Since 2001, beginning with Juditha Triumphans, eight operas by Vivaldi have been released in the Vivaldi Edition, each one an event, either the first complete recording (or the first recording!) by first-rate conductors, soloists and orchestras specializing in Baroque. Acclaimed by the press (numerous awards), and by the public (more than 150,000 copies sold since 2001), these recordings have succeeded at last in rehabilitating Antonio Vivaldi, known always for his brilliant concertos, as one of the greatest operatic composers of all time.
French Canadian singer Chantal Chamberland strikes a perfect balance between the soul of the classic singer/songwriter and the dynamic verve of a jazz chanteuse. She can swing with the best of them, then capture your heart with a soft torch song. Her sixth album, SOIREE, captures both of those components - lively and tender, with a beautiful collection of songs mostly sung in French.
In order to prepare a Progressive rock album the traditional way, one will require some ingredients. Let's start to select the most exquisite Seventies flavours, sprinkle with various analogue keyboards, then brown with loads of Mellotron. Carve the jazzy reeds, and insert them into the (soft) machine. Mix the whole energetically with your guitars emulsion, that you have prepared earlier. Then add you grilled Tarkus, cooked with sci-fi sauce. Feel free to put lyrics (In English) in your instrumental compositions here and there, to obtain more flavour. To finish, coat with electronic layers, ala Grand Chef Klaus Schulze (The Rick Wright version may echo as well)…
Giorgio Caoduro is one of the leading Italian baritones of his generation and one of the reigning Bel Canto singers of today. He has appeared at such renowned opera houses as the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Opera National de Paris, La Scala di Milano, Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Teatro Regio Torino, Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Semperoper Dresden, Liceu Barcelona, San Francisco Opera, or Los Angeles Opera House. At the centre of his singing are the bel canto roles of Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini and Verdi. With his selection of highly virtuosic arias from operas by Rossini, Giorgio Caoduro reminds us of the dazzling richness of the repertoire composed for this type of voice, a repertoire in which the old roles of basso buffo, the more modern ones of tyrants, afflicted fathers or repentant criminals converged, and finally where the roles of mature heroes were already appearing, roles to which Verdi would give, a few years later, their letters of nobility.