CDs:

• Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna: Angela & Roberto Forever


• Various artists: Opera New Generation -- Greatest Arias


• Various artists: Opera New Generation -- Great Duets

This week I'm focusing on operatic vocalists again, but don't let the any of the titles fool you or, for that matter, limit your expectations.

First of all, nothing lasts forever, not even the heat of summer. But that beautiful, temperamental duo Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna, partners in life and on the opera stage, are sparking a flame of their own with Angela & Roberto Forever, an assortment of popular duets for soprano and tenor.

The focus here is strictly on their French and Italian repertoire for EMI, heavy on the passionate longing and release, and, for that matter, the ensuing heartbreak. Bring on those ill-fated couples from Bizet, Gounod, Massenet, Puccini, and Verdi! If you wanted to know how it feels to hear Gheorghiu and Alagna wrap their voices around "O soave fanciulla" from La Boheme or "O nuit d'amour" from Faust, this is your opportunity.

Yes, somebody slipped and included a selection from Donizetti's comic opera Don Pasquale, but even that is a touching love duet, "Tornami a dir che m'ami."

And how do they partner each other, this Romanian soprano who studied music from childhood and this French-Sicilian tenor who took a less orthodox path? Alagna has an appealing voice, youthful but manly, and once he blends it with his wife's stunning soprano, everything starts to catch fire.

That said, Gheorghiu possesses the greater range, power, and versatility. Though she and Alagna make an exciting team, she's a lot to handle, and the more varied, more demanding roles lie ahead of her. Take care of those voices, you two.

All right, opera lovers and newcomers, let's look at two of your other options.

Virgin Classics has been putting out enticing two-for-one opera compilation discs, varied in their choice of artists, composers, and eras.

Firstly, the "new generation" moniker puzzles me a bit, for there are quite a few veterans on these albums—real veterans, people whose careers we've been tracking in decades, not months and years: Susan Graham, Katia Ricciarelli, Dawn Upshaw, Jose Van Dam, and others.

Then again, it's more than a pleasure to revisit well-known talents. For example, the Great Duets album includes a delicious performance by Felicity Lott and Yann Beuron in La Belle Helene. Lott started her singing career the better part of four decades ago, Beuron started his in the 1990s, and I'm glad to see them come together, so to speak, on this album.

So alongside familiar names like John Aler and Arleen Auger you'll find up-and-coming singers. The litany of the familiar and unfamiliar includes Elina Garanca, Vivica Genaux, Veronique Gens, Rolando Villazon, and many others.

Moreover, the selections stretch nicely from the Baroque into the 20th century, and include a few things we all can't seem to get enough of—e.g., duets from The Pearl Fishers and Lakme, "Ombra ma fui" from Handel's Xerxes, "When I am laid in earth" from Purcell's Dido and Aeneas—and a few more we might have missed. It's a great opportunity to see where we've been and perhaps where we're going in the classical vocal world.

Stay cool.