With her second album, Aigul Akhmetshina—one of the most exciting opera stars of our time—presents a passionate portrait of female strength, seduction, and vulnerability. Accompanied by Antonio Pappano on the piano, the young mezzo-soprano guides listeners through a diverse repertoire that spans languages and cultures.

Her moving life story—from a remote village in rural Bashkortostan to the world’s most prestigious stages—has made her a revelation in the opera world. She is the youngest singer ever to have sung the title role in Bizet’s “Carmen” at London’s Royal Opera House.

“Over the past ten years, Carmen has been one of the most influential artistic figures in my life and, in many ways, the embodiment of the ‘femme fatale’ ideal. Through her, I began to explore this world full of passion, freedom, and contradictions, which later became the foundation of this album.” – Aigul Akhmeshtina

The repertoire is Aigul’s reinterpretation of the femme fatale: a woman in constant flux, complex, emotional, strong, and vulnerable all at once.

Featuring works by Bizet, Ravel, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Britten, Weill, Bernstein, and Gershwin, as well as the title track “Mujer Fatal,” a new work by composer Elena Roussanova written specifically for Akhmetshina and recorded here for the first time.

TRACKLIST:

Elena Roussanova: Mujer Fatal
Xavier Montsalvatge: No. 1 Cuba Dentro de un Piano, from “Cinco canciónes negras”
Xavier Montsalvatge: No. 5 Canción de cuna para dormir a un negrito, from “Cinco canciónes negras”
Carlos Guastavino: La Rosa y el Sauce
Carlos Gardel: El Día Que Me Quieras
Consuelo Velázquez: Bésame Mucho
Bizet: Adieux de l’hôtesse arabe, Op.21 No.4
Ravel: Vocalise-étude en forme de Habanera, M.51
Satie: Je te veux
Mily Balakirev: I Loved Him
Tchaikovsky: None but the Lonely Heart, Op.6 No.6
Rimsky-Korsakov: No. 2 The Nightingale and the Rose, from “4 Romances, Op.2”
Mark Minkov: No. 5 Landscape, from “The Crying Guitar”
George Gershwin & Ira Gershwin: The Man I Love, from “Lady be Good”
Bernstein: Lucky to be Me, from “On the Town”
Bernstein: Somewhere, from “West Side Story”
Kurt Weill: Speak Low, from “A Touch of Venus”
Britten: Tell me the truth about love, from “Cabaret Songs”