My World: Songs From Around the World

The cover is a bit much: Angela Gheorghiu descending from an airplane in a glamorous 1950s suit suggesting she's the reincarnation of Maria Callas. And in the notes, the fabulous Romanian soprano tells of her jet-setting life and how this international program of songs reflects that. She's not quite as versatile as she would like us to believe, but she's the real thing, singing with a strength of conviction and depth of musical understanding that overrides lapses in style. Many singers would just sail through Poulenc's tuneful Les Chemins de l'amour, for example, but Gheorghiu shows what guts it has. --David Patrick Stearns