Renée Fleming, Amitai Pati & Ekaterina Bakanova Lead New CD/DVD Releases

By Francisco Salazar

This week, one of the biggest divas releases a highly anticipated album. There is also a world premiere recording and a re-release of a classic recording.

Psyché

Château Versailles Spectacles will release Jean-Baptiste Lully’s work featuring a cast that includes Ambroisine Bré, Déborah Cachet, Bénédicte Tauran, Cyril Auvity, Eugénie Lefebvre, Robert Getchell, Zachary Wilder, Fabien Hyon, Philippe Estèphe, Anas Séguin, Matthieu Heim, Dominique Bonnetain, and Benoît Porcherot.

Les Talens Lyriques will be conducted by Christophe Rousset.

A Byzantine Emperor at King Henry’s Court: Christmas 1400, London

Cappella Records will release “A Byzantine Emperor at King Henry’s Court: Christmas 1400, London,” performed by Cappella Romana and led by founder and music director Alexander Lingas.

Under the direction of Alexander Lingas, the men and women of Cappella Romana bring to life medieval Byzantine and Sarum chant and royal ceremonial performed by two very different historic choirs, one singing in Greek and the other in Latin, as they celebrated the feast of Christmas at London’s Eltham Palace.

Greatest Moments at the Met

The Metropolitan Opera, Renée Fleming, and Decca Classics will release “Greatest Moments at the Metropolitan Opera.” The specially remastered collection compiles highlights chosen by Fleming captured live on stage in this pinnacle of opera houses. Produced by GRAMMY-winning David Frost, the collection features duets with Cecilia Bartoli, Susan Graham, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Samuel Ramey, Bryn Terfel & more.

Since her 1991 debut when she stepped in for Felicity Lott, Fleming has performed on the Met Opera stage over 250 times and describes the famed opera house as “my musical home, the theater where I feel welcome amongst friends – backstage, onstage, and in the audience.”

The album features selections from “Eugene Onegin,” “La Traviata,” “Il Pirata,” “Otello,” “Armida,” “Die Tote Stadt,” “Manon,” “Rusalka,” “Arabella,” and “Don Giovanni,” among others.

L’Angelica

Dynamic releases Porpora’s opera from the Festival della Valle d’Itria. The world-premiere recording was staged at Martina Franca’s Palazzo Ducale, by director/designer Gianluca Falaschi, with Federico Maria Sartelli leading the musicians of La Lira d’Orfeo. The three sopranos who headed the cast included Ekaterina Bakanova in the title role, Paola Valentina Molinari as Medoro, and Teresa Iervolino as Orlando.

Semele

Opera Arte releases Handel’s work which was performed at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Auckland, New Zealand. The recording features a staging by Thomas de Mallet Burgess and stars soprano Emma Pearson and Samoan tenor Amitai Pati. The cast is rounded out by Mezzo-soprano Sarah Castle and Peter Walls leads the New Zealand Opera Baroque Orchestra, the New Zealand Opera Chorus, and the Holy Trinity Cathedral Choir.

Falstaff

C Major and Sony rerelease a 1982 performance of Verdi’s final work with Herbert von Karajan conducting at the Salzburg Festival. Sopranos Raina Kabaivanska and Janet Perry star as Alice and Nannetta Ford, mezzos Christa Ludwig and Trudeliese Schmidt are Mistress Quickly and Meg Page, while tenor Francisco Araiza is Fenton. The cast is rounded out by baritone Rolando Panerai as Ford and baritone Giuseppe Taddei in the title role.

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