Eva Urbanova’s ringing dramatic soprano will already be familiar to collectors of Smetana’s operas who have acquired the Supraphon sets of Dalibor (12/95) and Libuse (4/96), and it is in heroic roles that she excels. In this recital she phrases Rusalka’s two arias gracefully, but she is really less at home here (the water nymph comes to sound more powerful than vulnerable) or with Vendulka’s lullaby in The Kiss than when in full dramatic cry. The contrast between her Jenufa and Kostelnicka reflects this: Jenufa’s prayer finds her reining in the strong, expressive tones that are effectively released for the Kostelnicka’s anguished resolve to kill Jenufa’s child. She comes into her own, of course, with the six tableaux that conclude Libuse. Always a sure passport to Czech emotions, this fine sequence of visions conjuring up the nation’s indomitable future has her recital’s audience interrupting with prolonged applause some time before she can finish the music.'