Joyce DiDonato, Benjamin Bernheim, Emőke Baráth & Ian Bostridge Lead New CD/DVD Releases

By Francisco Salazar

This week audiences will get solo albums by one of the great mezzos of her generation and two baroque albums.

There is also a debut album and a new DVD of Offenbach’s masterwork. Here is a look at this week’s new releases.

Eden

Joyce DiDonato releases her latest album featuring music by Handel, Gluck, Wagner, Mahler, Ives, Copland, and Oscar-winner Rachel Portman. “EDEN is an invitation to return to our roots. It is an overture to engage with the sheer perfection of the world around us, to consider if we are connecting as profoundly as we can to the pure essence of our being. It is a clarion call to contemplate if our collective suffering isn’t perhaps linked to the aching separation from something primal within and around us. This is a vivid musical exploration through the centuries to remember and to create a new EDEN from within,” noting DiDonato

Tormento d’amore

With the 10 arias on Tormento d’amore, Ian Bostridge explores the Italian operas from the mid-17th to the mid-18th century. The album features music by Cavalli, Vivaldi, Cesti, Stradella, Sartorio, Legrenzi, Provenzale, Caresana, Vinci and Fago. In addition to arias, the album offers five instrumental sinfonie and a traditional Neapolitan song, “Lu cardillo.” Bostridge partners with conductor Antonio Florio and his ensemble Cappella Neapolitana.

Dualità

Emőke Baráth releases her latest album which explores nine arias from Handel operas. Baráth explores “the duality of the female soul – in which sensitivity unites with power” and the potential of the female voice to characterize both heroines and heroes. Baráth is partnered by Artaserse under the direction of Philippe Jaroussky.

Pure Morning

American soprano Bree Nichols makes her album debut with “Pure Morning.” The new album features the work of Czech composers Dvořák, Smetana, Janáček, and Foerster. It was recorded live with the North Czech Philharmonic in Teplice under the direction of conductor Jiří Petrdlík.

Les Contes d’Hoffmann

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