The Chinese (they tell us) are coming. Within a decade the opera houses of Europe and America will be newly stocked, and, so runs the report, greatly enriched. Meanwhile, softly as in a morning sunrise, here is part of the advance guard. Ying Huang studied in Shanghai, competed for an international prize (coming second) in Paris, was chosen for a film of Madama Butterfly, and has since sung with the opera company at Cologne. Here, her voice sounds pure, young and slender, quite lovely in quality, aristocratic in timbre and usage.
In this recital we can sample her in what used to be regarded as the ‘old’ Italian repertoire (Rossini, Bellini and Donizetti). In Verdi she very properly confines herself to the lyric-leggiero roles. In Puccini, just a mite too mannerly for Musetta and too maidenly for Magda, she is an ideal Lauretta and Liu. Fluent in passagework, she moves easily throughout the range, with a fresh bloom upon the top notes and no want of firmness or colour in the lower register. Her Italian seems good, and (for example) in “Una voce poco fa” she shows a lively appreciation of mood and humour. Two Chinese songs round off the programme, very charmingly if with a suspicion that they may have been pretty thoroughly westernized in their orchestral arrangements.
James Conlon conducts, and the LSO play, with sympathy and without undue reticence. The recording gives no impression of trying to pass the voice off as bigger than it is. In the booklet, texts and translations are sensibly introduced with a brief synopsis. An intriguing recital debut on record, and a name to look out for.'