Ciquelo Marco Mezquida

Marco Ragni is an Italian multi-instrumentalist, who has always been active in musical genres that include a psychedelic aspect. He started playing at age 6, in 1975, on a Farfisa keyboard he got as a present…

La Dafne (Daphne) is an early Italian opera, written in 1608 by the Italian composer Marco da Gagliano from a libretto by Ottavio Rinuccini. It is described as a favola in musica (fable set to music) composed in one act and a prologue. The opera is based on the myth of Daphne and Apollo as related by Ovid in the first book of the Metamorphoses. An earlier version of the libretto had been set to music in 1597–98 by Jacopo Peri, whose Dafne is generally considered to be the first opera.

It's not the first time guitarist Alex Machacek has composed around drum improvisation—he did that with three tracks on [sic], his 2006 breakout record and first for Abstract Logix—but he's taken the concept even farther on 24 Tales. It's also not the only release to use, as its basis, a 51-minute drum improvisation by Marco Minneman—Machacek's band mate in keyboardist/violinist Eddie Jobson's Ukz, which debuted in 2009 with the Radiation (Globe Music) EP. Guitarist Mike Keneally, touch guitarist Trey Gunn, and Mars Hollow bassist/guitarist Kerry Chicoine were all given Minneman's metrically and polyrhythmically challenging solo as part of the drummer's Normalizer 2 project as well, but 24 Tales sets the bar incredibly high for everyone else; a true fusion masterpiece that actually surpasses [sic]'s remarkably deep composition and stunning performance.

After Il Fortunato inganno and La Zingara, the Martina Franca Festival has revived another neglected masterpiece by Donizetti, Pietro il Grande o sia il Falegname di Livonia. First staged in Venice in 1819, this work met with good success and was performed until 1827. The silence that followed is justifiable only on account of the enormous success reaped by works such as Elisir d'amore, Don Pasquale and Lucia di Lammermoor, for in Pietro il Grande there is no lack of inspiration and Donizetti's creativity is, quite the opposite, generous and surprising.

German composer Hans Werner Henze’s (1926–2012) admiration for the great masters of the Baroque and musical Classicism manifested in compositions born from a desire to transcribe, rework and transform 17th- and 18th-century masterpieces into new orchestral textures. The project Travestimenti (Disguises), managed by conductor Marco Angius and the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, from which this CD was created, makes reference to Henze’s ‘reinventions’ of masterpieces by Mozart, C.P.E. Bach and Vitali, clothed in new, modern fashion.

This blu-ray release was originally broadcast live in HD from The Met on February 7, 2009. In addition to Netrebko’s spectacular performance, Mariusz Kwiecien’s Enrico delivers theatrical truth with a matchless baritone with the luster of polished mahogany. This Met performance of director Mary Zimmerman’s “imaginative staging…and nuanced portrayals” (Times) is a tour de force of music and theatricality. Having dazzled opera audiences from St. Petersburg to L.A. as Lucia, Anna Netrebko triumphantly returns to the Metropolitan Opera in this touchstone coloratura role!