Welcome back for this week’s look at the latest CD and DVD releases in the opera world.

This week audiences are in for two full recordings of well-known works with some of the world’s greatest singers. There are also choral recoridngs and some less known works to discover.

Heaven to Earth

Signum Classics releases Heaven to Earth, a collection of singable, accessible, sacred choral music by the best-selling choral composer and multi-faceted musician Joanna Forbes L’Estrange.

The album comprises introits, anthems, canticles, a set of Preces and Responses, and a congregational mass setting, and the 17 pieces display a range of styles, from traditional, church choral music to gospel- and jazz-influenced.

Lully’s “Atys”

Christophe Rousset and Les Talens Lyriques record Lully’s masterpiece on the Chateau de Versailles Spectacles label. The album stars Reinoud Van Mechelen, Marie Lys, Ambroisine Bré Philippe Estèphe, Romain Bockler, Gwendoline Blondeel, Olivier Cesarini, Kieran White, Nick Pritchard, Antonin Rondepierre, Apolline Raï-Westphal, and Vlad Crosman.

Voyage d’Hiver

B.records releases a Lieder album featuring Schubert’s Winterreise. Pianist and artistic director Romain Louveau, baritone Jean-Christophe Lanièce, and soprano Victoire Bunel propose a multi-voiced Winterreise that disembodies the overused figure of the Wanderer and favors the autonomy of Wilhelm Müller’s poems.

Il Barbiere di Siviglia

C Major will release a new recording of Rossini’s most popular work from the Wiener Staatsoper recorded in September 2021. Herbert Fritsch directs the production which stars mezzo-soprano Vasilisa Berzhanskaya, Ėtienne Dupuis, Paolo Bordogna, Ildar Abdrazakov, and Juan Diego Flórez. Michele Mariotti conducts the new release.

Ernani

Verdi’s “Ernani” gets a new release from Naxos from Florence. The new recording features James Conlon leading the forces of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and tenor Francesco Meli, soprano Maria José Siri, baritone Roberto Frontali, and bass Vitalij Kowaljow.