Poison d'amour Oksana Volkova, Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra & Constantine Orbelian

• Charles Gounod (1818 - 1893):
• 1 Gounod: Sapho, CG 1: Ô ma lyre immortelle 08:04
• Camille Saint-Saëns (1835 - 1921): Samson et Dalila, Op. 47, R. 288 (Excerpts):
• 2 Saint-Saëns: Samson et Dalila, Op. 47, R. 288 (Excerpts): Printemps qui commence 05:01
• 3 Saint-Saëns: Samson et Dalila, Op. 47, R. 288 (Excerpts): Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix 06:19
• Dmitry Smolsky (1937 - 2017):
• 4 Smolsky: Hoary Legend: Ti pripomni jak lotaz kalisti u lugah mi zbirali 03:16
• Ambroise Thomas (1811 - 1896):
• 5 Thomas: Mignon: Connais-tu le pays 05:07
• Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (1844 - 1908):
• 6 Rimsky-Korsakov: Sadko: All Night I Have Waited for Him in Vain 05:10
• Jules Massenet (1842 - 1912):
• 7 Massenet: Werther: Va! Laisse couler mes larmes 02:35
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893):
• 8 Tchaikovsky: The Maid of Orleans, TH 6: Farewell, You Native Hills and Fields 07:00
• Georges Bizet (1838 - 1875):
• 9 Bizet: Carmen, WD 31: Seguidilla "Près des ramparts de Séville" 02:10
• Modest Mussorgsky (1839 - 1881):
• 10 Mussorgsky: Khovanshchina: Mysterious Forces 05:19
• Pietro Mascagni (1863 - 1945):
• 11 Mascagni: Cavalleria rusticana: Voi lo sapete o mamma 04:12
• Jules Massenet:
• 12 Massenet: Le Cid: Pleurez! Pleurez mes yeux 05:32
• Francesco Cilea (1866 - 1950):
• 13 Cilea: Adriana Lecouvreur: Acerba voluttà, dolce tortura 04:19
• Total Runtime 01:04:04

Info for Poison d'amour

This richly rewarding album is Oksana Volkova’s first solo album on Delos, though she appeared alongside the late, great Dmitri Hvorostovsky in Delos’s GRAMMY®-nominated 2017 release of Verdi’s complete Rigoletto. Here she delivers powerful, passionate and ravishing performances of (mostly) well-known French, Italian, Russian and Belarusian arias for mezzo-soprano. The composers include Bizet, Thomas, Saint-Sae¨ns, Gounod, Cilea, Massenet and Mascagni; Russian masters heard here are Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky and Tchaikovsky, alongside a rare treat: an arresting aria by Belarusian composer Dmitri Smolsky, whose music is almost completely unknown in the West. Glowing instrumental collaboration, as usual, comes courtesy of Maestro Constantine Orbelian, leading his trusty Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra.

Oksana Volkova, mezzo-soprano
Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra
Constantine Orbelian, conductor

Oksana Volkova
Belarussian mezzo-soprano Oksana Volkova completed her Master’s Degree in Performance at the Belarussian State Academy of Music. She joined the Bolshoi Theatre of Belarus when she was still a student. Her many awards include the first prize at the International Glinka Vocal Contest and the Dvořák Singing Competition, the Belarusian State Award and a Francysk Skaryna medal. Since 2010, she has been a guest artist of the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia.

Volkova’s repertoire comprises over 20 operatic roles. She received international acclaim after her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 2013 with Maddalena Rigoletto and Olga Eugene Onegin, and where she returned with the roles of Sonetka Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and Giulietta The Tales of Hoffmann. She has performed her signature role of Carmen in opera houses around the world, from Moscow to Buenos Aires. Her appearances at La Scala and in Geneva and Naples Cavalleria rusticana, at the Royal Opera House, Teatro Real and Staatsoper Hamburg Eugene Onegin, at the Salzburg Festival The Queen of Spades, in Beijing Samson and Dalilah and Israel La forza del destino, Rigoletto, were highly regarded by audiences and critics. She is also known for her brilliant interpretation of Russian operatic roles such as Marina Boris Godunov, Marfa Khovanshchina, Lyubasha The Tsar’s Bride and Konchakovna Prince Igor.

Volkova collaborates with the most prominent conductors of our time, such as Vassily Sinaisky, Valery Gergiev, Mariss Jansons, Daniel Oren, Aleksandr Vedernikov, Tugan Sohiev and Carlo Rizzi. Her discography features Rigoletto and Eugene Onegin (DVD) with the Metropolitan Opera on Deutsche Grammophon, The Queen of Spades on BR Klassik (CD) and Rigoletto (CD) with Dmitri Hvorostovsky, released by Delos.

Booklet for Poison d'amour