Ann Savich

With Fierce Bliss, the legendary Rock And Roll Hall of Fame inductee Ann Wilson -recognized as one of the greatest singers of all time and co-founder of multi-platinum stars Heart- has created a supremely lavish, warm and seductive slice of rock ‘n’ roll which provides an instant soundtrack whether on the freeway or in front of the fireplace. Recorded between Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, AL and Power Station, Waterford, CT, Wilson got together with famed Nashville session guitarist Tom Bukovac and invited several friends (including Warren Haynes, Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Vince Gill) to help fashion an album which carries the glow of an ochre sunset and the pristine vocals of a rock legend who still has every single unique octave at her fingertips.

La Cenerentola is one of the few operas to have an important subtitle, "The Triumph of Virtue". This Salzburg production makes a point of its being a moral tale rather than a mere fairy tale like the version reflexively sung by Angelina in her "Cavatina": the defeat and forgiveness of the stepsisters and their greedy father is a settling of moral accounts. The production is also tremendous fun–partly because of gimmicks like the mechanical coach and horses that arrives on stage in the high wind of the Act Two storm–but mostly because of the endlessly energetic pulse of Riccardo Chailly's conducting of the Vienna Philharmonic.

In the late '80s and early '90s, Lenny Kravitz and Living Colour accomplished something that Gail Ann Dorsey was unable to accomplish: they demonstrated that an African-American artist could, in fact, become a superstar with an R&B-influenced approach to alternative rock.

The rock era saw a few white female singers, like Janis Joplin, show they could sing the blues. But one who could outshine them all - Jo Ann Kelly - seemed to slip through the cracks, mostly because she favored the acoustic, Delta style rather than rocking out with a heavy band behind her. But with a huge voice, and a strong guitar style influenced by Memphis Minnie and Charley Patton, she was the queen. Her debut studio album was released in 1969.

The rock era saw a few white female singers, like Janis Joplin, show they could sing the blues. But one who could outshine them all - Jo Ann Kelly - seemed to slip through the cracks, mostly because she favored the acoustic, Delta style rather than rocking out with a heavy band behind her. But with a huge voice, and a strong guitar style influenced by Memphis Minnie and Charley Patton, she was the queen. Her debut studio album was released in 1969.

Keren Ann's repertoire (8 studio albums) is full of timeless classics and nuggets to rediscover, magnified by the arrangements and sound textures of one of the most eminent French string quartets. From "Jardin d'hiver" to the recent album "Bleue", Keren Ann and the Debussy Quartet revisit 20 years of songwriting in new and rearranged versions.

The Carnival of Venice in 1729 was quite unlike any other. Over a period of two months, opera houses went into a frenzy of competition to show off the most famous singers of the day, including the legendary castrato Farinelli who made his astonishing Venetian debut. Several of the most fashionable composers rose to the occasion, writing ravishing music for spectacular productions which often pitted the singers against each other in breathtaking displays of virtuosity. The results were sensational; one tour de force followed another in an atmosphere of fevered excitement and the adoring public lapped it up.

The rock era saw a few white female singers, like Janis Joplin, show they could sing the blues. But one who could outshine them all - Jo Ann Kelly - seemed to slip through the cracks, mostly because she favored the acoustic, Delta style rather than rocking out with a heavy band behind her. But with a huge voice, and a strong guitar style influenced by Memphis Minnie and Charley Patton, she was the queen. Her debut studio album was released in 1969.

With The Farinelli Manuscript Ann Hallenberg, accompanied by Stefano Aresi and Stile Galante, offers a scintillating reading of the music known to have been sung by the castrato Carlo Broschi during his 23-year stay in Spain (and sent as a present to the Empress Maria Theresa). Described as “a force of nature”, displaying flawless coloratura and a purity of timbre, the Swedish mezzo follows her previous appearance on Glossa with Aresi (a disc devoted to music associated with the later castrato Luigi Marchesi) with a spirited demonstration of the musicality which so attracted Farinelli to listeners at the Spanish court.