voix des Arts Gilbert Duprez...Adolphe Nourrit...Domenico Donzelli...names associated with the glory days of Bel Canto, when the likes of Rossini, Auber, Meyerbeer, Bellini, and Donizetti were writing operas in which great tenors paraded themselves before enraptured audiences that waited for the next God-given high C, D or E before going back to spying with their lorgnettes on those seated in the adjacent box at the Paris or Rome opera house. And if we could only communicate up in Elysium with the hapless composers who kept all those tenors gainfully employed and taught them their music and massaged their egos we would hear some terrific tales of hubris and idiocy. But no, we can't. Nor can we get a remotely accurate idea of what they sounded like, no matter what Stendhal and other critics of the time may say and wax poetic about Duprez et Compagnie. We can and do listen to some re-mastered acoustic and electric recordings by turn-of-the-century greats and later still legends - Caruso, Gigli - and later throwbacks - Bonci, Schipa - who sort of sounded like the greats of the Bel Canto Age must have sounded when at their best. But those are just approximations. So it was with high expectations that we sat down to listen to the young American tenor Stephen Costello's CD 'A Te, O Cara' recently released by DELOS after having been beautifully recorded at Kaunas Philharmonic Hall in May of 2017, with Constantine Orbelian impeccably and idiomatically leading the Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra. Stephen Costello does not give away his sound by the pound. He is an intelligent, sensitive, highly musical singer who fastidiously pays attention to the text and the dynamic markings of the music he sings in this recording. His sound is luscious, his technique unimpeachable, his artistry beyond question. The only aspect of this album I question is the choice of some of its repertory. This fine tenor's instrument is not the kind of voice for which Donizetti wrote either his La Fille du Régiment or his Elisir d'amore, or his Don Pasquale. Costello's sound is clearly that of a lyric spinto tenor barely in his mid-30's yet well on his way to taking on some of the big Puccini and Verdi roles. Proof of the pudding: Costello's Parmi veder le lagrime far exceeds this listener's expectations. So does his Edgardo in Fra poco a me ricovero. In both the sound is substantial, yet never beefy, but utterly masculine and elegant. C
