Francesco Meli, Melody Moore & Kevin Puts Lead New CD/DVD Releases
By Francisco SalazarThis week audiences will get a chance to hear a debut album by one of the world’s great tenors, a recording of one of Puccini’s most beloved works, a world premiere recording of a great contemporary opera, and many more.
Madama Butterfly
Lawrence Foster expands his Puccini discography on PENTATONE with “Madama Butterfly,” together with the Coro & Orquestra Gulbenkian. He is joined by a star cast that includes Elisabeth Kulman (Suzuki), Stefano Secco (Pinkerton), Lester Lynch (Sharpless), and Melody Moore (Cio-Cio-San) in the title role. The album was recorded by the San Francisco Classical Recording Company.
Vivaldi: Cantate per soprano I
Andrea Buccarella conducts the Abchordis Ensemble and soprano Arianna Vendittelli in Cantate per soprano I. Naïve Classiques releases its 68th Vivaldi Edition album and represents the first of two volumes dedicated to Vivaldi’s cantate da camera for soprano.
Prima Verdi
Warner Classics has announced Francesco Meli’s first solo album “Prima Verdi.”
The new album, which is slated to be released on Nov. 19, 2021, the album will showcase Meli in works by Verdi from the operas of “Simon Boccanegra,” “I Lombardi,” “Il Trovatore,” “Otello,” “Aida,” “Macbeth,” “Lusia Miller,” “Un Ballo in Maschera,” “I Due Foscari,” “La Forza del Destino,” and “La Battaglia di Legnano.”
Marco Armiliato conducts the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino orchestra.
Vespers
Cappella Records releases Benedict Sheehan’s Vespers, an Orthodox Vespers performed in English by the GRAMMY®- nominated Saint Tikhon Choir, conducted by the composer. Inspired by Rachmaninoff’s “All-Night Vigil,” Sheehan’s unique musical and linguistic expression expands the genre.
“Vespers” also features virtuosic vocal concertos, including the first for basso profundo in English.
The Other Erlking: Songs and Ballads of Carl Loewe
Silent Night
Composer Kevin Puts and librettist Mark Campbell’s “Silent Night” gets its world premiere recording on CD courtesy of Naxos’s American Opera Classics series The new recording stars Miles Mykkanen, Christian Sanders, Edward Parks, Christian Thurston, Joshua Jeremiah, Karin Wolverton, Andrew Wilkowske, and Troy Cook. Courtney Lewis conducts the Orchestra and Chorus of the Minnesota Opera.
The Passenger
Mieczysław Weinberg’s grim, emotionally wrenching opera “The Passenger” will be released by Capriccio. Capriccio’s CDs capture a performance given in September 2020 by Oper Grazstarring mezzo-soprano Dshamilja Kaiser as the guilt-ridden Lisa and soprano Nadja Stefanoff as the inmate, Marta, with tenor Will Hartmann and baritone Markus Butter as the men in one’s present and the other’s past. Roland Kluttig led the Grazer Philharmoniker and the Chor der Oper Graz.
