Vincenzo Bilof

Released on the 'Sony Clasical' label - "Élégie" is the second album from Anita Rachvelishvili, showcasing her in the song repertoire to which she has a special connection despite being best known as a star of the world's greatest opera houses. Accompanied by acclaimed pianist Vicenzo Scalera, this album reveals another side to the Georgian singer; the repertoire is notable for its variety featuring five languages (Russian, Georgian, Italian, French and Spanish) and, correspondingly, five very different repertoire traditions.

Capirola was one of the finest composers and lutenists of his day and there have been few opportunities to hear a full disc of his music. The background to this collection is fascinating and worth mentioning before we continue. The back of the CD booklet has a beautiful reproduction of a manuscript not surprisingly called the ‘Capirola Notebook’. This is an example of lute tablature in the form of a transcription by Capirola of the mass fragment Qui tolis pechata mondi (sic) from an unnamed Josquin Mass.

Vincenzo Bellini (1801–1835) Bellini, unlike many of his colleagues - among them Donizetti - did not have to endure the disappointments and difficulties ofrising from the ranks. His Bianca e Gernando, in 1826, was well received at Naples’s Teatro San Carlo, and one year later, atthe age of twenty-six, the composer triumphed at Milan’s La Scala with Il Pirata. Norma is not only the high point of Bellini’sartistic parabola but also the quintessence of Italian belcanto. The present DVD, filmed at the Sferisterio Opera Festival ofMacerata in August 2007, features, in the title role, the famous Greek soprano Dimitra Theodossiou, one of today’s best interpretersof Norma.