Europa, Europa

Alessandro Melani, who was born in Pistoia in 1639 and died in Rome in 1703, is a representative of the transition between the styles of Cavalli and Alessandro Scarlatti. As music director of two churches in Rome, Melani produced a large body of sacred music, including 10 oratorios, numerous motets, six masses, three requiems, and more than 100 litanies and other sacred works. He also wrote 10 operatic works, including the first opera on the Don Juan legend. His music, both sacred and secular, is full of appealing melodies. Judging by the works on this disc, his works are well worth getting to know. Melani is not well represented in the current catalog; in fact, this is the only disc devoted entirely to his works.

Sandrine Piau does it again or should I say she did it already! This collection of superb Handel arias from '96 could be considered an earlier version or forerunner of the recently released Handel Opera Seria, and certainly very complementary to it. The ensemble she plays with is different (Fabio Bondi and his charismatic Europa Galante players), possibly somewhat less refined from the "early music" style perspective but this consideration is blown away by the dramatic presence and the stellar precision of this non-pareil Baroque vocalist.