Whistle Stopper - The Opera Gala: Live from Baden-Baden

Garanca's Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix from Saint-Saën's Samson et Dalila is undersung but her showpiece aria from Rossini's La Cenerentola sparkles, with impressive coloratura fireworks. Netrebko is among the most brilliant stars of today's operatic firmament and while overparted in Norma's Casta Diva, she's effective elsewhere. She brings the house down with the first of the concert's many encores, a performance of Lehar's Meine Lippen from the operetta, Giuditta, that includes seductive singing and acting, sexual flirtations, and energetic dancing. Her enthusiasm is infectious, sparking her colleagues as well as the audience. All four singers join in the quartet from Rigoletto that ends the formal portion of the concert, and in the final encore, they trade verses in an arrangement of the Drinking Song from La Traviata. Conductor Marco Armiliato, whose supportive accompaniments help make the concert a rousing success, directs the capable orchestra.

So this two-hour singfest provides joys for vocal buffs despite the hectic video direction that keeps the cameras moving endlessly, unnecessarily swooping around the auditorium, zooming from balconies to the stage and back, and otherwise distracting from the main event. --Dan Davis