RECORDINGS

Angela Gheorghiu and her husband, Roberto Alagna, are the international operatic couple of 1998, scoring a triumph at the Metropolitan Opera this spring in Gounod’s “Romeo et Juliette,” making headlines in a (brief) conflict with Met management over artistic control and, perhaps not coincidentally, achieving very high fees in their joint concerts. The soprano from Romania and the French Italian tenor are undoubtedly talented and indisputably good-looking. But, for all the hype, they don’t always deliver.

In Gounoud’s “Romeo and Juliet,” both suffer basic lacks--of vocal purity and beauty, of nuance and word connection, of legato singing and tonal variety. Gheorghiu’s delivery is perfectly pleasant at mid-range, but tends to stridency and thinness above that; Alagna’s singing can be colorless and without emotional projection. The performance’s best points--dimension, style and pacing--are all made by conductor Plasson.

In the solo outings, Gheorghiu fares better. She sings everything well and some things beautifully in her “around the world” collection of art songs and popular melodies. Highlights: touching accounts of three Romanian songs, her pointed delivery of Satie’s “Je te veux,” her projected gentleness in a Sephardic lullaby. Alagna, even with Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonic as expert partners, disappoints in 12 of Verdi’s most demanding arias. A fine intelligence and musical thoroughness don’t make up for the absence of idiomatic singing and a healthily ringing voice. More often than not, Alagna’s sound is both smoky and grainy, and more effortful than fluent.

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