Tobias Henz, Gerald Langhanke

Gioachino Rossini was summoned to Paris in 1824 to breathe new life into its opera culture, and one of his most exciting innovations in this period was the creation of an entirely new genre of opera comedy. The risqué tale of Le Comte Ory had its origins in vaudeville theatre and is based on the story of a villainous Count who attempts the seduction of Countess Adele as she awaits the return of her husband from the Crusades. Le Comte Ory is the last of Rossini s comic operas, making full use of the libretto s farcical disguises and humor in one of his most colorfully orchestrated scores. This production, staged by Linda Mallik, features the Malmo Opera Orchestra and Chorus with world renowned soloists Leonardo Ferrando as Count Ory and Erika Miklosa as Countess Adele.

The works for viola da gamba of Elizabethan soldier and composer Tobias Hume are wonderfully eccentric, highly entertaining, and often deeply moving, but not often recorded, so new recordings are always welcome. This 2009 Hyperion disc by German gambist Susanne Heinrich may not be the most poetic, soulful Hume recording ever made – that honor would go to the incomparable Jordi Savall – but it is nevertheless a fine addition to the composer's catalog. With her warm but penetrating tone, polished but passionate technique, and acute sensitivity, Heinrich is a first-class player and interpreter, and her performances are wholly sympathetic to the music. Her account of the bleak "I am Melancholy" is as effective as that of the droll "Tickell, tickell," and her reading of the cheerful "Life" is as moving as that of the grim "Deth." Recorded in transparent and present digital sound, this disc deserves to be heard by all admirers of music for viola da gamba.

Das schicksalhafte Leben der schottischen Königin Maria Stuart (1542-1587) hat zahlreiche Werke der Literatur, Musik und Bildenden Kunst inspiriert. Ihr Leben eignet sich wegen der Fülle spektakulärer Ereignisse und des blutigen Endes ideal als Tragödien- und Opernstoff. Schillers Maria Stuart oder Donizettis Maria Stuarda sind dabei nur die bekanntesten Beispiele. Die Dichtungen zu ihrem Schicksal wurden im 19. Jahrhundert von vielen Komponisten zu Liedern vertont. Franziska Hirzel (Sopran) und Tobias Schabenberger (Blüthner-Flügel 1874) stellen hier einige bekannte und wenig bekannte Beispiele zu Maria Stuart aus dem 19. Jahrhundert vor.

Weltersteinspielung einer unbekannten Händel-Oper. Bei ANIMATO erscheint nun als Weltersteinspielung Händels selten gespielte Oper ORESTE, das den bekannten Iphigenie-Stoff vertont. Gezielt setzt das Ludwigsburger Label auf ein junges Instrumental-Ensemble unter der Leitung von Tobias Horn, der Besigheimer Bezirkskantor, Dirigent der Kantorei der Karlshöhe Ludwigsburg und international tätiger Konzertorganist ist. Seine Sänger besetzt er mit jungen Ensemblemitgliedern u.a. der Stuttgarter Staatsoper und des Opernstudios des Staatstheaters Stuttgart.

Sublime musical expression does not necessarily proceed from serene spirits whose philosophical loftiness leaves them unmoved by the push and shove of the marketplace. Prefaces to printed editions of music in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries seldom reveal much of the personality behind the writer's effusive urge to prostrate himself before the dedicatee and his invocations to the muses to make worthy his humble efforts. Robert Jones, Tobias Hume and John Dowland were exceptions in this regard and often used their printed prefaces as a platform for polemics, self-defence and bile. In so doing they illumine the contemporary pressures of public opinion and changing fashions, as well as highly individual — not to say curmudgeonly — natures.