Lyric Opera of Kansas City presents the world-premiere recording of Paul Moravec and Mark Campbell’s opera The Shining (2016). Based on the novel by Stephen King, this opera “elevates the tale from horror story to a human drama” (Wall Street Journal) thanks to Moravec’s atmospheric, electrifying score and Campbell’s deft libretto.

While staged performances have received critical and public acclaim, this engaging masterpiece can now be enjoyed as a recording for the first time. The Kansas City Symphony and Lyric Opera of Kansas City Chorus are led by the eminent conductor Gerard Schwarz and join forces with an excellent cast of soloists. The main role of Jack Torrance is interpreted by Edward Parks, who was part of the Grammy-winning recording of Mason Bate’s The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, released on Pentatone in 2018.

La Nuova Musica and its artistic director David Bates present Henry Purcell’s most widely admired work, Dido and Aeneas. With Nathum Tate’s libretto based on Virgil’s Aeneid Book IV, Dido and Aeneas is a miniature opera, as well as the only all-sung opera Purcell ever composed. Constantly juxtaposing different moods, colors, and orchestrations, this semi-opera enjoys popularity for its “tunefulness, evocative power, and […] conciseness”. The guiding star that David Bates wants to follow for this recording: making sure that Purcell’s Italian, French, and English musical influences are all emphasized – by adding a typically Italian harp to the continuo and by doubling the strings just as in the French tradition, for instance.

Dido and Aeneas includes one of the most touching operatic laments, “When I am laid in earth”. A cast of first-class singers with strong musical personalities offer an eclectic interpretation together with a chorus that creates a visceral and intrinsically dramatic soundworld. Dido and Aeneas is David Bates and La Nuova Musica’s fourth release; here, star tenor Nicky Spence, Fleur Barron, Matthew Brook, and Giulia Semenzato all make their Pentatone debuts.

REVIEWS:

The suspense, vibrancy and richly layered musical textures of chorus and band have no equal in the discography. The Witches’ scene is an exuberant Gothic festival, with creepily dilating long notes and weird sound effects – thumps, jangles, wind machine noises – tucked deftly into the score.

-- BBC Music Magazine

Swedish soprano Malin Bystrom, hailed as one of today's leading singing actors, presents a captivating journey through her celebrated German repertoire. Renowned for her perfect vocal technique, Bystrom brings to life arias and scenes that have enthralled audiences on stage and in concert, accompanied by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra under Thomas Sondergard. The album features excerpts from two 19th-century German operas among her favorites: Beethoven's Fidelio and Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischutz. It also spotlights Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Die Tote Stadt, a lushly orchestrated work that, despite today's relative obscurity, was one of the greatest hits of the 1920s. However, it is Richard Strauss who takes center stage, a composer whose genius for the female voice is unmatched. Bystrom's voice, described by critics as "radiant," "sparkling," and "silvery," soars through the opulence of Die agyptische Helena, the timeless lyricism of Capriccio, and the dramatic intensity of Salome's final scene. This album is a testament to her artistry, showcasing her mastery across the breadth of German operatic tradition.

In 1841, Carl Loewe created his oratorio about the Bohemian theologian Jan (or Johann) Hus (or Huss) as a kind of "opera without a scene". A good 100 years before the appearance of the reformer Martin Luther, Hus had taken a hard stance on the official church and was burned at the stake on July 6, 1415 in Constance after being condemned by the council. Carl Loewe created the work to a libretto by August Zeune and premiered it on December 16, 1841 in and with the Berliner Singakademie. The rarely performed work deserves more attention and is now finally available in a premiere recording with the Arcis Vocalisten and the Baroque Orchestra L'arpa festante conducted by Thomas Gropper.

There was magnificent cultural vitality recorded in Bologna in the early seventeenth century, and it is always fascinating to grasp the links between academic undertakings and daily life, between the regular occurrences of festive occasions and the civic institutions. From this rich workshop of ideas, two centuries of splendour and eminent talents were to unfold, active in all fields of knowledge and the arts. The performance of the tragicomedy Filarmindo by Ridolfo Campeggi, which took place in 1605 to celebrate the wedding of Marquis Ferdinando Riario and Countess Laura Pepoli, was 'stuffed' - following a well-established theatrical practice - with the four intermezzi of Aurora Ingannata. The task of composing the music for these intermezzi was given to Girolamo Giacobbi, at the time the chapel master of the Basilica of San Petronio and highly respected professional. This memorable performance, preserved in the chronicles of the time, is masterfully revived by the ensemble Dramatodia (already featured in Il Festino del Gioved� Grasso by Adriano Banchieri, tc 550008), paying homage to the gem from which the ensemble takes it's name.

Engelbert Humperdinck's music for the pantomime of Karl Gustav Vollmoeller's arguably most important stage work impresses with it's deeply Romantic sound and large-scale choral scenes and had so far led an unforgivable shadowy existence in the composer's oeuvre. Premiered in London in 1911, none other than Max Reinhardt adapted this work for film (1912) and staged numerous performances with hundreds of actors, singers, and dancers - finally also at the Salzburg Festival in 1925. This recording represents the first complete recording of this deeply Romantic masterpiece.

Paris is gripped by fear. A series of murders is leaving a bloody trail through the city. We are talking about E.T.A. Hoffmann's story "Das Fr�ulein von Scuderi," published in 1819 and often cited as one of the earliest German crime stories. And even though the story is set in the Paris of the time of Louis XIV, the work has a deeply romantic quality, driven by a fascination with genius, coupled with dark passions and terrible crimes. In 1925, Hindemith came into contact with the publicist and poet Ferdinand Lion. To Lion's libretto, influenced by New Objectivity, Paul Hindemith set music that, for all it's modernity, consciously takes up historical forms and brings them into play in a neo-baroque manner. The highly acclaimed, star-studded series of performances by the Vienna State Opera, is hereby released for the first time as a gripping live recording.

The score of The Prophets, intended as the last act of The Eternal Road, was the last that Kurt Weill composed in Europe and his last extensive setting in German, before he personally and professionally adopted the language of his new home, America. Musically, he drew on all his previous great works, from Mahagonny and the Seven Deadly Sins to his Second Symphony. At the same time, he foreshadowed some of his soon-to-be-written works for Broadway.

In 1998 David Drew devised the concert adaptation of this act, of which this is the premiere’s recording. The Four Walt Whitman Songs, meanwhile, were a product of the war years and reveal Weill at his most touchingly American, fusing American theater song with the German Lied, Berlin with Brooklyn.

Thomas Jensen is hardly known as a Wagnerian, and yet this complete First Act of Die Walkure - with an all-star Danish cast - is paced and shaped with a keen ear for drama. CD2 continues to expand the Jensen discography with works by two composers intimately associated with Wagner, his father-in-law Liszt and his Belgian disciple Franck. The concert overture Piazza del Popolo is a forgotten showpiece which the Danish composer Walther Schroder drew from his score to a silent movie directed by A.W. Sandberg. All the previous volumes are available and in stock.

This collection of arias from the operas Il Tigrane, Poro, La Sofonisba, L’Ippolito is a testimony of Christoph Willibald Gluck’s opera activity from the year 1743 to 1745. At the age of 30, yet already successful composer, Gluck wrote his operas for the most important events in the cities of Crema, Turin and Milan, almost without a break. He seems to be at the peak of his career, yet he has not created those great compositions such as Orpheus and Euridice, Paride ed Elena, Alceste, that would have linked his name to the reform of opera theorised together with Ranieri de’ Calzabigi and which made him one of the immortal names in the music history. The autographs of these arias no longer exist, nor the scores of the entire operas. Some pieces, sometimes with only basso continuo accompaniment, are all that remain of the enormous fortune that those performances had at the time. To be as close as possible to the original performance, arias with existing orchestral part have been chosen, except for the aria""Se viver non poss’io"" from the opera Poro which was orchestrated from the basso continuo and some indication of the first violin motif, as complete scores of the opera Poro no longer exist. The curator of the work is Elena De Simone herself, a mezzo-soprano that – accompanied by Il Mosaico ensemble – already distinguished herself with the rediscovery of the works by Hasse and Maria Teresa Agnesi (Tactus' TC690801, TC720101 and TC720102).

Théodore Géricault’s larger-than-life painting The Raft of the Medusa has stimulated a great many artists ever since its creation in 1819. Hans Werner Henze and his Librettist Ernst Schnabel were inspired by Géricault and wrote a political oratorio on the painting’s tragic historical subject in 1967. Notable for its harsh and bright sounds, tender depiction of suffering, scathing irony, and gripping dramaturgy, the agitation at the failed premiere lifted the work into the canon of great classical scandals.

In 2020, the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra and the Kaunas State Choir, under the direction of Modestas Pitrenas, came together at the National Philharmonic Hall in Vilnius for a remarkable recording of Amilcare Ponchielli's opera I Lituani. This project marks the first professional recording of this work, highlighting Ponchielli's significant contribution to 19th-century Italian opera and connecting deeply with Lithuanian heritage. Drawing inspiration from Adam Mickiewicz's poem Konrad Wallenrod, the opera tells the story of medieval Lithuania's resistance against the Teutonic Knights, exploring themes of freedom, national identity, and sacrifice. Ponchielli's rich orchestration and Ghislanzoni's powerful libretto create a dramatic musical experience that has now been captured with vibrant vocal performances and exquisite orchestration in this new recording. I Lituani, which premiered at La Scala in 1874, has long been recognized for it's beautiful melodies and emotional depth. This recording revives a significant yet often overlooked masterpiece of Italian opera, offering a fresh perspective on Ponchielli's profound musical and dramatic vision. Recorded at Lithuanian National Philharmonic Society Vilnius, September 2020

Ehmann and the Westfalische Kantorei were among the pioneers in the field of historically informed performance practice. In particular, they brought the work of Heinrich Schutz back into public awareness.

For the Year of Czech Music and for the 150th anniversary of the death of the Czech composer Vilem Blodek, Supraphon has prepared a real treat for opera lovers in the form of the 1959 stereo recording of the opera In the Well (V studni), never before released on any physical medium. The recording was released briefly in the first half of the 1960s on LP records, but only in a mono- phonic version. After that, it disappeared from the catalogue for several deca- des. Only now, nearly 66 years since the recording was made and after careful restoration of the sound from the original tapes, this rarity from the early days of stereophonic recording technology is being released in all of it's original sonic glory. The soloists were Milada �ubrtova, �tepanka �tepanova, Ivo �idek, and Zdenek Kroupa. The chorus and orchestra of the Prague National Theatre were conducted by Franti�ek �kvor in his only complete operatic recording in the Supraphon catalogue. At the same time, this release also commemorates the recent 100th anniversary of the birth of Milada �ubrtova, a singer at the Prague National Theatre. On CD for the first time in the original stereophonic version

This recording dedicated to Mirentxu by Jesus Guridi is a continuation of the project to publish the dramatic works promoted by the Bilbao Choral Society and initiated with the recordings of Maitena by Charles Colin (2021) and Lide ta Ixidor by Santos Inchausti (2022). The work, whose success and repercussion was outstanding at the time, and after a good number of premieres and performances, lacked a complete recording, which is why the present recording represents a challenge both at the production and artistic level that we should celebrate. The Sociedad Coral de Bilbao together with the BOS - Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa and a carefully selected cast of soloists have been entrusted with this task, recalling the Society's active role in the premiere of the work held at the Teatro Campos Eliseos on 31 May 1910.

It took C.F.E. Horneman almost 30 years to realise his vision of a Romantic opera based on the young hero from A Thousand and One Nights. Rich in fantastical character and orchestral colour, his score for Aladdin holds ready appeal which has rarely translated into performances. In 1953, Launy Grondahl led a first-rate cast of native Danish singers in this radio-friendly adaptation, which has been newly remastered from the original tapes. This is the penultimate release of the Launy Grondahl Legacy with the last volume 11 in preparation for an autumn 2025 release. All the previous volumes from Volume 1 to this present volume are available DACOCD 880 - 889

After George Antheil had earned his reputation in Europe as the self-proclaimed "Bad Boy of Music" and caused plenty of scandals with his avant-garde experiments, he made a dramatic shift upon returning to his native America. This change in direction led to a significant number of important compositions, including his later symphonies and a series of one-act stage works, where Antheil dramatized a wide range of themes and situations. The final work in this series is�Venus in Africa, a charming, touching, and highly amusing piece for five characters, in which the ancient goddess of love helps an American couple forge a lasting relationship. The music, oscillating between operatic turbulence, impressionistic refinement, and musical-style tunes, is further proof that Antheil had successfully shed his early rebellious image.

This is re-issue of the previous bestseller C756081 (4011790756127). Jean-Pierre Ponnelle's 1985 production of "Pagliacci" (and "Cavalleria rusticana") was one of the French director's last assignments at the Vienna State Opera before his untimely death 1988. The sensation of that June evening in 1985 was, however, Placido Domingo's consummate performance in Leoncavallos Pagliacci. He was more than an expressive singer with an incomparable tenor voice, he was also a truly great actor able to convey the whole world of his emotions to every member of the audience. Domingo's ability to bring out utter hopelessness transformed Leoncavallo's hackneyed opera into a highly individual tragedy from whose sway no one could escape. The dramatic intensity of his performance fired the other singers, too: thanks not least to her extraordinary vocal skills, Ileana Cotrubas was able to make Nedda's easygoing attitude as credible as her genuine feeling for Silvio and her struggle to safeguard the new love that had entered into her life; Wolfgang Schone gave Silvio an unusually clear-cut character and Heinz Zednik's presence in the cast likewise gave Peppe a whole new dimension. Finally, the French baritone Matteo Manuguerra was able to display thanks to his great and powerful voice a "terrifyingly evil" Tonio. By the end of the evening the public and the critics "were genuinely gripped"

Since it's foundation in 2013, the Berlin Opera Group has made a name for itself with Berlin premieres such as Donizetti's Deux Hommes et une Femme and Betly, and other operatic rarities. This album is a Deutschlandfunk Kultur recording of the 2021 performance of Pietro Mascagni's Zanetto from the Konzerthaus Berlin. Yajie Zhang was also heard in the role of Ugo d'Asti (OC989). The orchestra of the Berlin Opera Group plays under the direction of Felix Krieger.

This recording brings together two of the biggest sacred works written by Mozart and Haydn, the friends and contemporaries caught at opposite ends of their musical lives. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed the substantial Mass in C minor (K. 139) for the consecration of the Waisenhaus (Orphanage) Church in the Rennweg when he was just twelve years old. The Mass received its first performance on 7 December 1768. While Mozart was overseeing the consecration of the Waisenhaus, Joseph Haydn was in the third year of his promotion to Kapellmeister at the palace of Esterházy, under Prince Nikolaus I. It was a post to which he returned in 1795, serving under Nikolaus II on a part time basis. This second term saw the composition of six Masses, with the penultimate – nicknamed the ‘Nelson Mass’ – widely regarded as his finest setting.

Alessandro Scarlatti's Il trionfo dell'onore (The Triumph of Honour) - his only comic opera - was first performed in Naples in 1718. With it's distinctive recitatives and expressive arias, and a cast including four pairs of lovers, it can be considered one of the forerunners of opera buffa. The central character is the unrepentant seducer Riccardo Albenori, a Don Giovanni-like figure though without the villainous aura. In this opera, Scarlatti ensures not only perceptive psychology but a rich variety of arias, duets and quartets that generate the work's pathos as well as it's humour and eroticism.

Re-Release of an important item of the back catalogue. The present recording shows the highly acclaimed premiere from 2009 of the original version of Shostakovitch's opera. It represents also the debut of conductor Ingo Metzmacher at the Vienna State Opera. The opera was premiered in 1934 in Leningrad. After Stalin visited a performance in 1936 and then published a scathing review about it, colleagues and critics, who had previously approved of the opera, turned against Shostakovich. It was only about 30 years later that the piece was performed again in the Soviet Union, however, in a toned-down version under the name "Katerina Ismailova". This version was also performed internationally. The original version came to Western Europe only in 1980. The Vienna State Opera performed the original version of Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk for the first time in 2009 - that premiere is to be heard on the present album.

Gluck's Orphee et Euridice is a masterpiece of the operatic canon, inspired by one of the most mysterious and cruel stories in Greek mythology. The gods allow Orpheus to descend into the underworld to revive his beloved wife Eurydice, but on condition that he must not look at her while returning. This production from Florence re-imagines this myth as a story for our times. It explores each character anew, highlighting the music and text as a more sophisticated psychological thriller than previously imagined, creating a moving and transformative narrative with which we can all identify.

Roberto Devereux is the fourth and finest of Donizetti's works dedicated to the Tudor period of English history, and is considered by many to be the ultimate masterpiece amongst his Italian operas. The tragic narrative is a tale of intrigue and vengeance in the court of the elderly and weary Queen Elisabeth I, with Donizetti's powerful score expressing all of the intense drama and sorrowful emotion demanded by the opera's finely etched characters. This star-studded Donizetti Opera Festival production received wide critical acclaim.

Zoraida di Granata, a stirring tale of love, betrayal and reconciliation, set in the Moorish kingdom of Granada in Andalusia in 1480, gave the 24-year-old Donizetti his first major operatic triumph. It marked his establishment as a true musical dramatist with a sure sense of craftsmanship and a flair for the dramatic. The opera's virtuosic central roles, fine choruses and powerful set-pieces show Rossini's unavoidable influence, though it is more a presence rather than imitation. This performance of the 1822 edition, not the 1824 revision, is performed on original instruments by Gli Originali and conducted by Alberto Zanardi.