She is gorgeous, she is beautiful, elegant and her voice is exceptional, smooth, smoky and rich with fascinating timbre. Her name is Pumeza Matshikiza, a South African lyric soprano and definitely, one of today’s most exciting new operatic voices.
Decca has just made her first disc available to the audience. Her first disc reflects her background by mixing great South African songs with Western classical masterpieces.
The disc opens with a pair of Puccini arias, with Simon Hewett and Staatsorchester Stuttgart, “O mio babbino caro” from Gianni Schicchi and “Signore, ascolta!” from Turandot, which reveal a substantial lyric voice, with the warm tone and quite a strong vibrato! Her “Vedrai, carino” is convincing and I can hardly wait to see her in other great Mozart’s roles!
Frankly, Pumeza’s voice reminds me on the warmth and strength of the most interesting and fascinating American soprano ever – the Queen of Met – Leontyne Price. With this interesting disc, Pumeza convinced the audience that she can easily do both – perform the operatic arias and the Miriam Makeba songs.
Links:
Decca Classics – http://www.deccaclassics.com/
Pumeza – http://pumeza.com/
Necessities 