GRAMOPHONE Review: Sol y Vida – Elīna Garanča, Gran Canaria Philharmonic Orchestra/Chichon

So it’s vacation time for the Latvian mezzo. Sun, sea, and seduction. True love may never run smooth but it always sounds better in Spanish or Italian. Garanca’s selection of flamboyant Mediterranean and Latin American songs is a predictably good fit for her ripe and beguiling timbre. The arrangements and delivery here prioritise the lushness and amplitude of the settings – the content may indulge déja vu-like in a recurring cycle of love and loss (which may account for the absence of texts and translations – a pity) but the writers, composers and these performers take great delight in succumbing again and again to their intoxication.

Garanca kick-starts with the inevitable ‘Granada’ replete with castanets, chirpy woodwinds, and a sweeping invocation of the Alhambra. I like the switch from that to solo guitar – José Maria Gallardo del Rey – for the traditional ‘La Llorona’ which is confidential, moody and sultry and definitely belongs to the shadows. As does Cardillo’s highly emotive ‘Core ‘ngrato’ which more than does what it says on the tin. Violeta Parra’s ‘Gracias a la vida’ feels like an old friend as does the return to Sorrento ‘Torna a Surriento’ and the ubiquitous ‘Brazil’ whose pulsations come with the promise of the next summer romance. Perhaps the arrival of a tall, dark stranger from Brazil.

Everything here (not least the filmic arrangements) is overheated in the best sense. The incongruity of Grieg’s ’T’estimo’ – ‘I Love You’, the starting or finishing point in all these numbers – is still wondrous even if it does belong to chillier climes and sounds odd in Catalan, and right at the heart of the recital is Tosti’s gorgeous ‘Non t’amo piu’ which Grananca turns into a self-contained drama of its own. Hamida’s ‘Lela’ is the most sumptuous sweetmeat.

And just when you were thinking you might overdose on all this lovelorn romanticism there’s Piazolla’s edgy, fiery tango ‘Yo soy Maria’ from Maria de Buenos Aires where Garanca’s rasping defiance a la Carmen excitingly exploits the darkest recesses of her bottom register.

Her sheer joy in choosing and singing this repertoire is tangible. A holiday romance, it may be, but enjoy it while it lasts.