Few legends have had the impact of the extraordinarily handsome Narcissus who fell in love with his own reflection in the water. In the arts, the legend of Narcissus made its mark from ancient Greece onward. In music, interest in the legend dates back to the baroque. The opera by Domenico Scarlatti Amor d’un’ombra e gelosia d’un’aura was composed in Rome on a libretto by Carlo Sigismondo Capece and was revised in 1720 by Domenico Scarlatti himself- but with a libretto by Paulo Antonio Rolli- for a London performance of Narciso at the King’s Theatre in Haymarket. The Roman score is lost, leading to an exercise in what might be termed “experimental philology”: the London score was the source for all the parts containing traces of the original Roman libretto- and so (presumably) of the music of the Roman performance. For this release, the artists have changed the original title to Eco e Narciso, turning it into almost a “minidrama for two voices.”

Classical Music

Classical Music

LEONCAVALLO ANTONIO DE PALMA,NATALIA MARGARIT, L. BATTAGION, B. VIVINA, ORCH. FILARMONIC, UCRAINA DI DONETSK, CORO MONTIVERDI DI TIRANO; COROLA REIT DI BRMIO; SILVANO FRANTALINI, DIRECTORREC. 10/2011 MAMELI

Classical Music

Classical Music

Musicians and critics realized soon after it's 1829 Paris Op�ra premiere that Rossini's Guillaume Tell was a far-reaching masterpiece. And yet some of the features that made it so unique have militated against it entering the standard repertory. The 1992 critical edition made a "complete" Guillaume Tell, even an ur-Tell possible, but still not many companies have performed the work without substantial cuts. The first complete DVD release of the work's original version finds the Rossini in Wildbad Festival, celebrating it's 25th anniversary, performing Tell for the first time in it's entirety.

ROSSINIAURELIANO IN PALMIRAMIHAI; FAGIOLI; ALEIDA MIHAI; FAGIOLI; ALEIDA; ORCH. INTERNAZIONALE D'ITALIA AURELIANO IN PALMIRA

Lauro Rossi was a prominent composer and teacher in the period from 1830 to 1880. A brilliant, lively personality from both a humanistic and artistic point of view emerges from the documents. Modern critics have included him in the indistinct group of ‘lesser’ names from the period of Bellini and Donizetti, acknowledging his ability and primary role in the buffo genre, considering with equally close attention his later writing in the serious genre. Rossi’s Il domino nero was staged for the first time at Milan’s Teatro alla Canobbiana on September 1, 1849. The subject was used for the first time in the libretto Eugene Scribe wrote for Le domino noir, an opera comique in three acts by Daniel Auber, successfully staged at the Salle de la Bourse in Paris on December 2, 1837 and performed by Laure Cinti Damoreau and Joseph-Antoine-Charles Couderc. Rubino kept the period and the setting in Spain and used some of the ideas, but in substance moved away from Scribe’s plot. As well as the adaptability and technical ability in belcanto style, the singers must have first-rate acting talent. Rossi had the gift of simplicity and a ‘modern’ sensitivity, which goes beyond Rossini and Donizetti’s great teaching. By choice, his writing is easily followed, whereas his solid training in composition can be noted above all in the skill with which he treats the chorus, which has a key role, from the point of view of both music and stage presence.

Salomone Rossi's output was influenced by more than the events of his times and such a figure as Monteverdi. What makes him different is that he was Jewish by birth and upbringing and was deeply affected by his relations within the Jewish community in Mantua and the age-old music of the chanting of the Old Testament Book of Psalms in the religious ceremonies he would have attended. Echoes of this ancient psalmody can be heard in the profoundly religious feeling of his arias, almost as though Rossi were attempting to keep his distance from a trend - already present in the late 1500s due to social, cultural and aesthetic factors – towards using sacred cantatas as an exercise in baroque vocal extravagance to showcase the skill of the performer rather than inspire religious feeling in the listener.

Classical Music

Classical Music

PUCCINI OLIVERO; LABO; GOBB TOSCA

puccini tebaldi; gianni poggi;manuel ausensi;nedda rovero;guilio neri;alberto albertini; nov. 1954 bacelona live la boheme

PONCHIELLI UDOVICH; F. LBAO; A. PROTTI; N. SCOTT; MIGNON DUNN; CARLO FELICECILLARIO LIVE 1960 LA GIOCONDA