Piccolo Coro Mariele Ventre Dell'antoniano Che Paura!

From an early age Benedetto Marcello proved to be a man of great versatility: a poet, writer, musician, lawyer, judge, administrator and philologist, holding important posts in these functions during his entire life. As a composer he wrote a substantial oeuvre, covering all important fields of composition: sacred and secular choral works, opera and a large body of instrumental music.

Here is a splendid revival by Paul McCreesh and an excellent cast, as seen at the Barbican in 2003, of one of Gluck’s lesser-known dramatic works. Where the composer’s previous ‘reform’ operas, Orfeo and Alceste, had been dramas of life and death, Paride ed Elena deals with a gallant subject: Paris’s wooing of Helen, here betrothed rather than married to Menelaus. Cupid pulls the strings, while Athene appears as a malign dea ex machina to utter warnings of future carnage – which the lovers blithely disregard. McCreesh and his superb orchestra relish Gluck’s portrayal of contrasting worlds and generate plenty of tension when the emotional temperature finally begins to rise.Though Paride ed Elena is even more static than Alceste, variety comes from Gluck’s portrayal of the two contrasting national characters, Sparta and Troy.

… One would say that it was real miracle of style, of vocalism, of delicacy and even of far-sightedness. Apart from the fact that it was the very first recording of Handel's ill-fated work (a few pages had been included in various selections of baroque music), this edition represented a highly personal and supremely Italian alternative to the contemporary English performances of Handel's operas and aratorios.

Joan Sutherland who, three years earlier had wowed the world with her Lucia, easily accomplishes the act 1 coloratura… She does manage to inflect emotion into Violetta’s solos in act 3 with a particularly poignant rendering of the letter scene. Bergonzi’s Alfredo in this recording is one of his best assumptions on record. His voice is at its lightest with near perfect legato and with phrasing that other tenors can only aspire to.

Very little is known about the life of Giovan Battista Leonetti. He was born in Crema and it is likely that he received his musical education from Giovanni Battista Caletti-Bruni. The latter was the father of Francesco Cavalli, who was to become the central figure in music life in Venice after the death of Claudio Monteverdi. The first - and only - book of madrigals by Leonetti is dedicated to Caletti. This collection also contains two pieces by him, one of them the 'balletto pastorale' Or sì che 'l vago aprile. The booklet doesn't indicate which is the other.

Following the phenomenal success of Cavalleria Rusticana (1889) operas flowed rapidly from Mascagni’s pen for about a decade: L’Amico Fritz (1891), I Rantzau (1892), Guglielmo Ratcliff (1895), Silvano (1895), Zanetto (1896), and Iris (1898). With the arrival of the 20th Century the pace began to slow down: Le Maschere (1901), Amica (1905), Isabeau (1911), Parisina (1913), Lodoletta (1917), Il Piccolo Marat (1921), Pinotta (1932) and finally Nerone (1935), largely a reworking of a much earlier piece. Mascagni himself was convinced that the public’s obstinacy in preferring Cavalleria Rusticana was an injustice. Criticism of the earlier works has tended to centre on clumsy libretti and patches of weaker inspiration, while real controversy has surrounded the later pieces. Here, we are told, Mascagni tried to dress up as a modern, flirting with dissonance and ungainly vocal declamation, at the expense of his natural melodic gifts.

Revived after 171 years in oblivion, the staging of Rosmonda d’Inghilterra at Bergamo’s Teatro Donizetti proved fascinating for the Italian public. From the excellent cast of singers, Jessica Pratt and Eva Mei gave standout performances. The opera revolves around a tale of love and intrigue surrounding the main protagonists- the famous Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, her husband Henry II of England, and the fair Rosamund de Clifford. Rosmonda is the quintessential innocent, unaware that the man she loves is the King of England and that she has unwittingly become a rival to the much-feared Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Recorded a year or so after Devia's impressive recital performance of La morte di Didone at Pesaro festival (available by Bongiovanni label), this first Rossini cantatas recital offers more insight in a composer whom we mostly associate with comic operas. And who is better qualified to conduct Rossini works than Chailly.