NEW on NAXOS the World’S Leading Classical Music Label JULY 2019
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NEW ON NAXOS The World’s Leading Classical Music Label JULY 2019 This Month’s Other Highlights © 2019 Naxos Rights US, Inc. • Contact Us: [email protected] www.naxos.com • www.NaxosMusicGroup.com • www.naxosmusiclibrary.com • blog.naxos.com NEW ON NAXOS | JULY 2019 8.660466-67 Playing Time: © Alain Hanel Price Code: NXP 2:21:24 Gianluigi Gelmetti 7 30099 04667 1 Gioachino ROSSINI (1792–1868) Key Features: Eduardo e Cristina ● Rossini’s Eduardo e Cristina is a genuine ‘forgotten opera’, having suffered under its reputation for having been assembled Libretto by Andrea Leone Tottola and from other works. Our exciting and superbly performed live Gherardo Bevilacqua-Aldobrandini recording from the famous Bad Wildbad festival stage – the first after Odoardo e Cristina by Giovanni Schmidt performance since an earlier revival in 1997 – therefore fills a Silvia Dalla Benetta, Soprano substantial gap in Rossini’s operatic canon. Laura Polverelli, Mezzo-soprano ● This 2017 production in Bad Wildbad was acclaimed by the Kenneth Tarver and Xiang Xu, Tenors critics. ‘The Italian soprano Silvia Dalla Benetta was a delightful Baurzhan Anderzhanov, Bass Cristina. With her always controlled and precisely conducted Camerata Bach Choir, Poznań voice, her artful differentiation and her intelligent articulation the Virtuosi Brunensis singer was immediately impressive. The mezzo-soprano Laura Gianluigi Gelmetti Polverelli, also an Italian, is blessed with beautiful tuning and was an ideal Eduardo with her crisp, slender timbre and her Rossini’s Eduardo e Cristina was a huge success in its day, but as excellent high notes. The pair was also perfectly matched and perhaps the last centone opera (one assembled from previously the voices colour nicely together. An evening of pure belcanto existing material) by a major composer, it became forgotten under pleasure!’ (Operagazet) the subsequent tide of Romantic idealism. Today we can put these prejudices aside and enjoy this masterful creation for what it is: a ● Additional praise from Il Corriere Musicale: ‘The conducting hugely entertaining parade of beautiful and spectacular musical ‘hits’ of Gianluigi Gelmetti, clear and magniloquent, was able to exalt set to a familiar story of secret love, dramatic crisis and triumphant all the passages of the work, resulting in electrifying effects resolution. This 2017 Bad Wildbad revival was summed up as ‘an especially in the most dramatic moments… What unquestionably evening of pure bel canto pleasure!’ by Operagazet. emerged was the high musical and dramaturgical value of the work, crowned at its debut by an extraordinary success About Gianluigi Gelmetti and gradually overshadowed by an affirmation of romantic Gianluigi Gelmetti has served as principal conductor of the artistic vision…’ RAI National Symphony Orchestra, artistic director of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, and as music director of the Orchestre Supplementary Marketing Materials: Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo and the Stuttgart Radio and Sydney ● Key Release Kit Symphony Orchestras. He has made frequent appearances at the ● Facebook cover and post BBC Proms and worked for several seasons with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Gelmetti is also active as a composer, and in 1995 his work Algos was performed internationally. He also wrote a setting of In Paradisum in memory of Franco Ferrara. Camerata Bach Choir, Poznań Virtuosi Brunensis 2 NEW ON NAXOS | JULY 2019 ABOUT THE SOLOISTS Silvia Dalla Benetta, Soprano (Cristina) Success at the 2004 Festival della Lirica di Sanremo led the way for Silvia dalla Benetta to an international career and collaborations with distinguished directors including Laurent Pelly, Daniele Abbado and Franco Zeffirelli and conductors such as Daniel Oren, Renato Palumbo and Donato Renzetti among others. For Rossini in Wildbad she sang in Meyerbeer’s Les Heguenots, Bellini’s Bianca e Gernando, Rossini’s Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra, Aureliano in Palmira, and the title role in Zelmira. Laura Polverelli, Mezzo-soprano (Eduardo) Winner of various international competitions, Laura Polverelli has sung the leading roles of her repertoire in distinguished opera houses in Italy and abroad, and at festivals such as Glyndebourne, the Rossini Opera Festival, and the La Coruña Mozart Festival. She has a number of recordings to her credit and has appeared at Rossini in Wildbad. Kenneth Tarver, Tenor (Carlo) A lyric tenor, Kenneth Tarver has performed at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the Opéra Comique, Paris, and the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence under Claudio Abbado among many others. Appearances include Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette with the London Symphony Orchestra, Les Indes galantes under Christophe Rousset and Handel’s Messiah with the New York Philharmonic. He has participated in various award-winning recordings and twice sung under © Fidelio Artists Alberto Zedda at Rossini in Wildbad. Other exciting releases from the Rossini in Wildbad Festival 8.660448-50 8.660403-04 8.660369-71 ‘The cast is well-chosen and ‘The singers are uniformly ‘Here is Rossini’s orchestra, there is notably fine singing from the accomplished … they all sing in fruity and sparkling … Zenobia, Silvia Dalla Benetta.’ perfect Rossinian style, with a Another beautiful – ConcertoNet.com command of coloratura that ranges Bad Wildbad production.’ from capable to supernatural.’ – Diapason – American Record Guide WANT LIST OPERA NEWS 8.660444-46 8.660417-18 8.660440-43 ‘All four soloists generally sing ‘Silvia Dalla Benetta handles ‘Silvia Dalla Benetta makes quite well, both technically and Bianca’s difficult part a stylish Eleonora… interpretively. The chorus and with aplomb, suiting her tone Choral singing and playing are orchestra sing and play well and to a variety of situations.’ consistently strong.’ are well recorded.’ – American Record Guide – Gramophone – Fanfare CRITIC’S CHOICE 3 NEW ON NAXOS | JULY 2019 © Ramella & Giannese Edoardo Piva Piero Pretti and Carmela Remigio 2.110631 Alfredo CASELLA (1883–1947) Playing time: 143 minutes La donna serpente Picture format: NTSC 16:9 Sound format: PCM stereo and DTS 5.1 7 47313 56315 9 (‘The Snake Woman’) Language: Italian Libretto by Cesare Vico Lodovici after Carlo Gozzi Subtitles: Italian, English, German, Carmela Remigio, Erika Grimaldi and Francesca Sassu, Sopranos Japanese, Korean Anna Maria Chiuri, Mezzo-soprano Region code: 0 (worldwide) Piero Pretti and Francesco Marsiglia, Tenors No. of disc/s: 1 (DVD 9) Price Code: OB Marco Filippo Romano and Roberto de Candia, Baritones Orchestra and Chorus Teatro Regio Torino Key Features: Gianandrea Noseda, Conductor ● Alfredo Cassella’s opera La donna serpente is rarely performed Arturo Cirillo, Stage Director and recorded, with only one other DVD release available. This was an earlier version of director Arturo Cirillo’s vision of this Alfredo Casella was one of the ‘Generation of the eighties’ who work and, recorded outdoors in a festival atmosphere, now looks sought to shake Italian music from its long-standing operatic heritage more like a stop-gap in advance of this new, superbly recorded and the dominance of Puccini. La donna serpente was Casella’s only 2016 production conducted by Casella specialist Gianandrea full-scale opera, its fantastic plot based on Carlo Gozzi’s renowned Noseda, now very much to be regarded as the leading choice fairy tale that perpetually alternates between tragedy and comedy, on DVD. expressed in neo-Classical music that skillfully portrays the sinister ● Gianandrea Noseda is one of the world’s and ethereal world of the fairies as well as the intense emotions of most sought-after conductors, equally recognized the human realm. This production was acclaimed for Arturo Cirillo’s for his artistry in both the concert hall and opera dreamlike setting and Gianandrea Noseda’s pin-point conducting: house. He has conducted the most important ‘What energy, what precision! … he delivers the complexity of this orchestras and at leading opera houses and score with a disconcerting ease.’ (resmusica.com) festivals. From 2007 to 2018, Noseda served as Music Director of Italy’s Teatro Regio Torino where he ALSO AVAILABLE ON ushered in a transformative era for the company matched with BLU-RAY VIDEO: international acclaim for its productions, tours, recordings, and NBD0096V film projects. Playing time: 143 minutes ● This 2016 Turin production was acclaimed in the press. Picture format: HD 16:9 A review from ResMusica.com admired ‘the impressive Sound format: PCM stereo and DTS-HD 5.1 investment of Gianandrea Noseda who brings the orchestra Language: Italian of the Teatro Regio to a delirium of sound and rhythm. What Subtitles: Italian, English, German, energy, what precision! The eye, the ear, the body, the gesture, Japanese, Korean the whole being of the Italian leader is in constant motion. Region code: A, B, C Nothing escapes his eyes. He delivers the complexity of this No. of disc/s: 1 (BD 50) score with a disconcerting ease. The rhythmic orchestra, slams, Price Code: OB explodes, shines, taking in its wake the chorus (always excellent) of the Teatro Regio… Among the main roles, we note the very good performance of the Italian tenor Piero Pretti (Altidòr) who combines power and perfect diction with beautiful legatos to give his role a dramatic weight... By his side, the soprano 7 9 30099 00966 Carmela Remigio (Miranda) offers a voice that is always soft and charming... Always impressive, the voice of Erika Grimaldi Companion Titles – Previous releases from Naxos Audiovisual (Armilla)