On this recital she proves her fluency with coloratura and high stacattos in the arias from Gomes' Il Guanary and Verdi's La Battaglia di Legnano and Luisa Miller. She is particularly lovely in this last piece, singing with girlish charm. There's a nice wistfulness in "Come in quest'ora bruna" from Boccanegra, with delicate, soft singing near its close. Antonia's solo from Hoffmann is deeply felt and sung with just the right sad tone; a rarity from Gomes' Fosca finds Stoyanova as Delia, singing a lament about her lover, Paolo, with whom she is in a triangle with the eponymous heroine, Fosca. Valentine's fourth-act aria from Les Huguenots is another lament, and here Stoyanova darkens her tone. Anna's beautiful aria from Puccini's first opera, Le Villi, is performed with warmth; arias from Herodiade and La juive are no less impressive.

Friedrich Haider leads the Munich Orchestra with sympathy and a nice feel for rubato and for his soprano's strengths, and Stoyanova seems incapable of singing off-key or milking an emotion for more than it's worth--two great traits. This recital gives us some nice rarities, albeit only an hour of them. Highly recommended.

--Robert Levine, ClassicsToday.com