This week Classical reviewer Geoff Adams lisens to Coloraturas Opera Arias, and Messiaen: Poemes pour Mi; etc.
The title is printed COLORaturaS and the German singer wears a billowing multi-hued gown for photos in the accompanying booklet.
Such gimmicks are not needed to aid her scintillating and technically precise singing, coupled with skill at capturing characters - this and Damlau's appearance have seen her called the Meryl Streep of the classical world.
The 11 tracks of this 74-minute disc cover a repertoire that ranges from Rossini and Verdi to Stravinsky and Leonard Bernstein arias in four different languages. Her voice is spectacular in all.
Included is Zerbinetta's marathon coloratura display in Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos, a role she has sung at the Met and other places in a busy career in the past eight years.
Highlight: Glitter and be gay (Bernstein's Candide) is brilliantly conveyed.
This is the orchestral version of Olivier Messiaen's half-hour cycle of nine love songs (his own texts) to first wife "Mi". They also venture mystically into his love of the Divine.
Rhythmic complexities made them deemed to be unplayable in 1937, but in 2008 the French orchestra (conductor Jun Markl) had no difficulty conveying their ecstatic effusions.
The soloist sings with a warm and sumptuous opulence as the composer's required "grand soprano dramatique". A shame there is no text/translations in the booklet.
A bonus two orchestral works by Messiaen are included: the meditative Les Offrandes Oubliees (The Forgotten Offering) of 1930, and Un Sourire (A Smile), written in 1991 to pay homage to the fortitude of Mozart during his many hardships.
Highlight: Nine beautiful, shimmering songs.
