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Pietro il Grande, kzar delle Russie – composed when Donizetti was 22 years old – was the first of the composer’s operas to receive more than one production. To celebrate the 200th anniversary of the work’s première in 2019, the Fondazione Teatro Donizetti di Bergamo staged this rare melodramma burlesco in a new critical edition. The influence of Rossini and Mozart is clear, but the young Donizetti still managed to create a fresh and lively work that displayed early evidence of his mature style. This Donizetti Festival performance received widespread international acclaim, with a cast of excellent singers and a unique staging by Ondadurto Teatro (Marco Paciotti and Lorenzo Pasquali), influenced by Russian avant-garde art of the early 20th century.

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Gaetano Donizetti's L’Ange de Nisida was commissioned by the director of the Théâtre de la Renaissance in Paris. The libretto was entrusted to Gustave Vaëz and Alphonse Royer, and the opéra en quatre parties was completed in 1840. Unfortunately the theatre went bankrupt and the opera never reached the stage. Donizetti was aware that other venues would have rejected his work as it stood, for both repertoire and censorship reasons (the plot revolved around the King of Naples, Ferdinando d’Aragona, and his mistress). Consequently, he revised the score and incorporated a significant portion of it within his new one, La favorite. The autograph score of L’Ange was subsequently lost and it is only thanks to the painstaking research of musicologist Candida Mantica that it was brought to light again. She took on the huge challenge of classifying the roughly 470 randomly alternate pages of L’Ange de Nisida that had survived at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris; she re-established their original order and finally managed to reconstruct roughly 97 percent of Donizetti’s music. The few gaps in the score were judged as irrelevant by both Mantica and Donizetti Opera, so that the opera was considered a complete work in itself, with no need for additions written by other composers. 180 years after its composition, the opera was finally performed for the first time in its original theatrical form in Donizetti’s native Bergamo, at the construction site of the city theatre bearing his name, a most symbolic coincidence that added emotional value to a long-awaited event. The performance was hailed as a triumph by both the public and the critics and was awarded a special prize at the 39th Franco Abbiati Prize of Italian music critics.

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REVIEW:

The cameras of the filming and the detailed and careful preparation of conductor Tingaud and director Micheli provide viewers of the DVD, through excellent sound and vision, with a more complete visual and aural experience than might have been possible for the real-life audience. Cunningly and efficiently done, both staging and musical interpretation fit the score like a glove. Hugely recommended.

– Gramophone (Editor's Choice, Jan 2021; DVD/Blu-ray of the Month)

The music featured on this release is a real discovery. The French composer Marie-Martin Marcel de Marin (1796-1850) was a mathematician, a Captain of Versailles' Dragoons, a violinist and, overall, the greatest harpist of his era. According to Fétis, “As a violinist he was the best amateur of his time. As a harpist he had no rivals.” All these works are heard here in their first recordings. Anna Pasetti has always divided her professional life between music and musicology. Considered to be one of the leading harp historians in the world, she is a performing harpist, teacher, lecturer, curator, researcher, editor and writer. Her awards include First Prize in the 1st International Contest “City of Ispra”, in the 2nd National Contest “Riviera of Versilia” in Camaiore, at the 10th National Contest for Music in Ensemble “City of Genova”, in the International Contest for harp in Spotorno, at the 8th International Contest “Premio Acqui Musica” in Acqui Terme, and in the 2nd Competition “Piero Rogger” in Mestre.

The ‘Yiruma phenomenon’, which has seen hundreds of millions of album and track sales, stands on the foundations of the South Korean composer and pianist’s 20-year career, which includes film music and sell-out tours throughout Asia, Europe and the US. Performed by the award-winning virtuoso Giacomo Scinardo, this programme features pieces from a variety of Yiruma’s albums and soundtracks. These include the global hit River Flown in You, and capture the essence of a style that conveys peace and serenity to the listener, from a composer who has declared that he wants his music ‘to be the energy that makes people want to live a better life’.

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Giuseppi Verdi’s Messa da Requiem arose out of the composer’s admiration for the influential poet and novelist Alessandro Manzoni, and as a response to the lack of appreciation shown to the writer in the press after the his death in 1873. The extraordinary character of Verdi’s Requiem confronts us with unanswerable questions, from the stormy and terrifying Dies irae, to consolatory and touching lyrical oases in which Verdi communicates liturgical texts in the most profound and expressive ways possible. This Teatro Regio di Parma production, which was performed open-air at the Parco Ducale of Parma, was dedicated to the victims of the Covid-19 pandemic and all the health workers engaged in the emergency. The mayor of Parma introduces the performance with a brief and touching speech and a minute’s silence. Conductor Roberto Abbado declared in an interview : “I think that Verdi felt the need to compose a sacred work to deal with some themes that ,as he got older, he felt very strongly about. They are themes that every human being sooner or later asks themselves. Verdi is not afraid to show that he fears death, and therefore his approach is extremely humble and human, showing…some of the frailties we all have. How does the Messa da Requiem end? It ends, in my opinion, with a huge question mark. Basically, I believe, Verdi, like many of us, cannot answer these questions. I, myself, cannot answer them.”

There exists a strange, somewhat ambiguous, bond between Wagner and the instrument symbolic of the romantic generation: the piano. Strange because Wagner’s fingers were not very much at ease on a piano keyboard - to the point that in his lifetime this gave rise to a number of hilarious anecdotes about his technical ineptitude.

That notwithstanding, scholars and performers are left to deal with a rather considerable number of piano works by Richard Wagner, among them, several occasional pieces, often quite short, which is interesting, when we consider the general length, instead, of the composer’s lyrical works.

It shouldn’t surprise us that, up to recently, critics and even performers have paid little attention to the works featured here: comparison with Wagner’s operas and the innovation they introduced is, to all appearances, too crushing for them to take an interest in these short pieces conceived for practical purposes and destined for private use. And yet such an approach appears gratuitously defeatist, obscuring an output that can be quite fascinating and which, what is more important, is essential towards understanding the Maestro’s stylistic evolution.

Thanks to Wagner’s piano works, indeed, we are now able to retrace ”from the inside” almost his entire professional path. - Dynamic

Antonio Veracini (1659 -1733) was born in Florence during the Renaissance, and developed a career as a composer under the Medici patronage. He worked in close contact with the most eminent figures of the court and managed the best music school of the city. This release features the ten violin sonatas Opus 2 composed in 1694, which were officially conceived “to provide practice works for beginners” but actually require of performers excellent technical skills, and are equally noteworthy for their wealth of inspiration. As often occurred at that time, the sonatas are dedicated to members of the Tuscan elite of the day, which makes them even more evocative. The collection is not only varied in its contents but also substantially well-structured. The sonatas consist of a minimum of three to a maximum of five movements of different character, anticipating, also on account of the way in which the music material is treated, characteristic traits of what would be Corelli’s successful Opus 5 (1700). The edition of Antonio Veracini’s sonatas consists of two scores, one for the violin and one for the “harpsichord or the violone”.

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Antonio Vivaldi’s three-act opera Orlando Furioso is set to an Italian libretto by Grazio Braccioli and is based on Ludovico Ariosto’s epic poem of the same name. The opera alternates arias with recitative, and is set on an island at an unspecified time. The story line combines several plot lines from Ariosto: the exploits of the hero Orlando are detailed, as well as the tale of the sorceress Alcina. Orlando is performed in this production by Sonia Prina, and Alcina by Lucia Cirillo. Recorded at the 43rd Festival della Valle d’Itria, this production is the first video recording of this rare opera. Subtitles are available on this release in Italian, German, English, French, Japanese, and Korean.

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The cast is the best we could possible want for Vivaldi nowadays: Ottavio Dantone's skilfull conducting brings the best out of this orchestral enchantment. Sara Mingardo brings her classy voice and remarkable stage presence to the role of the naive Statira. Delphine Galou’s bright tone and excellent agility combine with perfect diction. Roberta Mameli's crystal clear notes make of the role of Alinda a masterpiece of expressivity. Recorded in high definition, this production offers subtitles in Italian, German, English, French, Japanese, and Korean. Octavio Dantone is an Italian conductor and harpsichordist who is particularly noted for his performances of Baroque music. He has served as the Music Director of the Accademia Bizantina in Ravenna since 1996.

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Giuseppi Verdi’s Messa da Requiem arose out of the composer’s admiration for the influential poet and novelist Alessandro Manzoni, and as a response to the lack of appreciation shown to the writer in the press after the his death in 1873. The extraordinary character of Verdi’s Requiem confronts us with unanswerable questions, from the stormy and terrifying Dies irae, to consolatory and touching lyrical oases in which Verdi communicates liturgical texts in the most profound and expressive ways possible. This Teatro Regio di Parma production, which was performed open-air at the Parco Ducale of Parma, was dedicated to the victims of the Covid-19 pandemic and all the health workers engaged in the emergency. The mayor of Parma introduces the performance with a brief and touching speech and a minute’s silence. Conductor Roberto Abbado declared in an interview : “I think that Verdi felt the need to compose a sacred work to deal with some themes that ,as he got older, he felt very strongly about. They are themes that every human being sooner or later asks themselves. Verdi is not afraid to show that he fears death, and therefore his approach is extremely humble and human, showing…some of the frailties we all have. How does the Messa da Requiem end? It ends, in my opinion, with a huge question mark. Basically, I believe, Verdi, like many of us, cannot answer these questions. I, myself, cannot answer them.”

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This opera was recorded at the 2019 Festival Verdi in a new coproduction from Teatro Regio di Parma and Teatro Comunale di Bologna. I due Foscari, a tragedia lirica in three acts based on a work by Lord Byron, was premiered in 1844. It proved quite popular for the next fifty years, thanks in part to its brevity and ease of staging; in fact it’s Verdi's shortest opera. The composer also revised the libretto by the rather inexperienced Francesco Maria Piave. From the musical point of view, this work is characterized by extreme simplicity of form and by the use of distinctive themes for each character, reminiscent of the Leitmotiv technique. The simple plot describes the mortal hatred between a Venetian gentleman, Jacopo Loredano, and two members of the Foscari family - the Doge Francesco and his son Jacopo - whom Loredano holds responsible for the deaths of his father and uncle. The effectiveness of this recording stems from both the cast of singers (notably Vladimir Stoyanov in the role of Francesco Foscari) and the orchestra under Paolo Arrivabeni's direction Paolo Arrivabeni is a highly experienced, international conductor who specializes in this repertoire.

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Nicola Vaccaj belonged to the Neapolitan school: pupil of Paisiello and contemporary of Rossini, whose fame somehow obscured his own, he was well known and appreciated at his time, to the point that an extract from the last Act of his Giulietta e Romeo was chosen to substitute the same aria in Bellini’s I Capuleti e I Montecchi for an 1832 performance and this shift has remained common practice until the end of the 19th century. Therefore it’s hard to believe that Vaccaj’s most notable success was neglected for such a long time as it “is an opera that could easily hold its own among the better-known works in the bel canto canon. It has taut plot, with a strong libretto, written by Romani, and is full of well-constructed ensemble pieces”(Alan Neilson – Operawire) Within a traditional, 16th century setting, director Cecilia Ligorio choses to convey a sense of doom and tragedy which the entire work is imbued with, from the choice of costumes and settings to the stage lighting. “It really was a well-paced, and visually pleasing production that successfully captured the love and hatred which drives the narrative forward.” (Alan Neilson – Operawire)

This new release is the world premiere recording of Marco Tutino’s one act opera, Le Braci (“Embers”). With libretto also by Tutino, Le Braci is inspired by the novel of the same name by Sandor Marai. This production was recorded in Martina Franca, Italy, at the 41st Festival della Valle d’ltria. “A veritable sound track capable of transferring to and expressing in music the strong tensions that characterize this tormented story.” (Fabrizio Basciano)

The Avalokite Duo possess a unique sound due to the changing timbres of its countless percussion instruments, combined with the characteristic sounds of the harp. This program joins their album The Spirit of Sound (CDS7804), and is the result of this duo’s challenge to contemporary composers to make use of their virtuoso skill in making new sonic discoveries. This expansion of the duo’s repertoire ranges from the playful brilliance of Silvia Bianchera’s Apagù to the poignant introspectiveness of Maria Grazia Armaleo’s Preludio and Tanghetto. Middle Eastern experiences can be heard in Annie Fontana’s Appunti di Viaggio, while Angelo Bruzzese’s Capriccio reveals subtle echoes, in this album of distinctive premiere recordings.

Die Walküre is the second part of Der Ring des Nibelungen and has remained the most popular of the tetralogy of operas. Prominent are the lovers Siegmund and Sieglinde who incur the anger of Fricka, goddess of marriage, and whose long duet in the superbly sustained Act I is one of the work’s glories. The spectacular Ride of the Valkyries, the spellbinding music of Wotan’s Farewell and the Magic Fire that closes the opera are other highlights of this critically acclaimed production from Sofia National Opera. Sofia National Opera, founded in 1890, is the oldest and most prestigious Bulgarian opera theatre. Drawing upon the tradition of West European and Russian ballet theatre, its founders, singers and producers have established the ensemble method of a permanent troupe of soloists, orchestral musicians, ballet dancers, set design artists and producers. They produce up to 10 premières of classical and modern opera and ballet over a 10-month season.