Petibon

Offenbach's masterpiece, based on three stories by the German author E.T.A. Hoffmann, is both a three-act opera and a trilogy of taut, individual dramas, all rolled into one.This Geneva production from 2002 features baritone Marc Laho in the tour-de-force triple villain roles, with three different standout sopranos as the tales' three heroines. French producer Olivier Py caused an uproar among Geneva operagoers with a staging of Tales of Hoffmann that features full-frontal male and female nudity and simulated on-stage lesbian and heterosexual sex.Audiences were left "gasping, giggling or reduced to stunned silence" by the production, which interprets the popular opera as an indictment of capitalist society. Py adds several simulated sex acts, including one between the poet Hoffman and the life-sized doll Olympia as she sings her main aria. Soprano Patricia Petitbon is a major tour de force as she sings Olympia wearing only a transparent body stocking in a Venetian bordello.

“Christie's love-affair with Hippolyte informs every note of this mesmerising performance, transporting the listener from enchanting pastoral scenes to ominous, Stygian shores.” BBC Music Magazine

Supreme among French composers of the Baroque era, François Couperin made his career at the court of Louis XIV. His creativity is manifest in his sacred music, chamber music and, above all, his abundant corpus of keyboard works, here presented complete in recordings by the harpsichordist Laurence Boulay in their first CD release. Interpretations on the piano come from such figures as Marcelle Meyer and Georges Cziffra, while other contributors to this collection, representing diverse schools of performance, include William Christie, Christophe Rousset and John Eliot Gardiner.

Charpentier (1643-1704) is best known for his religious works and the opera "Medée". He also wrote a number of chamber music works (instrumental and vocal) of which three were released on CD. "Les plaisiers de Versailles H.480" is described as an opera-like divertimento. Actually an opera with only one act that takes about half an hour. This work was intended for performance in Versailles within the palace to entertain the king. "Airs sur les stances du cid H.457-459" are three 'airs sérieux', songs for solo voice with basso continuo accompaniment. These airs are set on texts from Corneille's drama "Le cid". "Amor vince ogni cosa H.492" is a dramatic pastoral; a small cantata with a pastoral character for five voices that mainly function as a shepherd's chorus and comment on the events. They have not inherited their own character yet. The accompaniment is Italian as well: two violins and basso continuo. Of course, the love between shepherds and shepherdesses plays the most important role, assisted by Pan, god of the shepherds.

Nikolaus Harnoncourt The Complete Sony Recordings brings together for the first time Harnoncourt s complete recordings from 2002-2015 with his Concentus Musicus Wien, the Wiener Philharmonike, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the Symphonieorchester des Bayrischen Rundfunks. The Sony Classical edition features his famous symphony recordings of Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and Bruckner, alongside his celebrated performances of great choral works such as the Verdi, Brahms and Mozart Requiems and Haydn's Die Schöpfung, as well as Mozart's opera Zaide, Haydn's Orlando paladino and Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. Also included are previously authorized but unreleased recordings of J. S. Bach s Cantatas Nos. 26 & 36, Beethoven's Christus am Ölberge and Dvorák's Stabat Mater.

Mozart was not yet seventeen when Lucio Silla was created in Milan one December evening of 1772, yet we can still identify some of the elements that established the exceptionally-gifted child musician as the greatest composer of all times. Indeed, with Lucio Silla, although a neoclassical 'opera seria' in every way, it seems that Mozart was already learning to deconstruct and to free the traditional forms of musical drama from archaic conventions. The opera is centered around the love that Roman dictator Lucio Silla bears for his enemy's daughter Giunia, who favours the exiled senator Cecilio. After many twists and turns, the lovers are united in marriage and Silla renounces his crown. Tenor Kurt Streit is Lucio Silla, and soprano Patricia Petibon is Giunia for the last time, after having gained international recognition thanks to her numerous performances in this role, while mezzo-soprano Silvia Tro Santafe is the ardent Cecilio. In this monumental production, Claus Guth finds a way to respect both the classical setting and the formal innovations that make the opera so interesting. Ivor Bolton conducts the Orchestra and Chorus of the Teatro Real.