Juan Benetella Penombra

In spite of doom-laden predictions a few years ago that the age of recorded opera was dead, fascinating new discs are being produced, often of obscure rarities – and it would be hard to be more obscure than the operas of Domènec Terradellas, who worked for a while at the King's theatre in London in the mid-1740s but whose music has completely disappeared from view. On the evidence of this lavish and dramatic opera seria for Rome and Barcelona, he was alive to the most modern trends in virtuosic vocal writing without ever quite achieving depth of feeling. Juan Bautista Otero's committed revival with his sparkling Barcelona orchestra includes some dazzling singing, with the honours shared between Alexandrina Pendatchanska's correctvicious Nitocri and Sunhae Im in the title role.

Nuria Rials Aufnahmen für dhm werden in aller Welt hochgelobt. Ihr Album »Muera Cupido« mit dem Ensemble Accademia del Piacere wurde gerade für den Opus Klassik nominiert. Für ihr neues Album hat die Sopranistin zusammen mit dem spanischen Tenor Juan Sancho Arien und Duetten aus G. F. Händels Opern, Oratorien und Kantaten ausgewählt, die die menschliche und göttliche Liebe besingen. Die begleitende Capella Cracoviensis rundet unter der Leitung von Jan Tomasz Adamus das Album mit Tanzsätzen und Ouvertüren ab. In der Barockoper war es üblich, dass die Duette von Sopranistinnen und Kastraten gesungen wurden.

This is the second solo outing for Peruvian-born bel canto tenor Juan Diego Flórez, who, at the age of 30, is garnering high acclaim for his clear, loud voice and secure confidence, on-stage charisma, and outstanding sense of vocal expressiveness. Una furtima lagrima, indeed, is an earnest, earthy, easily accessible disc of arias, choral ensembles, and scenes drawn from works of Bellini and Donizetti. On this beautifully recorded Decca disc Flórez is helped out by the Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, conductor Riccardo Frizza, and vocal artists covering other roles in these operatic "bleeding chunks" including Nikola Mijailovic, Nicola Uliveri, and Ermonela Jaho.

The revival of Spanish music of the Baroque period continues moving forward into the Classical era with this premiere recording of sonatas for "violin y bajo" – violin and bass – by Juan de Ledesma. The sonatas were rediscovered only in the late 1980s, and they're very elegantly presented here in a package adorned by a reproduction of a marvelous French fan of the period. There isn't anything of earthshaking importance among the five sonatas on the disc, but they're attractive pieces with some challenges for the violinist, and both players of the instruments and those with collections of Spanish music will find the release of interest. The booklet notes by violinist Blai Justo (in English, French, and German, with Spanish and Catalan additionally available online) point to Corelli's influence, but also note the presence of the galant style of the period, and it is the latter sound, with its atmosphere of charm and its relaxed procession of contrasting two-measure phrases, that predominates. The players do well to avoid a harpsichord accompaniment, using either a combination of cello and guitar or one or the other instrument alone.

A year after the two hundredth anniversary of Gaetano Donizetti's birth (1797) and 150 years after his death (1848), the Teatro de la Maestranza de Sevilla chose to open its 1998-9 operatic season with four per­formances of Alahor in Granata, an almost for­gotten opera by the composer. This is an event al a huge historical importance since it marks the first time that the opera has been performed in the XXth century. Alahor in Granata was first performed in the Teatro Carolino in Palermo on the 7th of January 1826 but, alt­hough the opera was again staged in the same city in 1830, it later passed into oblivion and has never been performed ever since. Up until now, as was the case with many of Donizetti's works, a hundred and seventy two years after its pre­miére, we had very little news about this beauti­full masterpiece's original fate.

'Orlando' is an operatic masterpiece by the Neapolitan Composer Nicola Porpora (1686-1768) who left an indelible mark on the 18th century and the careers of its greatest masters, from Hasse, Jommelli and Handel to Joseph Haydn, who was his pupil in Vienna. Against the background of the old Carolingian epic, the valiant knight Roland is transformed here into a lover before becoming 'Orlando furioso' in this encounter of three mythical figures: Ariosto, Metastasio and Porpora. The gamut runs from epic to tragedy in this vibrant, crackling performance under the inspired direction of Juan Bautista Otero.

A welcome addition of music from Spain to the Leo Records catalogue, This is original and powerful music with balls (pardon, Lucia), free jazz with tunes you can sing by the three outstanding improvisers of the emerging Spanish new jazz scene. Spontaneous, daring and sincere music, Juan Saiz and Baldo Martínez featured in the Leo Records catalogue before. Out of nine compositions, four belong to Saiz, three to Baldo, and two to Lucia (you see, no discrimination).

In spring 2011, the first-ever performances at New York's Metropolitan Opera of Rossini's Le Comte Ory brought standing ovations and critical-acclaim. The spectacular trio of Juan Diego Florez, Diana Damrau and Joyce DiDonato ignited vocal and theatrical fireworks. Le Comte Ory tells the story of a libidinous and cunning nobleman who disguises himself first as a hermit and then as a nun ("Sister Colette") in order to gain access to the virtuous Countess Adele, whose brother is away at the Crusades. The 2011 Met production was directed by the Tony Award-winning Broadway director Bartlett Sher, who in recent years has also staged Il barbiere di Siviglia and Les Contes d'Hoffman for the Met. Sher presented the action as an opera within an opera, updated the action by a few centuries and giving the costume designer, Catherine Zuber, the opportunity to create some particularly extravagant headgear. Juan Diego Florez starred as the title role while Diana Damrau plays his love interest, Countess Adele, and Joyce DiDonato was in breeches as his pageboy Isolier. The trio had appeared in Sher's production of Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia.