Tomorrow night, City Opera will open its season with Handel’s “Semele,” and in the cast will be Vivica Genaux. Who’s she? You will want to make her acquaintance: Ms. Genaux is an Alaska-born — yes, Alaska-born — mezzo-soprano who excels in bel canto and Baroque.Those who can’t get to the New York State Theater should pick up her recent CD from Virgin Classics. On it she sings arias of Handel and Hasse.

Hasse? Yeah, good question: He was a contemporary of Handel who, though German, inclined Italian (even as Handel, though German, inclined English … and Italian). It was Hasse who, on hearing an early Mozart opera — “Ascanio in Alba” — made the immortal remark,”This boy will cause us all to be forgotten.”

Ms. Genaux cleans up in both Handel and Hasse. Staking out Marilyn Horne territory, she begins with Handel’s “Fammi combattere,” from “Orlando.” And she sings it smashingly. If Ms. Genaux were an instrumentalist, we’d call her a virtuoso. Her technique is assured, unencumbered, almost carefree. (Of course, this is a recording — we must check out the real thing.) Her ornamentation is both imaginative and appropriate.The entire CD conforms to a very high standard.

I might say, too, that Ms. Genaux has a surprising, exciting upper register. Really, is there anything more thrilling in music — certainly vocal music — than a mezzo’s high notes? Neither a soprano’s nor anyone else’s can match them, somehow.

Accompanying Ms. Genaux is the worthy French-Canadian group Les Violons du Roy, conducted by their founder, Bernard Labadie. New York had a taste of them when they came to Zankel Hall last February with Magdalena Kozÿená, the Czech mezzo. With Ms. Genaux, they are vibrant, incisive, and completely committed. This is not Baroque wallpaper, thank goodness.

Opera freaks will perhaps appreciate the following, insidery line: For Vivica Genaux, I am “sur mes genoux … ” (That is, I am “on my knees,” borrowing from the first words of a oncefamous Meyerbeer aria.)

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Looking for a CD to cap off your “Mozart year” (250th anniversary, you know)? Deutsche Grammophon brings you “The Mozart Album.” That’s a very bold title, what with that definite article. The performers on this CD are “Anna Netrebko & Friends,” touted as “A Dream Team for Mozart in 2006.” You have to wonder what the other singers — including such veterans as Bryn Terfel, René Pape, and Thomas Quasthoff — think about being reduced to “friends.” They are practically pips. But maybe they’re just happy to ride Ms. Netrebko’s fame wave.

The Russian soprano is undoubtedly the rock star of the opera world right now. On the cover of “The Mozart Album,”her picture is front and center, more forward and larger than the others’.

And how does she sing? The album has 13 tracks, comprising arias, duets, and a trio from Mozart operas; Ms. Netrebko sings on about half of them. She is often sharp of pitch, as is her wont, and I have always found her a little cold for Mozart: cold vocally, I mean. But she no doubt has charisma and musicality, and she is especially effective in the aria “D’Oreste, d’Aiace” (“Idomeneo”), which requires a fury, a scolding quality, that Ms. Netrebko easily supplies.

A standout on the album is Elena Garanca, the wonderful Latvian mezzo, who sings “Parto, parto” (“La clemenza di Tito”), a specialty of hers. Also commendable is the Hungarian soprano Erika Miklósa, who sings a specialty of her own: the Queen of the Night aria (“The Magic Flute”). She traverses that daunting number accurately and triumphantly.

One surprise is Mr. Quasthoff, the German bass-baritone, who seldom sings Mozart, and seldom sings in Italian. He performs the Catalogue Aria (“Don Giovanni”), but his Italian is strangely bad — not only is it inauthentic, whole syllables are flat-out wrong. I say “strangely,” because Mr. Quasthoff is such a smart singer, such a student, and so particular. He is much more himself in a Papageno aria from “The Magic Flute.”

An inevitable track on “The Mozart Album” is the aria “In diesen heil’gen Hallen” (“The Magic Flute”), sung by Mr. Pape.That aria, like that role (Sarastro),is almost his meal ticket.You are always safe with that, and him.

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Speaking of Mozart: The Philips label has put out a little series called “Mozart Meets Marriner,” giving us some recordings that Sir Neville made in the 1970s and 1980s — most before he was a “Sir,” actually. There was a time when Sir Neville and the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields were all the rage, and they deserved it. They were fresh, learned, and distinguished. There is a sense of “just rightness” about Sir Neville’s Mozart: It is graceful, tasteful, and correct; there is nothing screwy about it; it’s not too heavy, not too light; it strikes just the right balance between “periodicity” and wrongful opulence. Listening to Sir Neville in Mozart is like listening to Mozart pure. You don’t hear an interpretation; you just hear the music.

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Finally, I’d like to note a concoction put out by Sony called “A Heritage of Hymns.” The album is true to its title. From a variety of performers — Leontyne Price, Jerome Hines, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the Robert Shaw Chorale — we have such hymns as “God of Our Fathers,” “Lead, Kindly Light,” and “Blessed Assurance.” There is much great music-making on this disc.There is also an element of healing in it, and not a small one.