Monsieur Alberto Bravo

La gazza ladra (The Thieving Magpie) marked a culmination of the convergence of serious and comic elements in Rossini’s work. The result is an ideal hybrid: a tragic opera with a happy ending that rises to the status of true opera seria. With its outstanding dramatic and musical qualities it remains one of Rossini’s greatest and most successful operas, a constant presence in the repertoire since its triumphant 1817 première in Milan. This performance is conducted by Alberto Zedda, who made his conducting début in 1956, produced the first critical edition of La gazza ladra, and is widely acknowledged as one of the world’s foremost authorities on the operas of Rossini.

The RAI Pasquale of 1955 is almost as good as the two Verdis [#4 Otello and #551 Traviata], marred only by Italo Tajo's overdone mugging in the title-part. Alda Noni, remembered affectionately by older opera-goers in the same part at London's Cambridge Theatre in the late 1940s, remains a charming, minxish though now more buxom Norina. Sesto Bruscantini is a model of a Malatesta, Cesare Valletti even better as an Ernesto in the class of his teacher, Tito Schipa. Erede's seasoned conducting and a resourceful staging makes this a delightful experience.

The first ever album dedicated to the music of Ernest Shand, including several first recordings.

The composition of Semiramide took approximately four months, which is an unusually long span for Rossini. The premiere took place on the 3rd of February of 1823. The opera’s libretto is based on Voltaire’s drama Sémiramis, written by the French philosopher and scholar in 1748. For some respects a conclusive work, Semiramide contains, like all masterpieces, traditional elements alongside innovative ones. Rossini accentuated the role of the orchestra, compared to his previous serious operas: the Sinfonia, the longest and most elaborate Rossini ever wrote, immediately suggests Rossini endeavoured to give the instrumental part a more important role yet than usual. At the same time, the bel canto dimension is probably more developed than in any other previous Rossinian serious opera.

Longtime Pedro Almodóvar collaborator Alberto Iglesias composed the sad and gentle soundtrack to Talk to Her, the Spanish director's 2002 meditation on loss and loneliness. Aside from the violin and guitar-accented score, there are five vocal tracks sprinkled throughout, most notably "Cucurrucucú Paloma," which is performed by Tropicalia legend Caetano Veloso (who also sings it in the movie). Almodóvar has described this rendition, which he first heard live in Brazil while in support of 1995's The Flower of My Secret, as "stylized, heart-rending, and intimate." Another highlight is the lovely flamenco-style track "Raquel," from Cape Verdean string player Bau (Rufino Almeida), who leads the band that has backed Césaria Évora for the a number of years (and is featured prominently in the film's trailers). The prolific Iglesias, who has won several Goya Awards for his film work, has also composed for all of Basque director Julio Medem's films, from 1991's Vacas through 2001's Sex and Lucia.

The most comprehensive collection of organ music by a major forerunner to Monteverdi, recorded on a historically significant instrument by an organist with a distinguished catalogue of 17th-century repertoire.