Daniela Grygarová ‎ Hudba Na Hranici Života

Handels Messiah is already very well-represented on the market with dozens of existing recordings and new productions appearing at regular intervals. Yet this is a very special version, carefully crafted, Halle Handel Edition in hand, by a Basel-based selection of fine vocal soloists and instrumentalists who have all graduated from the world-famous Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. Under the fine direction of Daniela Dolci, singers Miriam Feuersinger, Flavio Ferri-Benedeti, Dino Luthy and Raitis Grigalis join the ensemble Musica Fiorita for a moving studio recording made in October 2015.

This production from the historic Teatro Carlo Felice in Genova, Italy, stars the opera worlds power couple, Daniela Dessì and Fabio Armiliato, as lovers Tosca and Cavaradossi. A tragic tale of doomed love interlaced with the age-old themes of jealousy, lust and intrigue, has ensured Tosca its place in the top ten of opera favourites. The task of putting Tosca on the stage in a way that is credible and timeless is both straightforward and difficult. For the three main roles the unscrupulous police chief Vitellio Scarpia and the painter Mario Cavaradossi, who provide a framework for Floria Tosca, a famous singer, all you need is star performers of the required virtuosity, although they do need to display a certain enjoyment in performing something one has never been able to take for granted in music theatre.

Early 18th-century Naples was a flourishing centre for the production of sophisticated instrumental music – a diverse panorama characterized by an extraordinary variety of genres and forms. Naples prided itself on being an important school of repertoire for string instruments, emanating from the city’s conservatories, the foundries of famous masters and virtuoso students. The Neapolitan interest in string instruments was not only reserved to the violin – here represented by a Violin Concerto by Pergolesi –; great importance was also attached to the cello which in the course of the 17th century gradually became a solo instrument, emancipating itself from a mere “basso continuo instrument”.