German Pratt

„It can be truly said of Adelaide di Borgogna that, like a rose, it bloomed but a day - l’espace d’un matin.” First performed in Rome on the 27th December 1817, it enjoyed very few revivals. In 2011 the Rossini Festival in Pesaro presented the second staged performance of Adelaide di Borgogna since 1825.

…Massimo Checchetto’s opening set…is winningly picturesque…Bepi Morassi’s staging within it seems perfectly natural, its charms never forced. Pratt has a beautiful, expressive face, ever alive to Amina’s changing fortunes and her unchanging love. Her voice, too, is lovely and expressive…She’s endearingly simple, just as Amina should be. Gabriele Ferro conducts the Fenice forces with grace and practiced style…The sound is spacious and the Blu-ray image crystal clear. (Opera News)

The Biblical story of Belshazzar’s hubristic arrogance set against the valour of the young warrrior-leader Cyrus provided the 20-year-old Rossini with a dramatic story with West-Eastern resonances which still speak to us today. For the title role of Cyrus, Rossini wrote what would be his longest-ever contralto role, to which the great Rossini singer Ewa Podles is both naturally attracted and ideally suited. She is partnered by two young American stars of Rossini singing, Jessica Pratt and Michael Spyres, and a conductor-scholar, Will Crutchfield, of immense experience and sympathy.

Aureliano in Palmira celebrated its fi rst première on 26 December 1813 at the Scala In Milan. Soon afterwards the work was played in different theatres all over Europe. Nevertheless Rossini’s piece fell into oblivion more and more compared to the great competitors like “Tancredi” or the “Barber of Seville” for which Rossini recycled musical parts of “Aureliano”. But since a few years there are ambitions to play this work about love, war, jealousy, loyalty and magnanimity more frequently.

Recorded during the 2018 Donizetti Festival, Il Castello di Kenilworth was first staged at Naples’ San Carlo in 1829. Drawn from a novel by Sir Walter Scott and adapted by librettist Leone Tottola, this rare opera was unjustly long neglected. This recording features the original version, with the role of Warney entrusted to a tenor (which the composer changed into a baritone in the 1836 revision of the score).Il Castello di Kenilworth is the first of the several successful works to follow that Donizetti based on British history, introducing the character of Queen Elizabeth I, torn by the inner struggle between a monarch’s duty and a woman’s feelings. The fundamental pivot of the drama is the antagonism between the two female characters who both dwell and suffer in their loneliness, in a male-dominated world.

The Biblical story of Belshazzar’s hubristic arrogance set against the valour of the young warrrior-leader Cyrus provided the 20-year-old Rossini with a dramatic story with West-Eastern resonances which still speak to us today. For the title role of Cyrus, Rossini wrote what would be his longest-ever contralto role, to which the great Rossini singer Ewa Podles is both naturally attracted and ideally suited. She is partnered by two young American stars of Rossini singing, Jessica Pratt and Michael Spyres, and a conductor-scholar, Will Crutchfield, of immense experience and sympathy.

MelodicRock Classics is pleased to announce a partnership with English singer, songwriter, composer and musician Andy Qunta to deliver a Deluxe Edition of his one and only solo album 'Legend In A Loungeroom', originally recorded in 1989.