Angela Gheorghiu's Album on Signum Classics Marks Puccini Centenary with World Premiere of Melanconia

Angela Gheorghiu, one of the world’s greatest opera stars, has recorded a new album to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Puccini’s death, due for release on Signum Classics on 26 January 2024. The album, recorded with renowned pianist Vincenzo Scalera, features 17 songs composed by Puccini between 1875 and 1919, including the world premiere recording of the recently rediscovered Melanconia.

Gheorghiu is in London to perform a programme of operatic excerpts with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall on 2 December and the album release coincides with her return to the Royal Opera House where she will reprise the role of Mimì in Puccini’s La bohème from 25 January to 11 February 2024.

“This album is my loving homage to Giacomo Puccini to whom I have been so deeply grateful all my life. With Vincenzo Scalera I have had the thrill of recording these 17 songs that Puccini composed between the ages of 16 and 61. Some of them are powerful and have a style that resembles some dramatic arias from his operas, and some of them are sweet and simpler in sentiment,” says Angela Gheorghiu.

The recording brings together a collection of little-known songs, including some which Puccini used as inspiration for his popular operas such as Manon Lescaut, La bohème and La rondine. The album – A te, Puccini (To you, Puccini) – is Gheorghiu’s tribute to the composer, inspired by his very first song A te, written when he was aged 16.

“Angela’s distinctive interpretations of Puccini’s music are admired worldwide, and we are delighted to be releasing her new recording of his lesser-known works on Signum Classics,” adds Steve Long, Founder and Director of Signum Classics.