Anfossi / Sabbatini / Il Gruppo Di Roma - La Maga Circe - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Pfitzner / Weber / Caves / Beermann - Die Rose Vom Liebesgarten [COMPACT DISCS] date 06/23/2017

Desmarest was something of a frustrated genius. A precocious musician, he had a great career on opera from 1693 to 1698. His destiny was broken when he kidnapped the love of his life and fled to Brussels to escape a death sentence. Kapellmeister to the King of Spain, Philippe V in 1701, then to the Duke of Lorraine, Paris remained off-limits to him until 1720... Circé (1694) was his apotheosis, meeting of Ulysses and the sorcerers, a superb and supernatural heroine. The dramatic force of the work stimulates the flamboyant Véronique Gens who plays the evil lover!

With it's carefully planned yet complex dramatic structure and skillful transformation of a tale of heroic conflict between two enemies into a drama of impossible love, Maometto II is considered Rossini's most radical and innovative opera. Against the background of the violent and cruel tumult of war as the Venetian colony of Negroponte is invaded and defeated by Sultan Mehmet II 'the Conqueror,' in 1470, Rossini contrasts this clash of civilizations with the tender emotions of a doomed romance expressed in some of the most beautiful melodies he ever wrote. Heard here in it's original Naples version- the more conventional 1822 Venice version with it's overture and happy ending can be heard on a separate Naxos recording- this is a movingly tragic drama in which the suicide of the main female role is not without a grim relevance even today.