Porpora: Alto Giove (from Polifemo)

Verónica Cangemi was born in Mendoza, Argentina and was a cellist in the Mendoza Symphonic Orchestra before winning both the National Singing Competition in Argentina and the Francisco Viñas Competition in Barcelona. Her first European performance was in Gluck’s Armide with Les Musiciens du Louvre. She has concentrated largely on Mozart and the Baroque repertoire, working with such directors and ensembles as Giovanni Antonini, Ivor Bolton, William Christie, Adam Fischer, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, René Jacobs, Ton Koopman, Sir Neville Marriner and Zubin Mehta.

The Baroque pieces on the album contain highly virtuosic music by composers like Nicola Porpora that would have been performed by the great castrato Farinelli, as well as arias by Vivaldi and Handel renowned for their challenging vocal lines. The Latin flavour of the disc is complemented by the inclusion of 20th century pieces by Piazzolla, Guastavino and Villa-Lobos all of whom hail from Cangemi’s native South America.

Philippe Jaroussky, described by Germany’s Die Zeit as “the Apollo of countertenors’, stands out among his many talented contemporaries as much for the soprano-like beauty of his tone as for the elegance and insight of his interpretations and his adventurous and erudite approach to repertoire – whether unearthing neglected scores by little-known composers or venturing beyond the Baroque into the 19th and 20th centuries.

Established as one of Virgin Classics’ bestselling artists, Jaroussky, now aged 34, has been honoured three times in the Victoires de la Musique awards in his native France and has also received Germany’s most prominent music prize, the Echo Klassik. His diverse achievements are saluted in two new collections on Virgin Classics – the 2CD set “The Voice” and the DVD and Blu Ray “La Voix des rêves: Greatest moments in Concert”.

“THE VOICE” 2 CD Best of Philippe Jaroussky comprises 31 tracks chosen by the singer himself and six previously unreleased tracks of music by Handel and Purcell. Vivaldi takes pride of place on the album, but other composers include Caldara, Porpora and JC Bach and, from later eras, Fauré, Reynaldo Hahn and even Argentina’s King of Tango, Ástor Piazzolla.

Philippe Jaroussky, described by Germany’s Die Zeit as “the Apollo of countertenors’, stands out among his many talented contemporaries as much for the soprano-like beauty of his tone as for the elegance and insight of his interpretations and his adventurous and erudite approach to repertoire – whether unearthing neglected scores by little-known composers or venturing beyond the Baroque into the 19th and 20th centuries.

Established as one of Virgin Classics’ bestselling artists, Jaroussky, now aged 34, has been honoured three times in the Victoires de la Musique awards in his native France and has also received Germany’s most prominent music prize, the Echo Klassik. His diverse achievements are saluted in two new collections on Virgin Classics – the 2CD set “The Voice” and the DVD and Blu Ray “La Voix des rêves: Greatest moments in Concert”.

“LA VOIX DES RÊVES - Greatest Moments in Concert” (available on DVD & Blu Ray) features video footage from a number of occasions and venues – including items from a concert given among the crystal chandeliers of the splendid Galerie des Glaces in the palace of Versailles, and works by Handel and Vivaldi performed in another jewel of French Baroque architecture, the sumptuously decorated Chapelle de la Trinité in Lyon. Also included are exclusive interviews an array of fellow musicians: Jean-Christophe Spinosi, Emmanuelle Haïm, Christina Pluhar; Jérôme Ducros, Quatuor Ebène, Gautier Capuçon, Marie-Nicole Lemieux and Renaud Capuçon.

Jaroussky and his appeal were aptly summarised in a recent profile in the French magazine Balthazar: “Philippe Jaroussky alternates between opera and recitals, bringing his sensual, graceful voice and matinee idol looks, and this has made him a key star of classical music. But his recordings also reveal a skilled musicologist who has revived numerous forgotten artists like the castrato Carestini [and the composers] Johann Christian Bach and Caldara. Jaroussky simply glows. Anyone who has had the opportunity to meet him will find it hard to forget his enthusiastic conversation and his magnetic gaze.”

The singer made his passions clear in an interview with Crescendo magazine, revealing that “I don’t like being told I have the ‘voice of an angel’, because that would just mean that it sounds pretty and takes people out of themselves … I want to be able to evoke more human emotions too: sorrow, despair, jealousy.” Speaking to the leading French newspaper Le Monde, he went into more detail on his philosophy as a maturing singer: “Ten years into your career, you reach a certain level of purity in your approach. You are always set on improving – strengthening your high notes, your low notes, your projection or your expressivity – but you also accept what it means to be an artist.”

Featuring EIGHT WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS, the new album from German Soprano Simone Kermes further proves how deserving she is of the title “The Queen of Baroque”!

The album, titled ‘Dramma’ features a selection of the most virtuosic opera arias of this time, originally composed for castrati singers such as Farinelli and Caffarelli. The arias require highest dramatic expression and flawless vocal technique. Kermes studied these demanding compositions in extreme detail before embarking on the great challenge of recording them.

Besides the renowned Lascia ch’io pianga from Handel’s Rinaldo, Simone selected thirteen rarities and genuinely newly discovered arias, including several by the composer Nikola Porpora. She is accompanied by the ensemble La Magnifica Comunità.

Emblazoned on the title page of many an 18th-century Italian opera libretto, “dramma per musica” soon became the name for the operas composed to those words. The name perfectly evokes the fury of passions which the masterpieces of the period captured with such power.

This collection of astonishing discoveries – many of them heard here in world-premiere recordings – brings together some of the most magnificent arias of the genre. All of them place such huge demands on the singer’s abilities that only the world’s most legendary castratos such as Farinelli and Caffarelli were considered able to do them justice.

The baroque woman was confined to a strictly domestic role. She was either saintly (mother of Christ and the subject of religious allegory as in Handel’s Trionfo del tempo e del disinganno), a diva, a queen (Poppea, Cleopatra) or the inevitable victim in classical tragedies like Semiramis, Berenice, Rodelinda and Agrippina.

'Ladies sing Baroque' is shaped as a nod to those ladies who have enchanted jazz, but composed of music from two centuries earlier: hymns to emotion, the tunes that disturb for eternity! Monteverdi's invention of opera, Vivaldi's music for the Pieta, Pergolesi and Bach bring the drama and emotion found in temples and churches. Highlights include the final duet from 'L'Incorronazione di Poppea' and Bach's sublime 'Erbarme dich' whilst two Canadians with strong characters, Marie-Nicole Lemieux and Karina Gauvin, successfully evoke the legendary association of Marilyn Horne and Montserrat Caballé.

Reissue of Naïve’s best selling (more than 800,000 copies sold worldwide) soundtrack to the film ‘Farinelli’, the 1994 biopic film about the life and career of Italian opera singer Farinelli, considered one of the greatest castrato singers of all time.

It stars Stefano Dionisi as Farinelli and was directed by Belgian director Gérard Corbiau. Although Dionisi provided the speaking voice, Farinelli's singing voice was provided by a soprano, Ewa Malas-Godlewska and a countertenor, Derek Lee Ragin, who were recorded separately then digitally merged to recreate the sound of a castrato. Through the film the general public discovered a whole repertoire of works for a voice that can no longer be heard today. The soundtrack from the film became a bestseller, as we discovered with delight some beautiful pieces by Handel, Pergolesi, Hasse, Porpora and others, in a unique interpretation.

Visitors to the Palace of Versailles have for many years had their experience of walking around the glorious fountains and small lakes in the gardens enhanced by the production of music of the period played through discreetly placed speakers. This year a new version of these “Grandes Eaux Musicales” has been put together by Les Talens Lyriques and its director Christophe Rousset. The music featured is by Rameau, Lully, Gluck, Demarest, and Porpora.