Five Sopranos Singing

Still in doubt that authentic American song and authentic American opera are an essential part of 20th century culture? Well, here are two of America’s most winning sopranos merrily battering Eurocentric prejudices.

Bonney is best known in Europe and best known in opera. But her family lore has her related to Billy the Kid, and she got Previn to write a tangy short suite of connected songs in his honor. She also offers a deeply felt performance of Copland’s penetrating Emily Dickinson songs; makes an irresistible case for Dominick Argento’s easy-going Americanized settings of Six Elizabethan Songs; and offers an about perfect performance (every word and note a pearl) of Barber’s “Hermit Songs,” with Previn as acute accompanist throughout.

Upshaw surveys a corner of melancholic Romantic American opera, from Bernstein and Weill to Samuel Barber and Douglas Moore, from Pat’s souring aria in John Adams’ “Nixon in China” to haunting arias from Copland’s “The Tender Land” and Carlyle Floyd’s “Susannah.” This disc belongs in the CD player of every opera company director in America.

Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor) to four (excellent).