KEY POINTS:
Hyperbole runs rampant around the partnership of a Russian soprano and a Mexican tenor hailed as opera's golden couple and stardust twins.
They have been credited with creating "the stuff of moonbeams"; one writer claiming that "when two voices make love as rapturously as theirs, one plus one makes more than two".
In fact there is far more going for Duets, Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazon's new Deutsche Grammophon album, than just the chemistry of diva and divo in duo.
The excellent playing of the Staatskapelle Dresden is certainly a major factor in the project's success and the experience of conductor Nicola Luisotti is another. It is no mean feat for the Italian to contribute both baton and baritone when two minor characters turn up on a piece from Rigoletto.
Duets gives us Deutsche Grammophon recording at its lush, plush best. A solitary rising clarinet near the beginning of Puccini's O soave fanciulla registers in immaculate silhouette while the shift from quartet to full, throbbing string section in the Act 4 duet from Gounod's Romeo et Juliette is the stuff that shivers are made of.
Eight tracks allow for some generous extracts - The Act 1 duet from Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor clocks in at almost 13 minutes and is relentless in its emotions. When Villazon launches into Sulla tomba che rinserra, one understands the passions of the hapless heroine.
Netrebko is equally high calibre, particularly when the pair revisit La Boheme, the opera that brought them together at the 2005 Salzburg Festival.
Balancing the Italian and French repertoire - Netrebko is at her strongest in the torment of the final duet from Act 3 of Massenet's Manon - is a less familiar sampling from Tchaikovsky's Iolanta. Netrebko, on home territory, is at her most fervent while a full-voiced Villazon sings his paean to Nature, with harp and pizzicato strings sounding like a giant balalaika behind him.
Zarzuela is all the rage these days and the final track is an artless duet from Torroba's Luisa Fernanda. Sentimental turns for solo cello and viola, along with heartfelt singing, make it the perfect signing off.
* Anna Netrebko & Rolando Villazon, Duets (Deutsche Grammophon 477 6456)
