Stunning
Bellini and Wagner at their Best
I was just listening to The Immonlation Scene in gotterdammerung and teared up
Jane Eaglen is absolutley brilliant

Vocally secure but no Maria Callas
My husband & I find it impossible not to admire Ms. Eaglen's tonal beauty, her ease of production. How difficult this music is, and how one must have to love it to pieces to dare approach it. But after listening to the Pirata piece (Col sorriso d'innocenza) three times in succession, we brought out Callas, for *dramatic* coloratura---sung with accents, layers of meaning, exquisite rhythm, and musical and dramatic momentum. One one hand, a scene; on the other, a entire panorama of sound and meaning...

But we sense that Ms. Eaglen has the capability to fine-tune. We'd feel we'd be foolish to give up on her, so we shall not. By any rational standard, she is a rarity in today's age, thus not to be dismissed out-of-hand. Also, she deserves better conductors, who will keep her voice "out front". Is there a Tullio Serafin lurking in the house?

Exceptional
I will openly admit I do enjoy Jane Eaglen's sing, but I have had many reservations about her recordings. Though I enjoy them, each has disappointed me in some way. This is no exception. It is not her, nor is it her singing that really disappoint me at all, it is how her voice is handled by the recording engineers. There are complaints that her performances are "boring", "liveless", that they lack "drama" and all that. The truth is, in life that is not the case at all. She is filled with drama, life, and detailed interpretation. A voice like her's is exceptionally large and huge, like a tidal wave of sound. However, she has great musicality, has great command of dynamics, and does do many interesting things to make the character come alive. She also has good pitch.

Like all super large voices, especially those in a darker hue, as is Eaglen's, the voice can and often does sound boring and expressionless in recording. The thrill of the voice comes when you are out there, in the theatre. Since, her voice is rather dark in quality, the brightness it seems is so required by techical engineers to work magic in the recording studio gets lost. Her voice is very penitrating, it has ring, but we get only a small glimpse of that, and only on her high notes.

That complaint is my complaint dealing with all her recordings. As to her interpretations, well, they are uniquely her. No, she is not a Callas, nor is she a Joan Sutherland, when it comes to her NORMA. Her coloraturas don't dazzle us with their brilliance, nor does she squeeze out her sound with some intended dramatic purpose as Callas does. However, she has just as much musicality as either of those ladies. Their interpretations are legend, and they should be, but Eaglen isn't trying to copy either of them, and I am glad she isn't. Her NORMA in performance has much to recommend it, as it does in this recording, but it has to be looked at for what it is and the voice that is doing it. Her voice is far bigger than either of the afore mentioned ladies. Her tone is cavernous. The voice is a heavy dramatic voice, well suited to Wagner. What is amazing is not what she lacks compared to the coloratura of Sutherland, but rather what she can do with a voice large and powerful as Flagstad. And that is what most reviewers are forgetting. Even Nilsson was not that great at coloratura and could often sound heavy and over-labored in Mozart and even Weber. One hardly reads a complaint about her Donna Anna or even her version of "ocean, you mighty monster" from Oberon (sung in German), nor does one hear the slightest complaint about her lack of trill in the Walkure war cry.

Eaglen is not perfect, but she does wonders with her talent. Her colorature is far better than just respectable, it is fine work, especially considering the heaviness of the voice producing it. Her Mozart is well sung, but again, she is not the light delicate Mozart singer we are used to, and it is wise she never tried to make her voice do what it can't or be what it is not. She is a dramatic soprano, and thus, she approaches her music faithful to what she is, and using her talent then creates something wonderful with the music she is singing. Her Wagner is thrilling and we are hearing the voice perfectly at home. No, she is not as detailed in her interpretation as say Modl or even Varney, but she is offering us a living breathing Brunhilde well worth considering. And she offers what none of the afore mentioned singers offered in the Walkure War Cry, a real trill. Though, personally, I am not impressed with the "stressing" of the beat that is done to keep the long trill moving. It is distracting, but not bad.

My only desire is that the engineers would do with her as they do to Dimitrova, and that is to record her voice far away from the mike; like Dimitrova, her voice is huge enough it will never be lost, but we will get more of the focus, the warmth, and the fire that is there in performance (and all one has to do is buy a copy of a life performance of her's to her what her voice is like). Voices like this get only more exciting when they have the space of the theatre in which to move. Otherwise, yes, she does sound "boxed in" as some writers have said, but not boxed in because of lack of talent or direction, just by technical issues she is not in control of.

Disapointed
When I first bought this recording I was very impressed by Eaglen singing of Bellini and Wagner. But after listening to singers as Callas, Sutherland, Nilsson she sounds inadequate.
I don't no why she thinks she can pull this off. The person who wrote that Eaglen's Norma was the best must be out his mind.
I whas also stupid enough to buy her recording of Turandot. Eaglen and O'neil both sound awful on that recording. The only Eaglen recording I can recommend is her Tosca. Forget everything else.

Not Whitney Houston
The British soprano Jane Eaglen has chosen selections from Bellini and Wagner for her first recording, and what an amazing CD this is. Apparently there isn't much she isn't capable of doing with this glorious voice. From pianissimo high notes to the dramatic, her voice soars and swells. All the arias here are altogether wonderful-- from "Casta diva" to "Brunnhilde's Battle Cry" and "Brunnhilde's Immolation Scene," the first Wagner, according to the notes, that Mr. Eaglen sang in public while still in her early 20's.

The notes, both about the singer and the selections, are most informative. Quoting from her commentary: "Wagner wrote dramatic music that should be sung beautifully and Bellini wrote beautiful music that should be sung dramatically." And finally, when Ms. Eaglen began her first voice lessons while still a teenager, she realized immediately, to her everlasting credit, that she wasn't a pop singer. "There was no way I could make myself sound like Whitney Houston," she says. While there is certainly nothing wrong with Houston's voice-- some of her music I like a great deal-- we can all be thankful that this great voice wasn't wasted on pop music.

This very fine CD will bring you much pleasure.