Melba Recordings

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Power of Love

01/10/2000
The Bulletin (Australia)
Anthony Clarke
These arias by the likes of Balfe, Wallace and Sullivan suggest that the reason there was no strong British school of opera was because for the most part, British operas were a sub-branch of Italian operas. All runs and trills; Donizetti meets Verdi in Clapham. But that hardly matters. These are a pleasing excursion into a forgotten operatic byway, and Australian soprano Deborah Riedel is in magnificent vocal form. At times she sounds uncannily like Joan Sutherland in her timbre, but has a strength and richness all her own. The album isn't a powerful advocate for British opera - but it is for Deborah Riedel!