The groundbreaking Roman composer Alessandro Stradella’s unjustly neglected oratorio ESTER, LIBERATRICE DEL POPOLO EBREO shines forth in a sparkling new release from Navona Records. Exploring themes of courage, self acceptance, ambition, justice, and power, this piece tells the story of Esther, a timid girl, secret Jew, and Persian Queen, who summons the bravery to save her people from annihilation. While the oratorio derives its narrative from the old testament’s The Book of Esther, this compelling story of a lone woman challenging an oppressive tyrant is sure to strike a chord, resonating powerfully for modern listeners as it recalls many ongoing conflicts in our world today.

Over the course of a long but ultimately frustrated career as a late-Romantic lyric composer, Francesco Cilea ascribed to one credo above all: ‘Be Italian’. In L’Arlesiana and Adriana Lecouvreur, above all, he created masterpieces of the new style of verismo which kept sung drama in Italian at the centre of wider notions of what opera means. Everything he wrote, from large-scale stage works, to chamber pieces to the salon songs and miniatures gathered here, expressed his quintessentially Italian voice and aesthetic philosophy.

Surely Renée Fleming's soprano must be one of the most beautiful voices before the public today. Though renowned for her interpretations of Mozart, Strauss, and Verdi, as well as for her commitment to contemporary music, she says that the bel canto repertoire has always been central to her career. On this recording, which features scenes and arias from operas by Bellini, Donizetti, and Rossini, she proves that she has achieved total, effortless technical mastery of the uniquely difficult vocal writing characteristic of the style. Every note is perfectly placed. Her runs, including scales over a huge range in both directions, are as clear and evenly paced as a chain of exquisite pearls. Her leaps always land in the center of the pitch. Her intonation is flawless.

Barbra Streisand is one of the most distinguished pop singers of our generation. She showed there was no limit to her talents when she released "Classical Barbra". The masterpiece is her groundbreaking classical crossover album from 1976. It made a definitive statement in the classical music realm. Glenn Gould praised her voice as “one of the natural wonders of the age, an instrument of infinite diversity and timbral resource”. It remains one of the first and still one of the greatest records we know today as “classical crossover”. Nominated for Best Classical Performance – Vocal Soloist at the GRAMMYS, the album would go on to be certified gold.

In the early 1670s, soon after Venetian opera became established in Naples, a series of comic figures began to inhabit secular but also sacred operas. These stock characters included the Neapolitan, the Calabrian and the Boy, and all three plus a fourth, ‘The Spaniard’, appear in a comic intermezzo inserted in the 1673 opera Il disperato innocente by the little-known Francesco Antonio Boero. This is the oldest surviving Neapolitan comic intermezzo, and, along with its Prologue, seems to have been written by other authors. This video preserves a historically informed performance given by Antonio Florio with Pino De Vittorio that explores the tradition of the intermezzo in 17th century plots.

Adriano Celentano is an Italian singer, songwriter, comedian, actor, film director and TV host. He is the best-selling Italian singer, and the best-selling male artist of Italy. "Le Volte Che Celentano E' Stato 1" is his "Super Best" compilation album released in 2003. From the early 60s to today, this compilation will give you a very good panorama of this amazing performer.

"C'è sempre un motivo" is an album by Italian singer, songwriter, comedian, actor, film director and TV host, Adriano Chelentano. It was originally released in 2004. The album includes previously unreleased song, written by Fabrizio De Andre before his death and given to Celentano by De Andre's wife Dori Ghezzi. Also included a version of "Il Ragazzo Della Via Gluck" - interpreted in duet with Cesaria Evora.

A 80 anni dalla nascita di LUCIO DALLA Sony Music pubblica DALLAMERICARUSO - LIVE AT VILLAGE GATE, NEW YORK 23/03/1986, il concerto tenuto da Lucio Dalla al Village Gate di New York durante il suo tour statunitense del 1986.

Il concerto è una foto collettiva. Un condensato di un tour di Antonello Venditti e Francesco De Gregori, iniziato allo Stadio Olimpico Roma il 18 giugno 2022 (rinviato di due anni causa pandemia) e poi proseguito per tutta Italia per teatri, stadi e palazzetti.Un ritratto di due artisti fortemente legati a Roma, ma in grado di essere universali.

« Taking a viol in his hands, he began to play it with such sweetness that all the other emotions of the people present were surpassed by pleasure, even more so when he began to sing with the sweetest tenor voice… » Wedding celebration of the most serene D. Francesco Medici… 1579.

Our knowledge of Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji is based more on his reputation than on his work. A marginal figure in twentieth-century music, he is renowned for the length and complexity of his compositions. After forbidding the performance of his music, he earned a small income through his writings as a critic and essayist of great wit. His best-known works are for solo piano, many of which have been released by BIS. This disc presents first recordings of his music for chamber ensemble and chamber orchestra plus several world premiere recordings of art songs, including a new arrangement and the first completion of a fragment.

Ivan Graziani torna con un album di inediti dal titolo "Ivan Graziani - Per gli amici", a distanza di 30 anni dal suo ultimo album di studio "Malelingue", in uscita il 26 gennaio 2024 per l'etichetta NUMERO UNO/SONY MUSIC. L'album è composto da 8 tracce inedite: "Una donna", "La rabbia", L'Italianina", "La canzone dei marinai", "Tv", "Miley", "Ti sorprenderò" e la title-track "Per gli amici". Otto canzoni ritrovate grazie al lavoro della famiglia Graziani, prodotte dal figlio Filippo Graziani e distribuite dalla storica Numero 1 compongono questo imperdibile album che ci lascia una testimonianza viva di uno dei cantautori e musicisti che ha rivoluzionato il modo di intendere la musica d'autore e il rock italiano.

Callas did not make complete recordings of Donizetti's Anna Bolena and Bellini's Il pirata, though, as the queen of La Scala, she enjoyed triumphs in both roles in 1957-1958. The vocally and dramatically demanding final scenes of both operas feature in this recital with Ophélie's mad scene from Ambroise Thomas's Hamlet, another coloratura extravaganza. When this recital first appeared in 1959, Gramophone wrote: 'This is a most remarkable record, not only for its material… but for its astonishing vividness and dramatic poetry… It has been a thing of much wonder for me'.

Galina Gorchakova, endowed with what London’s Sunday Times called “one of the most important dramatic voices in the post-war era”, makes her debut on Delos label with Italian Opera Arias, a collection of her signature roles that have earned her critical acclaim and an immense public following the world over. Gorchakova is accompanied by Constantine Orbelian and the Philharmonia of Russia, the Maestro’s own assemblage of Russia’s leading orchestral musicians resulting in la creme de la creme of Russian ensembles.

Magdalena Kožená is back with another early music adventure on Archiv Production after her highly acclaimed ‘Vivaldi’ and ‘Lettere Amorose’ albums. In this recording, Kozena explores the early Italian Baroque Music of Claudio Monteverdi. She duets with Anna Prohaska on tracks ‘Pur ti miro’ and ‘Zefiro torna’, plus there are guest performances from David Feldman, Jakob Pilgram, Michael Feyfar and Luca Tittoto. Kozena sings with La Cetra Barockorchester Basel and Andrea Marcon.