Somewhat forgotten today, the Spanish soprano Pilar Lorengar shone on the operatic stage as well as on the multicoloured sleeves of 1960s microgrooves. It would be reductive to limit her to the zarzuelas that made her name. After her début at the Oran opera house in French Algeria, she sang at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, where she excelled in Mozartian roles before playing Violetta in La Traviata by Verdi, at Covent Garden. She spent most of the rest of her career at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where she joined the troupe. Over thirty years, Lorengar would sing a vast repertoire, running from Pamina (The Magic Flute), to Elsa (Lohengrin) and Eva (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), and the great heroines of Verdi and Puccini. Salzburg immortalised her in Idomeneo by Mozart, and she would sing for eleven seasons at the Metropolitan Opera where the crowds loved her proud Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni). Her discography, with 84 albums, includes many operas and concert pieces like certain cantatas by Bach or Beethoven's Ninth, which she often sang, often with Solti and Horenstein. We find her here in a too-short recital dedicated to Spanish folk melodies by various composers including Turina, Falla and Granados. Basque guitarist José de Azpiazu accompanies her in sessions recorded for German Radio in 1960. © François Hudry/Qobuz