Donato & Estefano

This Glyndebourne Festival Opera production of Rossini's version of the story of Cinderella is an exciting mixture of comedy, pathos, coloratura fireworks and masquerade. Starring Kathleen Kuhlmann, Laurence Dale, Marta Taddei, and Laura Zannini.

Contrary to what the title of his previous recordings on Effendi (Michel Donato et ses amis européens, vol. Effendi (Michel Donato and his European friends, vol. 1 and 2, FND050 and FND072, released in 2004 and 2014), the inescapable Montreal double bassist does not only have friends across the Atlantic.

The indefatigable Antonio Florio, along with his associates from Cappella Neapolitana, has succeeded, with a work by Donato Ricchezza, in unearthing another major rediscovery from the Neapolitan Baroque. The labours of Florio – coupled with the ability to turn dry notes on a dusty manuscript into a sumptuous audio feast – can be no better demonstrated than with this release on Glossa of Los Santos Niños: “Oratorio di San Giusto e San Pastore”, written by a composer who was a pupil of the great Francesco Provenzale.

This tale of love, disguised nobility, murder, and love lost may sound like any other opera to some. But Verdi's Luisa Miller is a gem of the verismo genre. The gorgeous staging is surmounted only by a cast which includes Marcelo Alavarez, Leo Nucci, Fiorenca Cedolins, and Giorgio Surian.