"facundo Cabral"

The Dürrenmatt Project is the multifaceted tribute with which Facundo Agudín and Musique des Lumières want to vindicate the figure of a protean and committed artist: from Pflüger’s thrilling tragicomedy Jedes Kunstwerk ist apokalyptisch – oder Bach und Dürrenmatt (Every work of art is apocalyptic – or Bach and Dürrenmatt) to the sardonic and imaginative score of The Minotaure by Genessey-Rappo, passing through the discourse between the atavistic and the experimental of Respiro (Breathe) by Pérez-Ramírez and the mystical and textural sonority of Stoff by Sontòn Caflisch. These four scores highlight Dürrenmatt as a writer and a visual artist; in short, one of the most authentic and respected thinkers of the 20th century.

The current renaissance in conjunction with the works of Giovanni Simone Mayr is not surprising, but is certainly necessary. With Demetrio, he left to posterity a masterpiece that belongs on the great stages of the world. Mayr’s late work is a mixture of romantic anticipation, stylistic reminiscences of Mozart and Haydn, bel canto elements and a touch of Rossini, all worked into a unique form. Of particular note is Mayr’s melodic inventiveness. Here OehmsClassics presents a live performace of Demetrio recorded at the Moutier Festival (Switzerland) in June 2011.

Born in Lisbon of Italian parentage, Pedro António Avondano was employed at the court of Joseph I, becoming Portugal’s leading composer of instrumental music and dances for the royal ballet. Il mondo della luna (‘The World on the Moon’) was a hugely successful libretto by Carlo Goldoni and was set by the likes of Haydn—its comic tale seeing the social climber and strict moralist Buona Fede duped into thinking that he is on the moon. This narrative of illusion in collision with love, jealousy and power struggles is set with sublime lyrical and dramatic transparency by Avondano in this, his only opera.