Piccolo Coro Mariele Ventre Dell'antoniano Che Paura!

The most comprehensive edition devoted to Gioachino Rossini marking his 150th anniversary. Born in 1792, Rossini was the most popular opera composer of his time. Although he retired from the Opera scene in 1829, he continued to compose in other genres, including sacred music, piano and chamber works. He did gather his late works under the ironic title Péchés de vieillesse (Sins of Old Age), which veils a true collection of masterworks.

For approaching a remarkable quarter of a century Antonio Florio and his colleagues at the Centro di Musica Antica Pietà de’ Turchini in Naples have been successfully breathing new life into the forgotten repertory of the Neapolitan Baroque. Now Florio has made an agreement with Glossa for the San Lorenzo de El Escorial-based label to issue the recordings of the ensemble of singers and instrumentalists, now renamed as simply I Turchini.

Serse opens with one of Handel’s most celebrated arias, the Persian King Xerxes’ ode to a plane tree. It provides a serene prelude to an enthralling opera, propelled by power games and amorous intrigue and filled with dazzling vocal virtuosity. Anne Sofie von Otter in the title role leads a superbly balanced cast under the direction of William Christie, a master of baroque style. “Christie masterminds an entertaining performance … This recording captures a theatrical flow and affectionate atmosphere that is deeply satisfying.”

The opera is based on a libretto adapted by the poet Silvio Stampiglia for Giovanni Bononcini, whose setting was staged at Rome’s Teatro di Torre Nona in 1694. Handel completed his opera in 1738 in little more than a month. However, his typically swift pace and resourceful treatment of musical themes and models should not be misconstrued as complacency, carelessness, or low imaginative powers. The autograph manuscript reveals that Handel invested considerable skill in arias that are perfectly tailored to the dramatic storyline, many of which were meticulously crafted and then redrafted.

A studio recording made in association with staged performances in Vienna in 1989 features the very beefy Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Abbado with Agnes Baltsa’s tangy mezzo giving a very characterful portrayal as Isabella. …[E]xpert Rossinians Corbelli and Enzo Dara sing Haly and Taddeo and are joined by a very characterful Ruggero Raimondi as Mustafa. Despite the size of the band, the performance goes along with zip with the finale of act one particularly invigorating.

Nuova Era Internazionale is proud to present the first edition of the original version, the only available on the market. The live performance recorded in the Theatre Bellini in Catania is conducted by Andrea Licata. Bianca e Fernando was one of Bellini's best success when it was first performed in 1826 and further revised in 1828, its popularity never arose in the following years and it remains probably the less performed opera among the ten completed by the Sicilian composer. Bellini was only 25 years old when he completed it for the Theatre San Carlo in Naples where it was performed with the name Bianca e Gernando.

Found by chance in a Florence archive, Germanico may be the first work that Handel composed in Italy. An allegory on the War of the Spanish Succession, it is low on incident but long on suavity. Harpsichordist Ottaviano Tenerani has pieced together a putative provenance from the scant documentation of Handel’s movements before 1709. Venetian watermarks on the manuscript paper, and the flux of pro- and anti-Habsburg feeling in Italy at the time, suggest to Tenerani that Germanico was written for private performance in 1706 and is indeed, as the anonymous copyist wrote, ‘Del Sigr Hendl’. If the discovery of Germanico marks a career boost for Tenerani, he has repaid the favour in this stylishly executed performance by the ensemble Il Rossignolo.

Following an initial reconstruction on disc in 2015, the Ballet Royal de la Nuit enjoyed a triumphal modern premiere at the Théâtre de Caen in November 2017. That staged version, presented in this outstanding box set, at last includes the entire musical score (twenty-seven additional dances). The meticulous reconstitution of Sébastien Daucé, the incomparable poetry of Francesca Lattuada, an oneiric universe featuring more than 120 costumes designed by Olivier Charpentier, all contribute to an incredible enchantment further enhanced by the exploits of virtuoso jugglers and circus artists. In this ballet, a masterly achievement from every point of view, the spell remains unbroken from first note to last.

This recording of Turandot, Puccini’s spectacular final opera marks a number of important firsts. Before the recording sessions in Rome in March 2022, Sir Antonio Pappano had never conducted Turandot; neither Sondra Radvanovsky, who takes soaring title role, nor Jonas Kaufmann as Turandot’s suitor, Calaf – who sings ‘Nessun dorma’ – had previously performed the opera. It is also the first studio recording of Turandot to include the entire, crucial final scene as completed after Puccini’s death in 1925 by Franco Alfano.