Pietro Mascagni

Cecilia Bartoli is loved the world over for vocal fireworks and spectacular coloratura, but she is also adored for her spine-tingling pianissimi and her ability to shape endless, velvety phrases. For the first time, this product will focus on the irresistibly sensual side of Cecilia Bartoli's art. It has been conceived as a popular “mood” or lifestyle compilation — presenting quieter arias showcasing Cecilia's vocal beauty, sensuality and emotion. “Sospiri” is designed to present this most accessible aspect of Cecilia Bartoli's art to the broadest popular-classical market.

“Sospiri” will contain favourite arias by Mozart and Handel, bel canto jewels by Bellini and Rossini and treasures by Vivaldi as well as music which Cecilia Bartoli has “rediscovered” on her recent record-breaking solo albums.

For Cecilia’s existing fans, the Prestige Edition includes a previously unreleased aria and world premiere recording of Vinci’s Cervo in bosco, one of Farinelli’s calling-card arias.

Both formats include a new interpretation of Rosina's aria Una voce poco fa, from Il Barbiere di Siviglia - the dazzling aria of young love, the role in which Cecilia Bartoli first shot to international stardom. She infuses this new interpretation with all her knowledge of the baroque and classical tradition on which Rossini’s music was founded, her experience of period practice and critical reading of the manuscripts, together with a playfulness and variety of colors which she has acquired over the years. On this track recorded during the Maria sessions Cecilia Bartoli is accompanied by a fantastic period practice orchestra, Orchestra La Scintilla.

The Prestige Edition also includes several duets, two popular ones: Mozart’s Là ci darem la mano with Bryn Terfel and Mascagni’s Tutto tace (Cherry duet) with Luciano Pavarotti and features a very original one with Maxim Vengerov: Mendelssohn’s Ah, ritorna, an excerpt from the rarely performed concert aria Infelice!

This beautiful album will be available in two CD formats.

2CD Prestige Edition (NOT limited edition) in luxurious gift packaging; includes a special bonus CD showcasing earlier recordings of Cecilia Bartoli with best-loved sacred classics by Bach, Mozart, Fauré and more. This bonus Sacred Arias CD is a real rarity in the discography of Cecilia Bartoli, and it makes the 2CD Prestige Edition a MUST HAVE item for the gift season

This month is an excellent one for Björling fans. This collection is a treasury of rare performances from the US and Sweden and includes previously unreleased material. There is commentary and interviews, as well as Art and popular songs, Arias and duets and there are many guest artists such as Licia Albanese, Anna Lisa Björling and Renata Tebaldi.

Jonas Kaufmann returns to the Italian verismo tradition to sing arias that define opera’s most passionate and vulnerable leading men.

Kaufmann’s international reputation is soaring as, going from strength to strength, he delivers consistently thrilling performances.

The onyx-dark beauty of his tone and the refinement and unexpected insights of his delivery mark Jonas Kaufmann a poet of tenors.

Timed for release when he makes his anticipated role debut as Maurizio in Adriana Lecouvreur at Covent Garden opposite Angela Gheorghiu, this disc includes excerpts from the Cilea work that helped put Caruso on the map.

This album also entices with rarities from Zandonai’s dramatic Giulietta e Romeo and Puccini’s Le Villi.

Supporting Jonas Kaufmann is Italy’s leading symphonic orchestra, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, under its dynamic music director Antonio Pappano. Both maestro and orchestra are utterly at home in this repertoire.

This 2-CD set marks the 40th anniversary of the death of Sir John Barbirolli (1899-1970) and features recordings ranging from boy cellist in 1911 to international conductor 1969 – in both ‘live’ and studio recordings. John Barbirolli was born in Southampton Row, Bloomsbury, on 2 December 1899, a Cockney as he proudly boasted. Or, to be accurate, Giovanni Battista Barbirolli was born, son of an Italian émigré violinist and his French wife. English-born with Italo-French parentage – a wonderful pedigree for a musician. And so it proved, for he conducted Elgar, Verdi and Debussy, Vaughan Williams, Puccini and Ravel, with equal sensitivity and perception and intuition. This album of recordings forms a kind of musical biography; and Michael Kennedy’s notes (with many rare photos) trace that life alongside the recordings. A special bonus is the 1947 Austrian Radio recording of two works, Weber’s Euryanthe overture and Delius’s Walk to the Paradise Garden, from the Salzburg Festival concert on 20 August at which he conducted the Vienna Philharmonic. Was this, Michael Kenneday asks, the first time this orchestra had played the Delius? Two rare mementos of the New York period are included in this album. Anthony Collins had long been a friend of Barbirolli (they played in the LSO together) and worked in the USA from 1936 to 1945 and his Sir Toby and Sir Andrew, based on the two comic characters in Twelfth Night, is an example of his overlooked talent. Another composer almost forgotten today is the Czech-born Jaromir Weinberger whose opera Schwanda the Bagpiper enjoyed inter-war popularity. His Christmas for organ and orchestra was composed in 1929. In 1939 he dedicated his Variations and Fugue on an old English tune, ‘Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree’ to Barbirolli and the New York Philharmonic.

Claudio Muzio was an Italian soprano whose singing exuded a rarely heard and deeply moving emotionalism and urgent abandon. This collection features some of her famous Columbia recordings from 1934 and 1935 including works by Verdi, Puccini, Cilea and Bellini.

Marc Hervieux delivers superb renditions of favourite Italian arias on this blockbuster ATMA recording. After the extraordinary success of Le Premier Noël (ATMA’s best selling CD in 2009), Hervieux presents his second CD on the ATMA label. This CD is devoted to the the most beautiful arias by Puccini, Verdi, Mascagni and Leoncavallo.

The biggest stars seize centre stage to sing the greatest scenes and arias of opera’s heroes and villains. This is a compilation of the calibre which only Decca and DG can offer. With 147 minutes of music, it offers remarkable value too.

2 CDs for the price of 1.

This collection includes favourites such as Verdi’s Anvil Chorus and Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves and Mascagni’s Easter Hymn. A great selection for anyone dipping their toes into opera.