Welcome back for this week’s look at the latest CD and DVD releases in the opera world. This week, Jonas Kaufmann has a new album that focuses on lieder, while Jessica Pratt shows off her Bel canto skills in one of Donizetti’s masterpieces. Audiences get to discover some rare pieces and hear some world premiere recordings. Gaetano Donizetti: Roberto Devereux {…}
Carl Heinrich Graun’s “Adriano in Siria”—set to a libretto by Pietro Metastasio—is a compelling example of mid-18th-century opera seria, a genre that once dominated the European stage. First performed in Berlin in 1746, Graun’s setting was one of more than seventy opera settings of Metastasio’s libretto between 1732 and 1828, attesting to its immense popularity. This new live recording from {…}
(Photo credit: Stefan Gloede) The world premiere recording of Carl Heinrich Graun’s opera, “Adriano in Siria” is set to be released on June 13. “Adriano in Siria” was presented in a production by the Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci and recorded in June 2024. The cast features the countertenor trio of Valer Sabadus, Bruno de Sá, and Federico Fiorio, alongside sopranos Roberta Mameli {…}
(Photo credits: Rial, Lores, & Guryanova) Knechtsteden Early Music Festival announces its 2025 line up. This article only features vocal concerts. The modern world premiere of Francesco Conti’s “La Colpa Originale” (“Original Sin”) stars Timothy Morgan, Jiayu Jin, David Tricou, Alice Lackner, and Luigi di Donato, with Ensemble 1700. Artist in residence Dorothee Oberlinger directs. A pre-concert talk is scheduled. {…}
(Credits: Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe / Olivier Allard) The Musée du Louvre has announced an upcoming series of concerts to be broadcast from its auditorium. The first such concert, entitled “Exoticism in French and European music in the seventeen century,” will showcase soprano Claire Lefilliâtre, tenors David Tricou and Serge Goubioud, and bass Geoffroy Buffière. Vincent Dumestre will conduct his Poème {…}