Grazia September 2016

Various Artists - 101 Opera (2016) {6CD Box Set Decca 478 2998 rel 2011}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 2.03 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 0.98 Gb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 96 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2011, 2016 Decca Music | 478 2998
Classical / Opera

This SIX CD collection of 101 favorite tracks is the perfect introduction to the world of opera, including the worlds most famous and popular tenor and soprano arias, duets and choruses. With a running time of over 7 hours of music this box set provides excellent value for money. This delightful collection includes everyones favorite opera highlights, from the lyricism of Puccinis Nessun dorma! and O mio babbino caro, to the power and might of Verdis Anvil Chorus and Wagners Ride of the Valkyries. Features some of the greatest opera singers of the last 50 years, including Luciano Pavarotti, Dame Joan Sutherland, Jussi Bjorling, Kiri Te Kanawa, Placido Domingo and Renata Tebaldi.

As music-lovers we can only be grateful when interesting recordings which probably are no longer available are reissued. It is a quite remarkable work, for historical, textual and musical reasons. First, historically it is notable that this oratorio was part of a series of eight oratorios which were performed during Lent 1708 at the palace of Cardinal Ottoboni in Rome. The performance is such that this reissue is welcome. The three soloists bring good interpretations, albeit a bit too restrained.

–Johan van Veen

Alessandro Scarlatti composed many oratorios to celebrate special events. Colpa, Pentimento e Grazia, subtitled Oratorio per la Passione (Oratorio for the Passion) and created for Easter 1708, evokes the Passion of Christ through a text written by a great roman patron of the time, Cardinal Ottoboni. This is the first recording of the Baroque Orchestra of Seville, conducted by Eduardo López Banzo.

Alessandro Stradella was, along with Henry Purcell and Heinrich von Biber, among the most striking and idiosyncratic composers of the late seventeenth century. He is known principally for his cantatas on sacred subjects such as "La Susanna" and "San Giovanni Battista," which prefigure Handel's oratorios, and from which Handel borrowed freely. Stradella's musical eccentricities were paralleled by his irregular life. A member of the minor nobility, he ran through his inheritance while young, and thereafter supplemented his musical earnings by questionable financial dealings that incurred the anger of influential families.