Scene!

LOST SOULS! Emotional scenes that tear at the heart strings: concert arias are great dramas reduced to a few minutes and focussed on one single character. But what is the origin of the genre? And what inspired the great composers, stimulated by great voices and great moments in literature or even by the operas written by their fellow musicians? What they composed were moving, dramatic scenes for the concert hall, and they gave their all in creating them.

Christiane Karg is one of those fascinating voices, and who knows which concert arias Haydn or Mozart might have written for her? She is certainly one of today's most interesting German singers with an international profile.

After studying in Salzburg her career initially took off in Hamburg and Frankfurt. Her solo career has since taken her to the Semperoper in Dresden, to Salzburg, Covent Garden and Glyndebourne, and the list of her stage partners is clear evidence of her elevated status.

Following her highly acclaimed Strauss Lieder album, her fourth CD is a new orchestral recording on which the soprano chooses the tried and trusted Arcangelo ensemble with its conductor Jonathan Cohen to accompany her, as was the case on her "Amoretti" album. After winning the coveted Echo Award for her debut album, "Amoretti" gave her the breakthrough into the CD market.

"Scene!" is the title of her new CD, and it demonstrates how her voice has developed - something she describes in the booklet in these terms: "After my CD of Mozart and Gluck arias I thought it was the right time to take a step outside the Classical world and to explore the fach in more detail, without suddenly turning into an Isolde."

What fascinates her about these particular arias? "Large‐scale emotions in a small space with lost souls at the centre - forlornness that can also turn to hatred. That's what it's about and that's what I want to demonstrate."

Well then: curtain up for Christiane Karg!