Glass Shatterers! Elena Mosuc - Rossini: SEMIRAMIDE, Bel raggio lusinghier, 1997 recital, High F#

~The "Glass Shatterers!" series focuses on sopranos who sustain High F, or sing higher.
THE SONGBIRD: Born in Iași in 1964, Elena Moșuc made her debut in her hometown singing Queen of the Night, Gilda, and Lucia. She started winning a bounty of vocal prizes in the early 1990s and was signed to the Zürich Opera House, where she has stayed for decades as prima donna. She has sung all the major coloratura roles there, while branching out into top opera houses and festivals around the globe. Moșuc's repertoire includes a few French works and plenty of high-flying Mozart (over 250 Queens of the Night -- which equates to well over 1,250 high Fs, and I am fairly confident she didn't miss even one of them). However, Moșuc has tended to focus on the Italian bel canto genre -- the standard coloratura heroines (Lucia, Gilda, Amina), the heavier "assoluta" bel canto roles (Anna Bolena, Norma, Lucrezia, Elisabetta, Luisa Miller), and more obscure ladies (Linda, Beatrice, Amalia, Imogene).
This captures Moșuc early in her career in recital in Zurich in 1997 -- I don't have exact date, venue, or the name of her accompanist. Even in this setting she deploys her signature interpolation of a High F# (and, of course, a few High Es).
THE MUSIC: Rossini's "Semiramide" is based on a Voltaire play and premiered in Venice in 1823. It was not his last opera, but was his last original opera written in Italian, as he moved to Paris after its premiere. The leading role was written for his wife, the great soprano Isabella Colbran and was his last opera for her (her voice was in considerable decline at this point). Despite wide success in the decades following its premiere and occasional diva-driven productions here or there (in Cincinnati in 1882 for Adelina Patti, at The Met in 1894 for Nellie Melba), it faded far into the background. It was produced anew at La Scala in 1962/63 as a showcase for Joan Sutherland (alongside Giulietta Simionato), and has since become a more frequently produced, though still rare, vehicle for the top-tier of accomplished bel canto divas. "Bel raggio lusinghier" is sung by Semiramide, Queen of Babylon, in the famed Hanging Gardens as she waits for Arsace, the object of her affections.