Cecilia Cara

Known for her dramatic singing style, Renata Scotto excelled in the Italian repertoire, including Bellini's Norma and Puccini's Madame Butterfly. She performed in more than 45 operas all over the world and worked with such singers as Renata Tebaldi and Mario Del Monaco.

Vivaldi may be best remembered for his virtuosic concertos but, as anyone familiar with his famous D major Gloria will know, he also had a real ear for vocal sonorities. His only surviving oratorio, Juditha Triumphans, has until recently been a well-kept secret. The biblical story of Judith overcoming Holofernes and his army (beheading him herself–no shrinking violet she) was popular with both librettists and composers, offering plenty of opportunities for exuberant tub-thumping. And these Vivaldi seizes eagerly, the opening rabble-rousing chorus (here preceded by a sinfonia reconstructed by Vivaldi scholar Michael Talbot) setting the tone in truly martial fashion.

Très jeune, Giovanni Paisiello connut un grand succès, aussi bien en Italie qu'à l'étranger. Il est surtout réputé pour son Barbier de Séville (1782) d'après Beaumarchais, déjà, qui influença bien évidemment Rossini et aussi Mozart pour ses Noces de Figaro. Ludwig van Beethoven lui-même utilisera une aria La Molinara "Nel cor piu non mi sento" pour composer une de ses oeuvres. Un autre opéra, créé en 1789, connut un renouveau récent grâce à la superbe interprétation du rôle-titre par Cecilia Bartoli : Nina, ossia la Pazza per Amore.

Soundtrack to the film 'Farinelli', the 1994 biopic film about the life and career of Italian opera singer Farinelli, considered one of the greatest castrato singers of all time. It stars Stefano Dionisi as Farinelli and was directed by Belgian director Gérard Corbiau. Although Dionisi provided the speaking voice, Farinelli's singing voice was provided by a soprano, Ewa Malas-Godlewska and a countertenor, Derek Lee Ragin, who were recorded separately then digitally merged to recreate the sound of a castrato. Through the film the general public discovered a whole repertoire of works for a voice that can no longer be heard today. The soundtrack from the film became a bestseller, as we discovered with delight some beautiful pieces by Handel, Pergolesi, Hasse, Porpora and others, in a unique interpretation.

In November 1772, as the 16-year-old Mozart was preparing to astonish the Milanese with his third operatic work for the Teatro Regio Ducal, his older contemporary, Tommaso Traetta (1727–79) from the Puglia region of Italy, was presenting the premiere of his second opera for the court of Catherine the Great in St Petersburg. Today, the former’s Lucio Silla is probably better known than the latter’s Antigona. But which is the finer work? On the basis of this outstanding new recorded version, I would say that Traetta’s tragedia per musica in three acts far outclasses Mozart’s opera seria for its consistent musical inspiration and sheer theatrical know-how.