In 2019 the music world commemorated the 350th anniversary of the death of MarcAntonio Cesti, the greatest composer of opera comedies and the most gifted melodist of the seventeenth century. Since Cesti lived and worked in Innsbruck for many years, La Dori, his brilliant comedy of disguises and hidden identities, was the perfect choice for posthumous honors »on location.« Ottavio Dantone, who is active from the Milan Scala to the Salzburg Festival with his specialists support in the field of Baroque and Classical opera, conducted his exquisite original sound ensemble, the Accademia Bizantina on the Innsbruck opera stage and set in motion the Dori renaissance. This comedy of loves errors set by the banks of the Euphrates and at the court of Babylon is now available for audio enjoyment on cpo.
Jerome Hines, Elizabeth Schwarzkopf and Franco Corelli star in this recording from La Scala of Handel’s “Eracle” (Hercules) recorded live on the 29th December 1958.
Blue Willa is the debut album by the Italian art rock quartet bearing that same name. Due for release in early 2013, the album is produced by Californian musician Carla Bozulich (Evangelista, The Geraldine Fibbers, Scarnella, Ethyl Meatplow), who directed the shaping, recording and mixing of every song. She also contributed singing and playing on many tracks. This happened in Italy, India and Paris during the spring of 2012. The affinities between the band and Carla draw a dazing route that keeps drifting halfway through Pixies and Diamanda Galбs, Kurt Weill and Iggy Pop. What we have here is a mashup of sweltering Mediterranean melodic heritage and hypnotic native American calls, soundscapes that could emerge from reveries by Edgar Allan Poe or Italo Calvino, eerie noises and animals, bells, gypsies and punks.
For more than two decades, Cecilia Bartoli has undeniably been one of the leading artists in the field of classical music. All over the world, her new operatic roles, her concert programs and recording projects – in exclusivity with Decca – are expected with great eagerness and curiosity. The exceptional amount of 8 million CDs sold, more than 100 weeks ranking in the international pop charts, numerous Golden Discs, four Grammys® (USA), nine Echos and a Bambi (Germany), two Classical Brit Awards (UK), the Victoire de la musique (France) and many other prestigious awards reflect the immense success of for example Opera proibita and her solo albums dedicated to Vivaldi, Gluck and Salieri and that she is firmly established as today’s “best-selling classical artist”.