Gal Costa Released in 1969, Gal Costa is the album that cemented Gal as one of the boldest voices of Brazil's Tropicalia movement - and it still sounds thrillingly alive today. Coming right after the genre-shaking Tropicalia ou Panis et Circencis, this LP captures a moment when Brazilian music was breaking rules, blending psychedelia, rock, samba, and poetic experimentation into something totally new. Vinyl LP pressing.

Didone abbandonata was one of the greatest successes in the rather brief operatic career of Leonardo Vinci, a musician who had an adventurous life about which we still know very little. Written for Rome’s Teatro delle Dame, the opera was premiered during the 1726 Carnival season and marked the first collaboration between Vinci and Pietro Metastasio, a teamwork destined to produce abundant fruits, for in the four following years Metastasio would write as many as five new librettos for Vinci. It was immediately very successful, as was the Florentine production here presented, which was the first modern performance of Didone abbandonata, finally reviving one of the great masterpieces of early 18th-century opera. This production was recorded live at Teatro di Firenze and features a cast of Baroque specialists including Roberta Mameli, Carlo Allemano, and Raffaele Pe.

Claudio Monteverdi was a musical revolutionary who championed the new style of music that replaced intricate Renaissance counterpoint with the more theatrical music of the early Baroque. Yet he was a master in both these styles, as this selection.