Martinez: Soprano Songs and Arias

"She turned married couples into lovers and bestowed happy dreams on the lonely. Some listeners shut their eyes and smiled blissfully". The dramatic range and unusually broad repertoire of Ana Maria Martinez sets her apart as one of today' most sophistic

Ana Maria Martinez is a young Puerto Rican soprano with a natural Mediterranean warmth to her tone and an easy upper extension that is suitably bright but does not lose the color and texture of the rest of her voice. Hers is a true lyric which will probably grow darker soon; at the moment, vocally, there's little she has trouble with. Her high pianissimi are lovely, her agility is tested and true in Juliette's Waltz, her sense of rhythm impeccable, as exhibited in both "Les filled de Cadix" and an aria from the Zarzuela "El Nino Judio." Her version of Villa-Lobos' Bachianas Brasileiras no. 5 is lovely, including the difficult hummed part at the end of the Aria. She lacks both the heft and interpretive subtlety--or interest--for "Un bel di" and Doretta's Dream and lacks charm in "O mio babbino caro," but her "Vilja-Lied" is ravishingly sung. As soon as she begins to delve a bit into the characters she's portraying, she'll be quite something; now, however, Martinez is already a fine singer, with a beautiful voice, and should be heard. Stephen Mercurio is the sympathetic conductor. --Robert Levine