Liberatore

The article on Lauro Rossi (1812–85) in Grove I was written by the late Julian Budden, who was regarded, rightly, as an expert on Verdi. But as Budden considered all other Italian opera composers during the latter half of the 19th century as engaged in frustrated attempts to escape conventionality, so he does Rossi…

Frank Zappa - The Man From Utopia (1983) {1995 Ryko Remaster Complete Series}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 272 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 97 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 794 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1995 Rykodisc / The Zappa Family Trust | RCD 10538
Rock / Experimental Rock / Art Rock

It is a more song-driven, and less conceptual work than many others in Zappa's oeuvre. The album is named after a 1950s song, written by Donald and Doris Woods, which Zappa covers as part of "The Man from Utopia Meets Mary Lou". The sleeve art features the work of RanXerox artist Tanino Liberatore. It portrays Zappa on stage trying to kill mosquitos. The back cover shows the audience as seen from the stage. Chaos prevails, and the cover is meant to show the events at a disastrous concert in Palermo, Italy, July 14, 1982. At that concert, fans kept trying to rush the stage, and the local security force began firing tear-gas canisters into the crowd.

First performed at the Teatro Regio, Turin, on 5 March 1876, Lauro Rossi's penultimate opera Cleopatra caught the public's attention in the wake of Verdi's Aïda (1871). Like that better-known work, it contains some wonderful arias and set pieces, including a marvellous Act 1 banquet scene, Cleopatra's Act 2 aria, the thrilling ensemble that closes Act 3, and the confrontation between Cleopatra and Octavian in Act 4, all making for compelling viewing and listening. From the brooding opening scene in which Diomedes foretells the fall of Egypt to Cleopatra's death scene, this gripping grand opera by one of Italy's forgotten masters springs vividly to life in this revival filmed at the 2008 Macerata Sferisterio Festival.