Javier Camarena, Marina Rebeka & Michael Spyres Lead New CD/DVD Releases

By Francisco Salazar

This week audiences are in for a treat with numerous new releases of world premieres, full operas, solo albums, and classic productions.

Here is a look at this week’s new releases.

Il Pirata 

Prima Classic releases Bellini’s rarely performed work with Javier Camarena, Marina Rebeka, and Franco Vassallo performing the leading roles. The album was recorded at Bellini’s homeland, Catania, with the Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Massimo Bellini, under the baton of Fabrizio Maria Carminati.

The CD will first be released on Sept. 24th with a digital version available on Nov. 19. Audiences who purchase a CD will get a carefully designed set, with a fully bilingual Italian-English booklet as well as a complete libretto, an essay on “Il Pirata” by Bellini’s specialist Domenico Di Meo, and the artists’ biographies and the recording credits.

BariTenor 

Michael Spyres releases his latest album encompassing repertoire normally assigned to both tenors and baritones. The album includes 18 arias by 15 composers in Italian, French, and German. The album includes music by Mozart, Donizetti, Adam, Thomas, Wagner, Orff, Ravel, Rossini, Offenbach, Spontini, Lehar, Leoncavallo, Verdi, and Méhul.

Spyres is joined by Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg under its Chief Conductor Marko Letonja, and the male singers of the chorus of the Opéra du Rhin.

Shall We Gather 

Rubicon Classics Releases baritone Lucas Meachem’s first solo album. Accompanied by pianist Irina Meachem, the album consists of 15 art songs including Gene Scheer’s “American Anthem,” Arthur Falwell’s “Song of the Deathless Voice,” William Grant Still’s “Grief,” and Kurt Weill’s “Beat! Beat! Drums!” Other composers include Ricky Ian Gordon, Aaron Copland, and Stephen Foster.

“With these songs, I hope to offer a bit of hope for what truly makes us come together: our belief in the good of humanity and love for our neighbor,” says Lucas Meachem.

All proceeds from the album will go to the Meachems’ Perfect Day Music Foundation, a non-profit organization that promotes diversity in classical music, funding projects such as the Perfect Day Competition which highlights historically overlooked composers and poets.

Donizetti in the 1830s

Opera Rara concludes its 50th-anniversary celebration with a limited-edition boxset of three Donizetti operas composed during the 1830s.

The box seat will include “Il diluvio universale,” “Ugo conte di Parigi,” and “L’assedio di Calais” and will feature remastered editions with the highest audio quality and accompanied by a newly commissioned essay by Donizetti specialist and Opera Rara’s Artistic Dramaturg, Roger Parker.

Bold Beauty 

Soprano Molly Fillmore releases her new album Blue Griffin Recording. On the new recording the soprano brings the words of Edna St. Vincent Millay, Emily Dickinson, Carl Sandburg, and others to life alongside pianist Elvia Puccinelli.

Fillmore commissioned composer Juliana Hall to write the music to Fillmore’s own poems, Cameo, and the world premiere recording is included on this album.

It’s a Long Way 

Boston-based, Grammy-nominated vocal ensemble Skylark, led by Artistic Director Matthew Guard will release the new album “It’s a Long Way,” featuring choral and solo vocal music from the Renaissance to the 21st century. The album will include four world premieres from composers Jonathan Woody, Gregory W. Brown, and Nell Shaw Cohen. Three tracks will also feature pianist David McGrory.

The Original Three Tenors 

C Major releases The Original Three Tenors in a newly remastered Blu-ray premiere. The historical concert features José Carreras, Plácido Domingo, and Luciano Pavarotti at their thrilling best under the baton of Zubin Mehta. The Blu-ray will feature the first-ever release of the new “making of” documentary, “Three Tenors: From Caracalla to the World.”

The documentary by Jean-Alexander Ntivyihabwa takes the viewer behind the scenes from the first glimmer of an idea to the Rome concert itself to its 1994 successor in Los Angeles. There are interviews with Carreras, Domingo, Nicoletta Mantovani (Pavarotti’s widow), and Mehta as well as with Sir Bryn Terfel, arranger Lalo Schifrin, and many of the movers and shakers who made the Three Tenors concerts happen.

Aci, Galatea e Polifemo 

Händel’s “Aci, Galatea e Polifemo” gets its first recording in the reconstructed version for the famous castrato Senesino. The new recording project features Raffaele Pe and La Lira di Orfeo, the baroque ensemble he created. Glossa releases the new recording which was curated by Pe himself with Luca Guglielmi and Fabrizio Longo. The recording also stars Giuseppina Bridelli who interprets Galatea and bass Andrea Mastroni who plays Cyclops Polifemo. Luca Guglielmi, who also plays the harpsichord, is the concertmaster at the head of the Lira di Orfeo.

Atys

Naxos releases Lulky’s rarely performed work with William Christie conducting Les Arts Florissants. The production by Jean-Marie Villégier features tenor Bernard Richter, mezzo-soprano Stéphanie d’Oustrac, soprano Emmanuelle de Negri, and bass-baritone Nicolas Rivenq.

Le convenienze ed inconvenienze teatrali 

Opus Arte releases Donizetti’s rarely performed work from the Opéra National de Lyon performed in 2017. Lorenzo Viotti conducts a cast that includes Laurent Naouri, Patrizia Ciofi, Stephen Mudge, Enea Scala, and Charles Rice.

I Can See Hope From Here

Acclaimed Canadian singer Eleanor McCain releases “I Can See Hope From Here” as an offering of solace, comfort, and hope for the future. Distributed by eOne, the album provides a fresh take on 14 favorite tracks from McCain’s most ambitious project to date, “True North: The Canadian Songbook.” The new album is a cross-section of the many musical flavors of Canada’s vast songbook but also serves as an apt reflection of the country’s spirit and strength.

Proceeds from the album to a total of $25,000, will benefit The Unison Fund—Canada’s music industry charity, which provides counseling and emergency services to the Canadian music community.

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