Label: FARAO SACD 108080
Our Price: $57.75
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Anja Harteros; Vesselina Kasarova; Veronica Cangemi; Sonia Prina; John Mark Ainsley; Christopher Purves; Deborah York
Bavarian State Orchestra/Ivor Bolton
The festival premiere of ALCINA at the Prinzregententheater on July 17th, 2005 was, like so many other premieres of baroque operas, a highlight of the Munich opera season. Who does not like to think back to "Poppea", "Rinaldo" or, needless to say, "Giulio Cesare". The production featured Anja Harteros and Vesselina Kasarova, two superstars of the international opera scene. Under the approved direction of Ivor Bolton, the entire ensemble was celebrated by the audience with standing ovations, and no less euphoric was the echo in the press!
" …Vesselina Kasarova’s restrained, mourning voice is so heartbreaking that the audience of Prinzregententheater wished themselves to be back in the lovely woods with Ruggiero…" - Münchner Merkur
"Ivor Bolton and the Bavarian State Orchestra are well attuned to one another, and present their approved Handel, not plump in a baroque fashion, but rather muscular, who has become the trademark of the Munich Handel renaissance." - Neue Zürcher Zeitung - (3 CDs)

Label: MUSICAPHON SACD 56891
Our Price: $29.25
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Tanja Aspelmeier; Lisa Tjalve; Theresa Nelles; Benoît Haler; Markus Auerbach; Raimonds Spogis
Kammerchor Würzburg
Concert Royal Köln/Sylvie Kraus & Matthias Beckert
First recording of an Opera pasticcio by Handel compiled from his own compositions, and including arias by Francesco Araja. A pasticcio is an opera in which arias from older pieces are put together to make up a new piece. This practice, which might seem strange to us today, was entirely common in the eighteenth century. One took the text of an older opera and inserted, in place of the original arias, pieces that fit best to the current cast of singers and through which the greatest possible popular success could be achieved. In this way, it was possible to hear music by many different composers during one opera performance. In London, George Frideric Handel, too, attempted on a number of occasions to offer such pasticci alongside his original compositions. Giove in Argo, occupies a very special position that distinguishes it from all of Handel’s other musico-dramatic works. - (2 CDs)
WORLD PREMIERE RECORDING!!!