John Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary, first performed in 2012 in Los Angeles, is something of an expansion on the composer's El Niño, a Passion story adorned with a variety of contemporary themes and musical materials. Like the earlier work, it features a libretto by longtime Adams collaborator Peter Sellars, and it may be sung on-stage as an oratorio or presented as an opera.
This world première recording, with a first-rate cast, brings to light a major work of the French operatic heritage. Pyrrhus by Pancrace Royer (also noted for his very fine – and virtuosic – harpsichord music) was first performed early in the reign of Louis XV. It is one of the twenty-one tragédies lyriques on the subject of the Trojan War that were performed at the Académie Royale de Musique (the Paris Opéra) between 1687 and 1730.