Videohive Company Year

Wigmore Hall Live kicks off New Year with an early music release. Handel s Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno was the composer s first opera to feature the celebrated aria Lascia la spina, cogli la rosa (Avoid the thorn, pluck the rose). Recorded for Wigmore Hall Live in January 2010 by the Early Opera Company, one of Britain s leading early music ensembles, the group features contralto Hilary Summers in the traditional countertenor role of enlightenment, her voice specifically chosen for its depth and fullness of tone. Director and harpsichordist, Christian Curnyn, was determined to recreate as faithful a sound as possible to what audiences at the time would have heard, not only instrumentally but notably in relation to tempi: Everything in Handel comes back to the heartbeat rate, fifty per minute.

Bad Company’s incredible commercial success continued in 1979 with the British supergroup’s fifth studio album, Desolation Angels. A double-platinum hit, the album peaked at #3 on the U.S. album charts and took radio by storm with “Rock ’n’ Roll Fantasy,” the best-selling single of the band’s career. Bad Company will celebrate the album’s 40th anniversary with a newly expanded version that boasts nineteen unreleased songs taken from the album’s recording sessions. Desolation Angles was recently remastered from the original multi-track tapes for THE SWAN SONG YEARS 1974-1982, a boxed set that was released this summer. That remastered version of the album is also used in this new anniversary collection.

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.