Diva May

The title Casta Diva tells all. This recital disc shows soprano Angela Gheorghiu reaching out beyond the lyric Verdi-Gounod-Massenet-Puccini repertory in which she made her name and edging into the gymnastic world of coloratura and bel canto–with some measure of success. Her opening number, the eponymous Bellini "Casta Diva," doesn't show Gheorghiu at her best: the sound is hollow rather than serene and just a touch too fluttery in the vibrato to feel comfortable.

The 1981 Jean-Jacques Beineix film Diva is a dizzying cornucopia of delights, with a strong sense of urban cool and a cast of characters whose alternating detachments and obsessions hint at the legacy of pain and loneliness that helped form them. Its score, composed by Vladimir Cosma, is inseparable from the film, which, after all, is about music itself, and the ways that it links to desire and longing. From the beautiful arias of Wilhemina Wiggins Fernandez (who plays an opera singer in the film) to the eerie, achingly beautiful instrumental pieces composed by Cosma to set the mood for images of rain-slicked streets, Taiwanese music pirates, teenaged Vietnamese thieves, jaded middle-aged art sages, motorbikes and car chases, the score for Diva remains one of Cosma's masterpieces, a perfect companion to a film that became an international underground hit.

While quietly setting numerous standards both musically and technically in the jazz recording field, Digital Music Products has prided itself on pushing numerous stylistic envelopes, from the tasty pop fusion of Flim & the BB's and the Fantasy Band to the artsy, straight-ahead skinning of Joe Morello. Expanding its palette even further, the Stamford, Connecticut based company enters the New Adult Contemporary realm for the first time with the sly and seductive half-vocal, half-instrumental Follow Me by the new ensemble Thursday Diva. Mesmerizingly rhythmic, melodic, and tailor-made for late-night sensuality, Thursday Diva features the merging talents of producer, composer, percussionist, and keyboardist David Charles and composer, lyricist, and song stylist Lisa Lombardo, along with slick, all-star contributions from Michael Brecker, Nelson Rangell, and labelmate Chuck Loeb.

Diva is an entertaining and attractively packaged compilation of Angela Gheorghiu's EMI recordings made between 1996 and 2002. All of the selections have appeared on previous releases, but some of them only in the context of complete operas. As a one-disc snapshot of Gheorghiu's career so far, Diva does pretty well, and it would make a good first choice for anyone looking to get to know her work.

Those expecting Annie Lennox to come out full-guns-blazing for her solo debut, Diva, with the high energy electro-Europop-meets-American- R&B of her Eurythmics work may be mildly disappointed. The enigmatic vocalist who made a career toying with different notions of gender plays on the concept of fame here – Lennox dresses up in the persona of a solitary Diva trapped by counterfeit glory. Although the music is strangely muted and understated, the framework offers an effective stage for Lennox's husky voice, showcasing her as much more of a chanteuse than in the past. In fact, the album almost works best as one integrated mood piece rather than a collection of individual songs. Lennox succeeds in carving out a personality distinct from her Eurythmics days with Diva.