Giuseppina Bridelli / Quartetto Vanvitelli APPENA CHIUDO GLI OCCHI

 

APPENA CHIUDO GLI OCCHI

 

Nathalie Stutzmann / Orfeo 55 CONTRALTO

 

CONTRALTO

Philippe Jaroussky / Artaserse LA VANITÀ DEL MONDO

 

LA VANITÀ DEL MONDO

 

Affinità / Elisabeth Baumer VENICE AND BEYOND

VENICE AND BEYOND

 

La Ritirata / Josetxu Obregón ANTONIO CALDARA The Cervantes Operas

THE CERVANTES OPERAS

La Ritirata / Josetxu Obregón ANTONIO CALDARA AND THE CELLO

ANTONIO CALDARA AND THE CELLO

Thibault Noally / Les Accents VENEZIA 1700

VENEZIA 1700

Cecilia Bartoli / Il Giardino Armonico / Giovanni Antonini FARINELLI

Renowned for portraying the music of the baroque like no one else, Cecilia Bartoli presents her new recording of arias famously performed by legendary castrato, Farinelli.

Exploring the complex gender roles of the world of baroque opera, and highlighting the phenomenon of the castrati, a horrifying practice which led to some of the most celebrated work of the period.

Featuring works by Farinelli’s brother, Riccardo Broschi, and his mentor, Nicola Porpora, as well as Hasse, Caldara and Giacomelli. Including two new world premiere recordings, from Porpora’s Polifemo and Broschi’s La Merope.

Kathleen Kim / Jong Ho Park CON AMORES

Kathleen Kim made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 2007 and has since been the subject of both glowing reviews and intense international interest.  She has been heralded as “spectacular” by Opera News and “a revelation” and “tiny dynamo” by the Chicago Sun-Times.  The Chicago Tribune raved that Ms. Kim “nailed her stratospheric coloratura aria with a precise, penetrating soprano.”  Such critical acclaim reflects the excitement Kathleen Kim generates at many of the world’s premiere opera houses and concert halls.  Ms. Kim’s extensive career at the Met includes performances as Olympia in Bartlett Sher’s production of Les contes d’Hoffmann, conducted by James Levine; as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos conducted by Kirill Petrenko; and as Oscar in Un ballo in maschera, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda in 2007 and by Fabio Luisi in 2012.  She was hailed by critics for her role as Chiang Ch’ing in the Met’s iconic premiere of Nixon in China, directed by Peter Sellars and conducted by John Adams.  Ms. Kim has also reprised her acclaimed portrayal of Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos in the Met’s popular Elijah Moshinsky production, conducted by Fabio Luis and in 2016, Ms. Kim sang Blondchen  in Die Entführung aus dem Serail with James Levine.

Sergio Foresti / Stile Galante / Stefano Aresi ANTONIO CALDARA Brutus

With this album, Stile Galante continues its work in the world of the Italian solo chamber cantata – here Stefano Aresi’s ensemble joins forces with baritone Sergio Foresti in order to bring us a selection of cantatas by Antonio Caldara (1670-1736) for bass. These unusual pieces are preserved in precious manuscripts in Bologna and Vienna and are extremely demanding for the singer, asking for great skills (both vocal and theatrical). The seven cantatas recorded here offer a welcome, unusual view on Italian vocal chamber music, especially as linked to the Viennese court. The Italian bass, Sergio Foresti, graduated with full marks in piano, under the guidance of Germana Ruozi, and in singing with Maria Gabriella Munari at the Istituto Musicale O. Vecchi. He subsequently took part in the specialising courses held by Liliana Poli and Leonardo De Lisi. Sergio Foresti made his debut in 1998 in L’Olimpiade by Antonio Vivaldi at the Teatro Rendano di Cosenza. From then on, he started to appear in some of the most important festivals and theatres throughout Europe.

Le Banquet Céleste / Damien Guillon CALDARA Maddalena ai piedi di Christo

Baroque is capricious and dramatic; it grabs you by the throat. But a work in which music and theatre fit together as grippingly as in Caldara's Maddalena ai piedi di Cristo is rare. In this iconic oratorio, Celestial and Earthly Love battle for the soul of sinner Mary Magdalene, who has her sister Martha and Christ himself as allies. With this magnificent work, with an exquisite cast of singers, Damien Guillon and his Banquet Céleste take the company into a new chapter.

Born in Venice around 1670, Caldara gave Barcelona the first opera ever heard in Catalonia, Il più bel nome (1708), commissioned by his patron, the future Emperor Charles VI, before eventually settling in Vienna in the latter’s service in 1716. A prolific composer with three thousand works to his credit, Caldara died in the Austrian capital in 1736 – in the Kärtnerstrasse, like Vivaldi five years later . . . and in a similar state of destitution. [...] The genre, born in the wake of the Counter-Reformation and illustrated notably by the Roman composers Carissimi and Landi, was initially sung in Latin and performed in pious confraternities. But La Maddalena is an oratorio volgare, that is, sung in Italian. [...] The protagonists of La Maddalena, six in number, are split between Earth and Heaven. They are Martha, Mary Magdalene and a Pharisee on the one hand; Jesus, Earthly Love and Divine Love on the other. They divide among them thirty-three arias and ensembles, in a sequence alternating recitative and aria. (Vincent Borel)

Blandine Staskiewicz / Les Accents / Thibault Noally ORATORIO

Since its foundation in 2014, Thibault Noally’s ensemble Les Accents brings to life rare works from the Italian Baroque era: in particular the vocal repertoire of the 17^th and 18^th centuries. Their new record features unpublished extracts of oratorios. Born at the same time and made of the same theatrical stuff as his opera brother, the oratorio, a lyric and dramatic work without staging, also moves the crowds! And its heroines Athalie and Judith have the same temper as their operatic counterparts.The virtuoso arias of Caldara, Scarlatti (father) or Porpora performed by the mezzo-soprano Blandine Staskiewicz, full of baroque ornaments and jubilant flights, also testify to the instrumental ardor of the genre: the dramatic effects of the orchestra, the alternation of allegros and adagios, and the various of playing modes marry the movements of the passions of these characters with great intensity.