source: https://magyarnarancs.hu/visszhang/kolonits-klara-erkel-265512

Surprisingly, no opera singer has ever dared to limit himself to Ferenc Erkel works for a solo album. So far.

While the pioneer of Hungarian music has his merits, his Bánk bán and Hunyadi László are full of dramaturgical problems, of inconveniences concerning the libretto or even the possible singing articulation of the text, which all the well-intentioned directors and theatre-makers have not been able to fully remedy.

Klára Kolonits’ new disc reveals the composer’s merits: inspired by bel canto , Erkel first wrote his operas on the Italian model, and then he could not escape the dizzying influence of Wagner. In addition to the King Stephen aria, we get yet another rarity, an excerpt from György Brankovics, as well as notable passages from Bánk and Hunyadi , including La Grange aria. They are performed in their original versions, making the album an Erkel masterpiece. Melinda’s mad scene – usually staged in abridged form – in its twenty-minute entirety can be placed alongside that of Lucia scene. The disc features the Hungarian Studio Orchestra, conducted by Dániel Dinyés. The singer looks down from the cover with a determined, queenly sternness, and it doesn’t take a particularly cultured ear to appreciate the most distinctive, refined voice of the last two decades in her. One who, moreover, is surely driven by a sense of mission and curatorial curiosity towards the Erkel oeuvre.