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Artist: Elina Garanca

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Elina Garanca:

When Night Falls...

Full of ambivalent sensations, colours and shades, night-time has long been special to Elina Garanca. “For some people, the night can be full of fear and uncertainty. It’s a time when you’re alone and confronted with yourself,” she says. And yet it can also bring peace. “The world calms down and falls asleep, and we humans can find calm as well.” Garanca’s new Deutsche Grammophon album, When Night Falls ..., set for release on World Sleep Day (15 March 2024), embraces all these nuances, reflecting the night from twilight to the darkness of the early hours, in songs with orchestral, chamber or solo-instrument accompaniment. The mezzo-soprano has chosen her selection of pieces with a view to conjuring “that time of day when you withdraw from the world, come home, close the door and focus exclusively on your own life, in a safe environment”.

This is the guiding thought behind the dramatic arc of When Night Falls … The album takes listeners from the rich colours of sunset, a time when the hustle and bustle of the day may still be reverberating, to the intimacy and silence of the night. It opens with three works for voice and orchestra – Richard Strauss’s Wiegenlied (“Lullaby”: “Träume, träume, du mein süßes Leben” – “Dream, dream, you sweet life of mine”), Falla’s Asturiana and the Abendsegen, or “Evening Prayer”, from Humperdinck’s opera Hänsel und Gretel, in which Garanca sings both parts, thanks to overdubbing, which she calls a “fascinating experiment”. The singer is accompanied in all three by the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria, conducted by Karel Mark Chichon.
Garanca also performs a number of songs with a chamber ensemble. In two of Berio’s Folk Songs she is accompanied by the Berlin Music Ensemble, while for Brahms’s Wiegenlied (“Guten Abend, gut’ Nacht” – “Good evening, good night”) she is joined by oboist Albrecht Mayer and pianist Malcolm Martineau, who accompanies several other pieces as well, including Schubert’s Nacht und Träume.

Elina Garanca:

Sol Y Vida

In her first complete departure from core repertoire, Elina Garanca releases Sol Y Vida. A journey from Spain and Italy to Latin America, the album features a selection of songs, canzone and tango pieces. Highlights include Piazolla's "Yo soy Maria," originally part of a tango operita and "Gracias a la vida." Garanca is joined by Karel Mark Chichon and his Orquesta Filarmónica Gran Canaria as well as guitarist José María Gallardo del Rey.

Elina Garanca:

Revive

"Garanca's talents would make her a star in any century, yet her voice and movie-star good looks seem tailor-made for our Live in HD era. But perhaps the mezzo's greatest strength is her ability to render a cantabile line of such overwhelming beauty as to make time stop . . . Elina Garanca has already secured her place in opera history, and she may just be getting started." Opera News, April 2016

In Revive, her latest album for Deutsche Grammophon, Latvian mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca explores the storms raging in the lives of some of the strong women of opera. A world-class performer at the peak of her form, she channels her experience and insight into a collection of arias drawn from the great Romantic repertoire, complete with captivating rarities and genuine showstoppers. Revive charts the impassioned responses of characters blown off course or thrown into emotional turmoil by events beyond their control.

Elina Garanca:

Meditation

In one of her most personal albums to date, Latvian mezzo-soprano Elina Garanca presents a beautiful selection of spiritual music dedicated to the eternal search and longing for inner peace with Meditation, available now on Deutsche Grammophon. Elinais joined on this recording by her husband, the well-known Gibraltan conductor Karel Mark Chichon. This is their second collaboration on disc for Deutsche Grammophon following the success of Habanera.