Amore Rubato

Bright and inventive, the early-music vocal and instrumental group l’Arpeggiata—steered by intrepid theorbist and baroque harpist Christina Pluhar—takes us on an unapologetically idiosyncratic journey through Monteverdi. The Renaissance composer’s avant-garde tendencies are by turns revealed and exploited, most aggressively in the jazzy basso continuo cum walking bass of Ohimè ch’io cado and the swing treatment of the celebrated Chiome d’oro, but also, more subtly, in the gentle rubato of Pur ti miro, the light syncopation of Damigella tutta bella, and the adult-contemporary/Buena Vista Social Club–infused ostinato of Amor. Even seemingly familiar Renaissance fare (Sinfonie & Moresca) receives a late infusion of slightly alien percussion.

Italy's foremost female rock singer, Gianna Nannini, was born in Siena on June 14, 1956, to a family that included a renowned industrialist and Siena Football Club president father and a Formula One pilot brother. Often described as the creative rebel in the family, Nannini attended the Lucca Conservatory throughout her entire adolescence, where she was trained as a pianist…

It would be hard to imagine a better performance of Donizetti's comic masterpiece. If there was one role that ideally suited Luciano Pavarotti's voice and stage personality, it was Nemorino, the impoverished and not-very-bright peasant who worships the village's prettiest and richest young woman from a distance, is swindled by a traveling vendor of "miracle" medicines, but wins her hand by dumb luck. The story has comedy, pathos, and a put-down of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde (or at least the Tristan story) written long before Wagner composed it.

One of Italy's best-loved artists, Adriano Celentano has been equally successful in film and music. Whether singing Elvis Presley-inspired rock, as he did as a member of the Rock Boys in 1957, or romantic balladry, Celentano found a dedicated market for his music…