Oksana Volkova, Constantine Orbelian, and the Kaunas City Symphony’s Poison d’Amour release is Opera Magazine’s July 2021 Disc of the Month!
“‘Poison d’amour’ is that rarity, a recital disc where interest is nicely balanced between the singer and the song. The Belarusian mezzo-soprano Oksana Volkova has a well- nourished voice that has already taken her around the globe. Russian and French operas lie naturally at the heart of her work, and there is no doubting her rightness in those Romantic repertoires, which deliver all bar two of the 13 tracks here. … Volkova expertly projects the amorous glooms promised by the disc’s title… Volkova’s lustrous tone and security of line easily sustain its appeal. Here and elsewhere, Constantine Orbelian and the Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra are sensitive collaborators, their musicianship as absorbing as the singer’s own. This level of care carries through to the booklet, which eschews publicity waffle for full texts, translations and—best of all—contextual plot notes for everything we hear in Delos’s rich and well-balanced sound. Such high-quality support only adds to the pleasure of Oksana Volkova’s unusual and rewarding anthology.”
—Christopher Webber, Opera
See the full review in the July 2021 Issue!