Melancolia de Izquierda

Patricia Petibon's album Melancolía: Spanish Arias and Songs is a result of the soprano's lifelong fascination with the music and culture of Spain, with a special interest in the ways Spanish and French influences have cross-pollinated. She has put together an exceptionally attractive selection of songs and arias from zarzuelas, most of them likely to be unfamiliar to general audiences. Petibon is known for her light, silvery coloratura, and her gift for inhabiting her roles, both dramatic and comic, with great spirit and penetrating insight.

The bizarre presentation of this disc by the Portuguese recorder ensemble A Imagem da Melancolia may be enough to put listeners off of the whole thing, but they'll be missing out on some attractive recorder arrangements of organ music if they let it happen. The bad news begins with the "Bad Tempered Consort" title, which is apparently supposed to be humorous; it doesn't seem to refer in any way to tuning, but it's hard to say exactly what it is supposed to mean. In search of an explanation, the buyer may step inside to the booklet essay, a self-indulgent and muddled exposition of the idea that musicians should be able to do pretty much whatever they want to with a score.