Winner of the 2016 Abbiati Prize, baritone Nicola Alaimo is one of the leading singers of his generation, with a supreme versatility that is explored in full in this Donizetti recital. Honorable, heroic and romantic characters are all vividly brought to life in Alaimo's interpretations, such as the tragic figure of Enrico, Duke of Chevreuse from Maria di Rohan, whose discovery that his wife is in love with his friend brings out the most intense feelings of any solo passage in European opera of the day.

Initially composed for performance during the season of Lent, Donizetti's Il diluvio universale ('The Great Flood') takes a Biblical story and mixes it with the human nature of the main characters, creating a uniquely intense drama. Performed here with a stellar cast in it's acclaimed 2023 revival at the Festival Donizetti in Bergamo, this production transports Donizetti's opera into the present day. In this staging collective and individual destinies are interwoven, urging us to reflect on issues such as the environmental crisis and climate change.

Initially composed for performance during the season of Lent, Donizetti's Il diluvio universale ('The Great Flood') takes a Biblical story and mixes it with the human nature of the main characters, creating a uniquely intense drama. Performed here with a stellar cast in it's acclaimed 2023 revival at the Festival Donizetti in Bergamo, this production transports Donizetti's opera into the present day. In this staging collective and individual destinies are interwoven, urging us to reflect on issues such as the environmental crisis and climate change.

Little is known of Vincenzo Bonizzi's life, but he lived and worked mostly in Parma, and is remembered by music historians for writing the last work for the viola bastarda published in 1626. The viola bastarda was described as 'the queen of instruments' - it stands midway between tenor and bass viols in terms of size and tuning. Bonizzi's Alcune opere di diversi auttori is a mixture of original music and pieces drawn from numerous sources, all of which are of high musical value and technical difficulty.

Teatro La Fenice has a tradition of opera production that goes back to 1792. This collection brings all of the live atmosphere and drama of six operatic masterpieces from a theatre that has seen more than it's fair share of historic premieres. This set includes the 19th-century romance of Bizet's Les pecheurs de perles, the intense drama of Verdi's Luisa Miller, Britten's hauntingly understated Death In Venice, Massenet's tragic tale of love and redemption in Tha�s, Wagner's final opera Parsifal and Korngold's Die tote Stadt, one of the great operatic successes of the 1920s. An entire century's worth of opera can be seen and heard in these acclaimed productions from Venice's legendary venue.

PAGANINI: 24 Caprices

CARL MARIA VON WEBER: Elena Prokina, soprano; JOlana Fogasova, soprano; Yikun chung, tenor; Andreas Scheibner, bass-baritone; Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Lirico di Cagliari/Gerard Korsten; 169 mins; NTSC; Subtitles in Italian, English, German, French, Spanish; DTS, Dolby Digital 5+ CARL MARIA VON WEBER: Euryanthe (Sung in German).

During the moving final scene of his film ‘Modern Times’ (1936), Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) shows a picture of a man and a woman. She is crying. He moves his finger to the corner of his mouth, draws a smile, and conjures up a smile on her face. In the end they walk away, hand in hand, on their journey to the horizon and to an unknown future. During this final image, a melody that later was given the title ‘Smile’ is being played. As with many of his films, Chaplin composed this music himself. ‘Smile’ is also the culmination of the works collected on this release. They make up a unity around a song cycle by the Belgian composer Godfried Devreese (1893-1962), written during the horrors of the First World War.

I Shardana is set in a free Sardinia, an island where rigorous rules are in force and it's people do not tolerate invasions or spiritual contamination, a time when - as Ennio Porrino (b. 1910) specifies in the score - shepherds were warriors and judges, "when man did not believe in one God but in the power of the stars, and worshipped the dead and the waters". The opera's first drafts date from 1934-35, but the work only debuted years later, on 21st March 1959, at the San Carlo theatre in Naples, with it's final title of I Shardana and Porrino himself conducting. The composer would die suddenly a few months later.

Ruggero Raimondi takes the lead role in this performance of Verdi's comic opera recorded at the Opera Royal de Wallonie in Liege, Belgium in 2009. Paolo Arrivabeni conducts. Falstaff, the lyric comedy was Giuseppe Verdi�s last opera. It is an operatic favorite, long admired by critics and opera goers alike because of its brilliant orchestration, scintillating libretto and refined melodies. This production recorded at the Op�ra Royal de Wallonie in Li�ge, Belgium was staged by Stefano Poda and features the well known Italian Bass Ruggero Raimondi as the title-role. Directed by Stefano Poda. Starring Sabina Pu rtolas, Luca Salsi, Cinzia de Mola. Language: Italian Subtitles: English, French, Italian, German

In the splendid setting of the Macerata Sferisterio, the tale of seduction and jealousy par excellence, with a commanding Nino Surguladze in the title role and the direction of twice Oscar-winner Dante Ferretti (The Aviator - Sweeney Todd), here at his debut in the world of opera. Directed by Tiziano Mancini. Starring Alexandra Zabala, Irina Lungu, Paola Gardina. Language: French Subtitles: English, French, German, Italian

NORMA

Starring Dimitra Theodossiou, Daniela Barcellona & Carlo Ventre. From the Macerata Festival, Italy, 2007. 2 DVDs. (165 min)

I Shardana is set in a free Sardinia, an island where rigorous rules are in force and it's people do not tolerate invasions or spiritual contamination, a time when - as Ennio Porrino (b. 1910) specifies in the score - shepherds were warriors and judges, "when man did not believe in one God but in the power of the stars, and worshipped the dead and the waters".The opera's first drafts date from 1934-35, but the work only debuted years later, on 21st March 1959, at the San Carlo theatre in Naples, with it's final title of I Shardana and Porrino himself conducting. The composer would die suddenly a few months later.

Scriabin: Piano Works