Joyce DiDonato, Juan Diego Fl�rez, Simon Keenlyside, Alessandro Corbelli, and Ferruccio Furlanetto perform in this Royal Opera production of the Verdi opera conducted by Antonio Pappano. The DVD bonus features include an interview with Joyce on her stage accident and subsequent wheelchair performances.

Award winning conductor Antonio Pappano and his acclaimed Roman orchestra the Academia di Santa Cecilia release Rossini's Stabat Mater. The recording includes star soloists Anna Netrebko, Joyce DiDonato, Lawrence Brownlee and Ildebrando d'Arcangelo.

Key points #1 2018 marks the 150th anniversary of Gioacchino Rossini on November 13th. Born in 1792, Rossini was the most popular opera composer of his time. Although he retired from the Opera scene in 1829, he continued to compose in other genres, including sacred music, piano and chamber works. He did gather his late works under the ironic title "P�ch�s de vieillesse" (Sins of Old Age), which veils a true collection of masterworks. #2 The Rossini Edition is the most comprehensive edition devoted to Rossini ever produced. It includes: - 13 complete operas including well-known as well as absolute rarities - The Rossini Gala, the legendary "all stars" concert which was given at the Lincoln Center, New York, for the bi-centenary of Rossini in 1992 - 5 complete recitals, including the recent recording Joyce DiDonato or the 2 rare but very sought after recitals by Rockwell Blake. - A very nice collection of overtures and opera arias - 3 sacred works - Clarinet, chamber and piano works among other rarities #3 A dazzling cast list of the best artists in this repertoire throughout record history: - Maria Callas, Cecilia Bartoli, Joyce DiDonato, Beverly Sills, Montserrat Caball�, Anna Netrebko, Marilyn Horne, Christa Ludwig... - Nicolai Gedda, Ruggero Raimondi, Gabriel Bacquier, Rockwell Blake, Thomas Hampson, Chris Merritt... - Conductors include Antonio Pappano, Claudio Scimone, Carlo Maria Giulini

Rossini's Adina is a one-act farsa sentimentale or semiseria set in a seraglio in Baghdad where we find the Caliph determined to marry Adina who is also loved by Selimo. To this standard story Rossini brought an unexpected psychological depth, augmented by coloratura arias and male choruses of richness and daring. However, for unknown reasons he omitted a vital Terzetto, which has made the work problematic to fully realise in performance. This recording employs the Terzetto from Giovanni Pacini's opera La schiava in Bagdad, a solution first proposed in 1861, much to the benefit of the opera's pacing.

The wife of a duke resists the advances of a powerful lecher and is "punished" by being cast adrift at sea. A well-meaning overseer of a mining operation rescues the shipwrecked woman and, under a different name, shelters her as his niece for ten years. At last, the duke-widowed for a second time-arrives at the place of her exile. They are reunited, and the villain meets his well-earned fate... Nothing new, one might think. Yet L'inganno felice ("The Fortunate Deception"), this one-act opera first performed in Venice in early 1812, is so brimming with Rossini's most fiery spirit that we forget the familiar plot entirely over the course of it's roughly 90-minute runtime: it ignites and sparkles, glitters and whirls with the most beautiful melodies, the most tingling rhythms, and the most furious orchestral surges the master of The Barber of Seville was capable of. The festival was far from the only one to be enthralled!

With an outstanding cast and Jan Philipp Gloger's innovative staging, Bregenzer Festspiele's Tancredi becomes a fresh reimagining of Rossini's opera, set in the world of organized crime and reframing the traditionally heterosexual love story as a queer romance. This bold reinterpretation is brought to life by Anna Goryachova and Melissa Petit, whose performances capture the emotional depth and tragedy of their love. "The two women are sensational... both vocally and dramatically" (Augsburger Allgemeine). Under the baton of Yi-Chen Lin, the Wiener Symphoniker "throw themselves diligently into the opera's multifaceted details" (SWR). "Modern opera at it's absolute finest!" (Kronenzeitung)

2018 marks 250 years since Gioachino Rossini's death in 1868. Messa per Rossini was composed in his memory by Verdi and 12 other notable Italian composers. Verdi himself composed the concluding Libera me, which he later used in his own Messa da Requiem. Conducted by Riccardo Chailly, this rare performance represents the work's triumphant return to the spiritual home of Verdi and Rossini: the Teatro alla Scala in Milan.

IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA

ECHO

Few of Gioachino Rossini's operas are less well known than Adina. This production by Rossini Opera Festival and Wexford Opera Festival revives a masterwork of glittering arias and rich orchestral textures. The oriental tale, where Adina is a slave in a Baghdad seraglio, is set by Rosetta Cucchi on a giant and colorful wedding cake. The vocal star Lisette Oropesa "gave a splendid rendition as Adina. Her voice was brilliant, shiny on top, warm and round in the middle." (Bachtrack) World Premiere Recording on DVD and Blu-ray

Few of Gioachino Rossini's operas are less well known than Adina. This production by Rossini Opera Festival and Wexford Opera Festival revives a masterwork of glittering arias and rich orchestral textures. The oriental tale, where Adina is a slave in a Baghdad seraglio, is set by Rosetta Cucchi on a giant and colorful wedding cake. The vocal star Lisette Oropesa "gave a splendid rendition as Adina. Her voice was brilliant, shiny on top, warm and round in the middle." (Bachtrack) World Premiere Recording on DVD and Blu-ray

...Ferro conducts with a mixture of ease and ebullience... [T]he Ferro set is well cast, with Enzo Dara as an amusing Magnifico, the young Francisco Araiza ardent and freshvoiced as the Prince, and Lucia Valentini Terrani—the leading Cenerentola of her time—giving a reading that is ripe, meaningful and suitably virtuosic in its lustrous, dark-grained way.

-- Gramophone [6/1991]

ROSSINI: IL TURCO IN ITALIA C

...Ferro conducts with a mixture of ease and ebullience... [T]he Ferro set is well cast, with Enzo Dara as an amusing Magnifico, the young Francisco Araiza ardent and freshvoiced as the Prince, and Lucia Valentini Terrani—the leading Cenerentola of her time—giving a reading that is ripe, meaningful and suitably virtuosic in its lustrous, dark-grained way.

-- Gramophone [6/1991]
reviewing the complete Cenerentola

MARILYN HORNE - ROSSINI RECITA

"[This collection] shows Richard Stoltzman, with his succulent tone and infectious bravura (so easily displayed in the finale of the Weber and the very operatic Rossini Variations), at his best...One tends to think of Weber's concertos as being rather more than halfway between the classical and romantic traditions, here the romanticism is very much in the ascendent. But overall the performance of the F minor Concerto combines a lively impetus in the outer movements with warmth in the Adagio whilst the orchestra—notably the horns—add much to the listener's enjoyment."

-- Ivan March, Gramophone [10/1989]

2014 Maria Callas re-mastered series reissue. With this Abbey Road 24-bit 96kHz re-master, engineers returned to the original master tapes, bringing new clarity & brilliance to her legendary studio recordings. As she demonstrated in both Il barbiere di Siviglia and Il turco in Italia, Callas, the great tragedienne, could also turn her skills to comedy. As it happened, the 1956 La Scala production of Rossini's most popular opera did not prove a great success with audiences, but it's stars - Callas, Tito Gobbi and Luigi Alva - reassembled in London the following year for this recording. Callas sang the role of Rosina at it's original mezzo-soprano pitch and her version of 'Una voce poco fa' - punctuated by an unforgettable 'ma' ('but') in the cabaletta - is a miracle of both elegance and wit.

Rossini: Armida

Rossini: Il turco in Italia [Recorded 1958]

Rossini: Maometto Secondo

Rossini: Turco in Italia (Il)

"These six overtures were recorded in a single day, November 22, 1958, at Orchestra Hall in Chicago. Intended originally by RCA Victor to be the stereophonic successor to Toscanini's recordings of five of the six, Reiner in this recording held to tempos in many cases a few seconds faster than Toscanini's; yet, notwithstanding, he managed to inject an element of geniality into the music absent in Toscanini's vivid thrust and forward drive. No one, however, could make The Barber of Seville Overture scintillate the way Toscanini did, be it with the New York Philharmonic or the NBC Symphony , but Reiner does bring a liquidity to the score that is quite refreshing. Reiner's The Thieving Magpie Overture and II Signor Bruschino Overture are even more successful, with sharp detail, bravura, and panache, totally exhilarating in their sparkling frothiness. Conversely, there is a decided lushness in the opening of The Silken Ladder Overture and in Reiner's approach to the Cinderella Overture that may not appeal to those who want the refined polish Karajan brought to the former or the tauter rhythms and dry finesse Abbado brought to the latter; but Reiner could, for all his discipline and precision, be a musical sybarite at times and he obviously relished this music. As if to make up for it, his opening to the William Tell Overture is more reserved, lacking the immediate plunge into darkness and mystery that characterized Toscanini's way with this music or the dramatic intensity of Leonard Bernstein in what is my preferred recording of it (but, actually, Reiner is only toying with the listener, holding back so he can finish in a flourish of brass that generates terrific excitement. The original recordings were magnificent sonically and that warmth, lushness, clarity, and vigor have been quite successfully transferred to the new format."

-- Jon Tuska, Fanfare [9/1990] Reviewing RCA 60387

Classical Music

The two historically outstanding recordings of Rossini's Petite messe solennelle, Sawallisch's on Eurodisc/BMG and Cleobury's on EMI, both take up two CDs. Single-CD versions tend to be either rushed, like Corboz's on Erato/WEA, or cut, which is the case with Mason's set with Combattimento on Meridian, a version that also suffers from rather a lot of redundant and stylistically inadmissible ornamentation. On the new Conifer recording, the text is complete, and though some of Simon Halsey's tempos are decidedly spirited, the virtuosity and refinement of the

CBSO Chorus's singing are never in doubt. This seems to be rather more than a 12-voice version. The choral image is full-bodied and also discreetly distant. But in the Great Hall of the University of Birmingham this doesn't compromise clarity; it merely adds bloom to the sound. In the ebullient "Cum Sancto Spiritu", Halsey is as quick as Scimone on Philips, but where Scimone's Ambrosian Opera Chorus, closely recorded, seems rather hectoring, with choppy rhythms, the CBSO Chorus has a King's-like fluency and grace, and great clarity. I was a little surprised to hear the redoubtable John Tomlinson as the bass soloist. He sings imposingly, and has the makings of a full Rossini trill, but his presence in the ensembles can seem a shade burdensome in so courtly a musical context. On paper, Gandolfi's solo team on Decca is the most internationally expert—Freni, Terrani, Pavarotti and Ruggero Raimondi, no less—but in practice they are entirely the wrong kind of singers for this music. By contrast, Sawallisch's team for his live 1972 Baumburg Monastery performance is exemplary; Kari LOvaas and Brigitte Fassbaender sing with great intensity and Peter Schreier and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau recognize the work's chamber-music scale as well as its surprising emotional range. Conifer's Anne-Marie Owens is very fine in the "Agnus Dei", and, as always in this kind of music, Helen Field's contribution is a delight throughout, though LOvaas's singing of the "Crucifixus" remains unsurpassed in its grieving intensity, particularly in Rossini's symbolically excruciating series of rising minor thirds at the heart of the meditation.

The other distinguishing feature of the new Conifer version is the playing of the pianists, David Nettle and Richard Markham. They have the advantage of a new edition, due from Oxford University Press in 1991, in which the editor, Nancy Fleming, has gone back to the autograph manuscript and thus bypassed some of the compromises we are used to from performing editions in which the two piano parts are derived from the orchestral version of 1869. (Conifer dub their release: "Original Version, First Recording".) It is easy to exaggerate the difference between what we have here and what we are used to on previous recordings. More important is the pianists' stylish and pertinent realization of Rossini's distinctively fine-grained piano manner. The "Preludio religioso" is touched off at a properly flowing Andantino mosso. The instruments themselves, a pair of Steinways, have been well chosen whilst Peter King is playing a two-manual Mustel harmonium.

Clearly, if you don't want the expense of a twoCD set—Sawallisch's, or Cleobury's with the King's College Choir, the Labeque sisters, and soloists led by Lucia Popp—this new version would be the one to go for. It is by no means flawless in the solo vocal department, but in all other respects it is a most distinguished and agreeable account of this intensely absorbing work.

-- Gramophone [10/1990]

ROSSINI: STRING SONATAS 1, 3,