The voice itself has plenty of potential…It’s all there in the last track, Eboli’s ‘O don fatale’…Rachvelishvili tears into this great aria and has a proper dramatic instinct for where to change vocal and emotional gear…Here are hints of a fine Verdi mezzo-soprano ready for her prime.

Anita Rachvelishvili's voice is well-endowed with a quality that has long been rare among mezzos: a timbre rich in texture, free from harshness and even across a wide range. Both the Habanera and Seguidilla are indeed musically impeccable and vocally luxuriant without any hint of plumminess.

Since making her name in 2009 as Carmen at La Scala, aged just 25, Georgian mezzo Anita Rachvelishvili has been storming the world’s stages. Her debut CD offers some standard repertoire choices, but she blows the competition out of the water. People often bemoan that big voices are a thing of the past, but Rachvelishvili is here to prove them wrong, with her exciting and gleaming top notes and a baritonal chest register that rattles the speakers. She also displays great artistry and delicacy, never descending into exaggeration for the sake of cheap effect. This is a must-have CD for not just all lovers of great vocalism, but for anyone who relishes a singing actress in the first flush of her youthful triumph.