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In the dog-day heat, feelings can seem more intense than usual, and certain songs take on a particularly seductive quality. Latvian mezzo Elīna Garanča’s new Deutsche Grammophon album, Sol y Vida (Sun and Life), captures summer’s uniquely sensual atmosphere to perfection. In her first recording of entirely non-core-classical repertoire, Garanča presents a variety of arias and songs to create a multi-faceted album. Richly orchestrated and accompanied with suitable brio by the Orquesta Filarmónica Gran Canaria under the baton of Karel Mark Chichon, the kaleidoscopic programme of Sol y Vida creates a colourful portrait in sound of a hot summer’s day. The variety of repertoire is matched by Elīna Garanča’s expressive versatility. With her vibrant and dazzlingly clear tone, she breathes life into every nuance of life and love depicted here, revealing her outstanding technique and agility in the virtuosic passages, while using her resonant dark timbre and eloquent musicality to hugely moving effect in the lyrical moments. Garanča herself has talked about the ways in which her voice has changed over the course of her career, noting that it has now become “darker, heavier [and] rounder” as well as “more feminine and voluptuous”. And all the impressive riches of her new instrument are to be heard in Sol y Vida’s magical evocation of the days – and nights – of summer.