Opera January 2004

It is strange to find that two such prolific recording artists in the same field should never before have recorded together. This disc was released by Decca to coincide with the concert the two singers gave together at the Royal Albert Hall, on October 9th, and happily it offers what the concert tended to neglect full-scale, full-blooded operatic duets.

Georg Friedrich Händel wrote musical history with his operas. In his chosen domicile, London, he had to fight off italian competition, but having already studied their style in Rome he was well-equipped to mount the most important of the world's stages.

Lully's 1685 Roland, on a subject apparently chosen by Louis XIV–its message is that loyalty to one's country and fighting battles is more important and noble than earthly love–was a great hit and played on-and-off in France and other European countries until 1750. The plot involves Angelique's vacillating love for Médor. She vacillates due to the fact that Médor is of "obscure lineage" and therefore beneath her station. He has undying, wild love for her. Roland adores Angelique also, but while she admires his knightliness, she is otherwise not interested. After Médor threatens suicide, Angelique gives in; they marry to great festivity at the close of Act 3.

We can thank the Lyon Opera for reviving the long-forgotten French version in January 2002 and it is that production upon which this DVD is based. With Patricia Ciofi in the title role and the splendid Roberto Alagna as Edgard Ravenswood, the production was recorded for TV under Don Kent's direction, with Evelino Pido ably conducting the orchestra and chorus of the Opera National de Lyon.

May 2004 was the 400th anniversary of the death of Claudio Merulo (1533-1604), a great organist and composer of the Renaissance. We are pleased to present the world première recording of his complete organ works. These works represent the complete range of musical development of compositions for keyboard instruments in the 16th century. Since their quality had no equal at that time, Merulo's opus is of immense importance for the history of music. Tapping the full potential of the then usual forms of expression and structure, Merulo a contemporary of Gabrieli and his colleague as ''maestro di cappella'' at the Marcus Cathedral in Venice was groundbreaking in a highly creative era.

Fierrabras is a three-act German opera with spoken dialogue written by the composer Franz Schubert in 1823, to a libretto by Josef Kupelwieser, the general manager of the Theater am Kärntnertor (Vienna's Court Opera Theatre). Along with the earlier Alfonso und Estrella, composed in 1822, it marks Schubert's attempt to compose grand Romantic opera in German, departing from the Singspiel tradition.